Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1858-07-20
CHARLESTOWiii.N
Tuesday nrornIn g, July 90, 1865.
south Carolina rice PIantation. :;

South Carolina Rice Plantation.
We subioin letter from Charles Mackay, editor
OF the London Illustrated News, detailing an ac,
count of his visit TO the plantation of Gen. Gadsden
at Pimlieo, on Cooper River, and published In his
paper OF June 29th - s4
had received many invitations while in the
South to visit cotton, sugar and rice
that might the slaves in their homes and watch
them at their labors in The Held or the swamp and
judge for myself they were well or i'll treat
ed, and whether their owners were men of the pa
triarchal type, like Abraham of DID, or of the type
of Blunderbore in the child story-ogres of cruelty
and oppression. was unable to accept any of
these until my arrival in Charleston, when gladly
aVailed myself of the opportunity afforded me by
the courteous hospitality of General Gadsden to
visit his rice plantation at Pimco. The General is
known both to Europe and America as the ncgo-
tiator of the famous Gadsden Treaty with Mexico
by which portion of tho large province of Sonora
was annexed to the already ove grown dominion
of Brother Jonathan. His estate of Pimlico is situ-
ated about twcnty-seyen miles from Charleston
The General owns on this property between two
and three hundred slaves. but only resides upon it
a small portion of the year, having possessions in
Florida and other parts of the Union and being
avoid in the warm weather the marshy regions IA
vorable to rice cultivation.
From Charleston the railway for twenty miles
runs straight as arrows flight through forest
of primeval pine. These melancholy trees form tho
most couspicuoutcature of the landscape in the two
Carolinas and Georgia. Often for whole days. and
for hundreds of miles the traveller other vcge
tation but this rank, monotOnous forest growth
i
here and there a village digni6ed with the title ofa
town or of a city and one unvnryng level of rich,
but uncultivated land such the general character
istic of the "Sunny South" the traveller leaves
the seaboard and penetrates inwalds to the great
valley of the Mississippi In less than an hour and
a half our train stopped at station at which there
was neither clerk check-taker, nor porter, nor
official of any kind. Having descended, luggage in
hand we our train dart away into the long res
ceding vista of the forest and awaited in solitude
the vehicle which had been ordered from Pimlico to
convey US to the plantation. We being before,
the negro driver after, the appointed time, had
to remain about quarter of hour at the station
and amuse ourselves as bcStwe might. Though the
station itself was deserted, small log hut and en-
closure almost Immediately opposite, swarmed with
life. A whole troop of ragged children, with fair
hair and blue eyes, played about the clearing a
donkey browsed upon the scanty underground; cocks
crowcd upon the fence; hens cackied in the yard;
and lean pigs prowled about in every direction
seeking what they might devour The loneliness of
the place. with the Deep thick pine woods all around
it, and the shiny lines of rail stretching far as the
vision could penetrate in unbroken parallel into
the Wilderness suggested the inquiry to who and
what were the inhabitants of the log hat? 1.-THE
pest of the neighborhood," was the repln "Here
lives German Jew and his family, who keeps q
store for the accommodation of the negroes" "And
how pest?" The negroes require no aecommo-
daton. They are supplied by their owners with
everything necessary for their health and comfort;
but they resort to places like this with property
which they steal from their masters, and which the
men exchange, at most nefarious profit, to the Jew
receiver, for whiskey and tobacco and which the e
males barter for ribbons and tawdry fnery. Wher-
Ver there is large plantation, these German tra-
lers-if it be not desecration of the name of
rade to apply it to their business-squat in the
build up wooden shanty, and open
store. If saddle, coat, watch be lost, the
'anter may be tolerably certain that it has been
artered by his negroes at such place as this for
Vhiskey or tobacco. Tho business is SO profitable
hat although the delinquent may sometimes be1etec
ed and imprisoned, he soon contrives to make mon
y enough TO remove with his ill-gotten gains to
he Far West, where his antecedents are unknown
md never inquired after, and here, perhaps under
new name, he figures as great merchant in the
more legitimate business OF dry goods store:
A drive five miles through the forest, in the
ourse of which we had swamp two feet deep
With water, brought us to Pimlico and its mansion,
pleasantly embowered among trees of greater
,eauty and variety than VIC had passed on way.
Among these the live evergreen oak, the cypress,
he cedar, and the magnolia, the most conspic-
ous. The mansion, like most of the houses in the
SOUTH where trees abundant and stone is scarce
vas built of wood and gave but little exterior pros
Mise of the comfort aud elegance to be found wish
n. Here We Jared sumptuously, having choice
# drinks, from London porter and Allsoppis India
lie, to Hook and Claret, and Catawba and Isabella,
# Longworths choicest growth: and of food ofeve-
y variety, fish with names unknown in Europe,
'ut of most excelen Equality, and game in an abun-
lance with which Europe can scracely claim equal
ty. The greatest novelty was thesmall turtle call
ID the 'coter" similar to but smaller than the "ter
'apin," so well known and esteemed in Baltimore,
and Washington. The "cotter," is
It appears, perqusite of the slaves. They will not
themselves eat it, looking upon its flesh with loati-
ing and aversion but in their leisure moments they
seek it in the water-courses and trenches, or bor
lers of the streams and sell it to their masters
Among other privileges which they are allowed may
be here mentioned that of keeping poultry their
own account, the profits of which enable them to
buy tobacco and other luxuries for themselves and
fnery for their wives.
In the morning we sailed over the plantation,
under the guidance ofthe General, and saw the
whole art and mystery of rice cultivation. AT high
water the river which commands his estate is five
feet above the level of the rice ground; that by