The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-11-08

Dr.. Russell writes to the London Tin

LIZ 0uc66u WIlS0o W tu0 AOOUOO xtWSeS
1t is but q month since / was driving
through magnificent undulatipg fields,
hemmed in by broad belts of forest, and
heavy with crops of Indian corn and to-
bacco. The rough wooden and brick huts
huddled together in the neighborhood Of
the country seats were peopled by men,
women and children, with black faces, but
for which they might have done duty daily
for Hungarian or Lithuanian peasantry,
attired in uncouth clothes and great lum-
bering boots, shutting and hulking through
the fields as if in search OF moonstones.
Their master, good, easy, kind.hearted
gentleman, polished and we'll read, looked
on them very much as the Irish squires of
the old time regarded squatters-creatures
who ought to be made useful, who were
not profitable, who had no bust.
ness to be where they were, and who
nevertheless, could not be got rid of with.
out imputations of cruelty which would
make him odious in the land. He was
perfectly satisfied the free labor of whites
would be lmore profitable but what was
he to do with his blacks? where was he to
get even the white labor that be wanted !?
With these sentiments, he felt bitterly the
insults of the abolitionists, who called him
a slave driver and niger breeder. In his
case most of the fathers of these blacks had
been transmitted to him by his ancestors,
and had lived as families on the estate for
several generations. To look at the fields,
luxuriant with weeds and filled with stones,
was to be satisfied the system OF agriculture
was patriarchal if the system of labor was
not. But, 10 fact, their condition was very
different from that of the slaves on the
southern plantations.
The proprietor of these broad domains is,
like many of the Maryland gentry, a Ro.
man Catholic, and priest belonging to a
religious and educational institution found
ed by the piety of his forefathers,is engaged
to look after the religious welfare of his
flock, and l saw full congregation of the
slaves trooping through the meadows to
chapel looking in their gay dresses and ma
tural groupings, very unlike the beings who
are cribbed up like rabbits in hutches in
the South. Then, after service was over
came flocks of wooly-headed children of
both sexes, to the priest for examination in
the catechism. The houses in which they
lived were larger and better than the slave
quarters on most plantations, but were not
cleaner or more tidy, and it appeared to me
as if the Inhabitants were little less re-
spectful in their demeanOr.
In the name of crinoline, yellow shawls,
pink and white dresses, wonderful bonnetry,
and very quaint bootiDg, how did the pro-
prietor afford to turn out such gay nymphs
of Africa? He did not afford it at all.
Granted that home reared chickens, and
pigs paid for some of it, still enough came
out of bis pocket, in addition to feeding and
supporting them, to leave very little between
their labor and positive loss. 1t was no
use to call them early, for they dowdied
about the fields all the more. Here, in
fact, was state OF things which would soon
cure itself if let alone. The greater part of
the estate, indeed, was farmed out to others
on the principle of one-half or one third of
the produce in lieu of rent, and l suspect
that was far the most profitable mode of
dealing with these widespread acres. 1 am
INSURED that there are many estates in
Maryland in the same condition.