Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-05-16
Letter From our South Carroll
ma Correspondent.
SEA ISLAND, s. G.
MAY 4th. 1856.

0@4 $1,000 ~ ~
May 4th, 1856. !
FRIEND RITEzEL:-Over two months have
elapsed since my previous letter. designed
writing more frequently, but no mail reach
ing me the first month of my stay, 1t was
hard to realize the same fate did not befall
the mail sent from here. The long absence
of the Chronicle was a 'sworriment," if l
may use a phrase of ''Dixie Land" that was
most provoking. Now that the blockade is
raised, may our communication be more fire.
quent.
The apostaey of the President is hailed
with delight by the rebels adjacent here, as
well as the disloyal element elsewhere. The
maudlin harrangue which served as the OBJ
sequies of his fall Is a theme of special de-
light. The applause greeting the appeal of
Molloch to the fallen angels, is fifty echoed
by the rebellious spirits of this land, who in
stinctively look to the se~lf-appointed Freed
mems Moses, whom Booth made President,
as their leader.
A sapient rebel youth, one Pritchard by
name, who lived at my expense a day and
two nights, though somewhat terrified at
the idea of being alone on an island with
over a hundred negroes, asked if Sumner,
Forney and Stevens, would not resign after
the scoring they had received. He thought
Stevens must have changed his views very
much of late, and in my asking why, he
condescendingly replied, as il amazed at my
Ignorance, that he was the next man to JEFF.
Davis, in the war. Illinois, he classed
among the eastern states. The most enviable
class of community, he considered to be
those fancy men who lived at the best tables,
wore expensive clothing and jewelry, and no
one knew how they made their living. His
claiming to have been a member of Gen
Whitny's Staff at Wilmington, must be ny
apology for noticing him. When such men
can attain places of trust and honor, who
can doubt the necessity of reconstruction
Many unrepentant rebels preparing to en-
igrate to Mexico and Brazil, in which hap
py chimes lawless violence in the one and
slavery in the other still prevail, have been
so treasured BY the President, as to conde-
seend to still live with us. These wretches
who might fifty apply to themselves the
couplet
True patriots we, for be it understood,
We leave our country for our country's good"
will yet remain to swell the chorus of disloy-
atty and treason. Blissful thought that
those to whom we are indebted for a nation
al debt of three thousand million, the price
less treasure of a quarter of a million ofloyal
lives, who met death not alone in the shock
of battle, but in the lingering tortures of
starvation in the bells of Libby, Belle Isle.
Salisbury and And~ersonville, will still be
with US, to aid in repudiating our debt, dis
honoring our dead, illustrating plantation re-
fnements, by the flourish of bludgeons and
revolYers in the halls of Congress, sounding
the praises of johnson and reviving q de-
funct and putrescent Democracy.
Of the Freedmen and the Cotton culture 1
will speak in general terms, since the field is
too wide to be discussed in a single letter..
The almost total lack of confidence of sue
cess by the planter, and as total a want of
confidence in him by the freedmen, is the
great obstacle in the working of the free Ia
Dor system. To remedy this. Northern men
have been induced to act as agents in many
cases, but it is q concession wrong from the
planters which they will ''nullify" as soon
as they safely can in many instances.
These two things are a most pressing and
immediate want of the Freedmen-Land
and Education. 1t was a grievous mistake,
that each colored soldier at least did not have
a homestead of forty acres assured to him ;
that education was not made universal, if not
compulsory till the former slavery is prepared
to use and claim every right that is permit
ted his disloyal master. Now, as hereto
fore, the influential whites are a landed arls-
toeracy. Till the blacks can also obtain
lands, they must remain a dependent and
ever despised peasantry. The system OF
small farms owned and occupied by men of
intelligence mus be relied upon as the sys-
tenn to redeem this if not the whole country.
Large landed estates are a detriment to any
nation, and the wonderful thrift and prosperi-
ty of the North must be attributed largely
to.the system of small freeholds,
I now turn to the culture of Sea Island or
long staple cotton, so called in distinction
from upland or short staple cotton, from
which it differs in having a longer, finer
fber and is three times as valuable. 1 en-
close a specimen. The Plantation is first
laid off in large squares by deep bitches at
right angles to each other, to which m
Gus shallow ones lead, draining being indis-
pensable in cotton culture. The land is
again divided into squares of one hundred
and five feet each, called HTooks," marked
by stakes at the corners and rated as quarter
of an acre, each of which has twepty-one
burrows and the same number of ridges called
''beds." ~''Chopping' is the first preparation
for culture, which consists in the use OF the
axe and hoe in cutting down bushes and 9TH
er rank vegetation, which is burned. "List-
ing" the next process, consists of cutting the
stubble from the sides of the beds and plac-
ing the clods in the burrows. "Bedding"
comes next-the same operation as above, in
which dirt from the beds is thrown upon the
clods, thus making a new bed. On this bed
some plant the same year, in which case a
furrow from each side is thrown on. Others
plant on the old bed, according to their the
CRY as to the benefit or injury to be derived
from the grass thus turned under. One kind,
the ''broom grass" being considered poison
Gus to cotton. If the old bed is used one
furrow is run. In planting one cuts q place
with a hoe and the other follows dropping
seed in the hollow made and covering with
the foot. With favorable weather the plant
is up in a week, and replanting takes place,
in which over looked Places planted.
Even now q planters trials are but begun.
A strong wind may unearth the cotton and
q whole re-planting be required. If it es-
cape this, drouth and rain are still to be
feared. A foe worse than all is the Catapil-
lar, which warm rains in August develop in
myriads which eat the cotton everywhere be-
fore them. Their visitations like that of
Locusts, is said to be periodical, coming
each seventh year, of which the last was
1854, ! believe. In fact the Planter is not
free from anxiety till his cotton Is packed,
ginned, baled and sold, by which time often
scarce a month elapsc ere the same routine
must be commenced again,
The negroes are hired on contracts APPROX
ed by the Freedmen's Bureau for one year.
That for this island the most favorable one
at that time made in Charleston, FEB. Ist)
gives full hands $1,000 a month for males
andS 1000 for females, one-half to be paid
monthly and the rest at the end of the year,
with rstiops of one peck of white corn, three
pounds Of bacon and half a pint Of salt,
weekly. A store Is also kept on the place,
in which goods are sold at Charleston prices.
A school for children is promised to be held
three half days weekly, and three nurses Sc
lected from the freedmen by themselves re-
celye rstiens but no pay.
The work required Of the freedmen may
be readily understood by the following table
compiled for my own convenience
Flowing l furrow 8 acres, equal l days work
GO &C &C &C &C 60 &c