, 1861-06-11
THE SOUTHWEST REBELS. >:
Wealth, Resources, aabits and Indus-
Try OF Tho Southwest

=. CAnP DEFIANCE, Cairo, Ju2e1, 1861.
i Having lived In this vicinity several years,
and having travelled extensively through tha
adjoining SlaYe States, am able to :giYe you
particular information regarding theae regions
Men who go through On boats and cars, and
stop in cities and large hotels; know nothing
to Whatl dol who have gone among the
Them hundreds OF nights, Sundays nnd all und.
gone to meetings and -Ho1ica, and t1ayeled
tou1s In the woods, where sometimes there
Tas road and sometimes moi, trying to find
mere than a'thousaud plantations, and s}ept
and ate IN know not how many novels and
talked with them all and, If I choose can talk
precisely as they do, aud they wouldn't sus.
pect was born up North-I say I think I
ought to know something about them. -.
now TIE SOUTHWEST 1ooKs.
The impression: which: one gets On ccoIup
South Is the general di1apidatfon OF careless!
ness which appears, even upon some OF the
Lest plantations. The nice, white houses 80
common at the North, even In the remotest
agricultural districts, with green blInds. viii,
clean door yards, and wen kept shrnbbory,
Enug ba1ce, green meadows, and corner school
houses, a1e nowhere seen. The furniture: :of
the houses Is Of the commonest description;
md to make short work with It, 1 estimate
that there are not decent chairs enough in the
For there arc. to. day, md there have been for
e7eEy az for more than:ten years past, more
than &c, eco people in Tenlesse, who hare not
3 foot Of land, or q bit: Of work to do: :I am
speaking Of whites, and not Of negroes at al,
a bushel Of ;corn meal, s1de'o bacon. ana a
little coffee, will be al that family of thfa class
can ever expect to get beforehand ,anditis Is often
thcy hay neither coffee nor bacon. YtheY have
q COW, aud ehe "comcs up" they may have
milk, but as for butter, some hare heard of II.
Eome have seen Il, few hare eaten It. And the
t2at Is, many, yes, many who own from two
TO five slaves, are little better Off staid with
msn who had Isl slaves and 400 acres Of 1and,
was not worth iltty cents; What my fare was
you mny gaees. hare seen hundreds Of fam
lies living in log cabins, 10 ot12 feet sousro.
where the children run round as naked as they
were bonn, and bedstesd or chair was not. IN
the house, and nerer will be, It is generally
said by The people Of the slave States that they
prefer com bread, but place the two kinds be-
fore them, and you will, Zee which they like
;hest- No class Of people like corn bread, aud
no people, as general thing, are worth much
Eho can get nothing else. ! y.
For the most part, the people OF these re-
Btons manufacture al. their eyery.day cloth
Ing and their garments: look as though they
them warm and to cover their nakedaeas;
beauty OF co1oring and propriety In fitting are
little regarded. Every man who Is not rich
lis ashoemaker. Blacksmith are innu-
merable, and yef have sent a boy over eight
miles from shop. to shop, and then did not get
horse shod. Men call themselves gunsmltas,
but they only stock guns. There are carpen.
ters, and cabmet makers, and chairnakers,
and all this, working badly. With poor tools.
The sum is, there is no real discipline Of mind
amorg them, no real ingenuity, no education,
no comfortable houses, no good Victuals, moi
do they know. how to cook; and'when + 70
among them, what troubles me most. Is, they
hayeHo grass, eoecr, aorhay. Thetrolb1e il, the
large shareholders haYe got all the good land,
There can be no schools, and # the son of q
earthly chance for him. He can only hope to
bo slAvardr1ver; for an Office is not his, OF he
must leaye aud 60 to free State Wevs uer8
no F5re Ssates, tho people Of The South mould to.