Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1857-06-17
THE SAND KILLER

| condition of that miserable class of whites
called Sand hillers, whom the employment of
Slave labor by the wealthiest class has driven
into yagabondage.
Between the s'low country" of South Caro-
lima lies the middle, Sand-hill region. A
large portion of this tract, which varies from
ten to thirty miles covered with forests OF pine
interspersed here and there with variety of
other trees. Where it is under cultivation,
| the principal crop is cotton. But the land is
not generally fertile, and much of it is likely
| to remain for long time, partial wilder
! ness.
| The country itself presents few interesting
features, but it is the home of singular race
of people, to whom may protitably devote
few paragraphs of description.
In travelling through the ssmiddle country"
1 often passed the rude, squalid cabins of the
Sand d-hillers. All the inmates usually fiocked
| to the door of their windowless domicils to
stare at me-and such lank scrawny, filthy
| set of beings l never beheld elSewhere-not
even in the sspuIlieus'' of the .sFive Points,
Their complexion is a ghastly yelowish
white, without the faintest tinge OF wholesome
red. The hair of the adults is generally
sandy and that of the children nearly as white
as cotton. The children even paler, if pos
sible than the adults, and often painfully hag-
gard and sickly looking
They are entirely uneducated, and semi-bar
barian in all their habits, very dull, stupid
and in general social position far below the
slave population around them. In fact the
negroes look down upon them with mingled
feelings of pity and contempt. They quar-
| tered on lands belonging to others either with
OF without their consent. They sometimes cul-
tivate or rather plant small patch of ground
near their cabins, raising little corn and
few cabbages, melons and sweet potatoes. The
agricultural operations never extend any be-
yond this.
Corn bread, pork and cabbage, dried in lard)
seemed to be their principal articles of diet.
To procure the latter, and whatever clothes
| they require, they make shingles or baskets
or gather pine knots, or wild berries which
they sell in the villages, but beyond what is
required to supply their very limited actual
necessities they will not work for.
Their principal employments are hunting
and fishing, and their standard amusement,
drinking whiskey and fighting.
Their dress is as primitive as their habits.
The women and children invariably go bare
headed, bare footed and bare-legged, their
only garments apparently being coarse cal
| leo dress. The men wear 4 cotton shirt and
trousers of the coarse home-spun cloth of the
country, with the addition sometimes of an up
per garment TOO rude and shapeless to be
named or described.
l one day met migrating family of these
miserable people. On a most sorry, lank, and
almost 1eshless substitute for a horse, were
packed the entire household effects of the
family, consisting of bed and few cooking
utensils. Two small children occupied the
top of the pack. Two larger ones, each load
ed with bundle, trndged behind the mother,
| who appeared not more than seventeen years
of age. The father wild sinister looking fell
Low, walked in advance of the rest with his
long rifle on his shoulder, and his hunting
pouch by his side.
A correspondent of one of the city dallies
thus describes an encounter with Sand hill
family:
ssIIere, on the road, we met family who
have been in town. A little girl of ten years
ting on the backbone of a moving skeleton of
a horse, which has the additional task of trail
ing along Iickety specimen of wagon in
which is seated mana real outside sGualid
barbarian, maudiin and obfusticated with bald
faced whiskey-with child four or five years
old by his side. Behind this haggard look
ing boy upon another skeleton of horse is
| coming.
What low outlandish, low wheeled cart
the horse is pulling There sits the old
woman and her grown up daughter, with moth
ing on apparently, except very dirty bonnet,
a coarse and dirty gown. The daughter has
basket by her side, and the old woman holds
fast to a suspicious looking stone jug, of half
a gallon measure, corked with q corn cob.
You can bet your life on it, that is jug of
whiskey. The family have been to the viii
lage with couple of one horse loads of pine
knots used for light wood. They have pro-
badly sold them for dollar, half of which has
doubtless gone for whiskey, and now they are
getting home. Degraded as they are, you see
it is the man who is helpless and the woman
who has the care OF the jug, and conducts the
| important expedition. There are hundreds
such people dispersed through these Sand
hills. You see the whole of this party are
| hare elepped and bare-footed. And how bony
| and brown they are And it is curious fact,
that in the temperate countries, the children
of all semi-barbarous white people except
| Sir Henry Bulwer's pack Of red headed Celts, }
and all Anglo. Saxon back-woods. or