The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-07-13
FAMINE BREEDING CRIME.
starvation Along Both Banks Of the
Savannah River.
SAVANNAH. GA. June %. 1876.

SAVANNAH, GA, June %, 1876.
Burke County is one of the richest
agricultural sections of this State. 1t
was visited last year by the great drought,
and is at present in sad condition.
Numbers of people, white and black, are
in distress for want of food. The wan,
haggard faces of those who know not
where the next meal will be procured,
greet the stranger at every turn.
In the adjoining counties, Scriven and
Efingham, the same state of affairs exist
In Beaufort and Colleton, the counties
across the river in South Carolina, great
want likewise prevails. In that region
the cry for bread has become alarming.
Appeals are made daily to the Governor
of the State for aid until crop can be
raised. Many families are reduced to a
single meal each day, and there are num-
bers of others who keep from absolute
starvation by subsisting on wild fruits,
the only food free to the utterly destitute.
The writer visited number Of fami-
lies at their homes. At the first house
| lived widow and her three children.
The lady timidly shrank from disclosures
of her real condition, but in the course
of conversation gave these statements:
She had been supporting herself COM
fortably by her needle, with the assist
ance of her son, lad of ten summers.
The people were too poor to give her
work this year, and she had just arisen
from a long sickness. Some days she
ate nothing but little corn Cruel. The
children refused this food, but when she
could obtain salt, they ate very willingly.
She stated that another widowed lady
near by was in the same condition. This
friend had seven children, and was thank
full when she could get enough corn meal
to satisfy their hunger, which was often
not the case.
Two miles from this place the next
visit was paid to colored family, where
it was reported two deaths had occurred,
one from starvation. An aged woman,
pitiable, famished creature, offered the
writer q seat under shade tree.
"Is it true that death occurred here
from starvation ?" she was asked.
The poor woman began to rock back
and forth, wiping away the tears with
her apron, and seemed not to think of an
answer. After few minutes she said:
"Ah, my fren', tits aohard ting! a hard
ting! my po' chile cry and cry for vituals,
and I had nottin', nottin' J"
"Could none of you work?" asked.
"Work? Laws, my time was Ill tex
up wild them two. You see my daughter
bin sick this free year. She couldn't lift
hand nor foot, and Ise all there was to
tend her. Well, while I was nussin'
her, for death was on her, and I knowed
it, her poor little boy was sta-vin'.-
Sometimes the people gi' me little, but
mos times had nottin'. 0, mel what
did I see but dat little boy cry and die,
saying, hungry, hungry to de las: My
daughter died the day after. Dey is both
in one grave, tank de Lordp'
"And do you suffer now for bread"
'eNo, not now. It's so little wants,
and I gifts dat here and everywhere since
I can leave home. All de hurtin' now is
here" and she touched her heart, and
began to rock back and forth again.
The third visit was paid to a man
whose broad acres promised freedom from
the gaunt visitor. [ found him both in
telligent and communicative. To my
surprise, he said that he and his family
had suffered much for food since last De-
cember, at which time the short amount
of provisions raised last year gave out.
He had lost on his crop 81, 200, and with
good seasons would have cleared $4,000.
Besides these sufferings, the people were
sorely afflicted. by their creditors, who
resorted to legal, but sometimes cruel,
means to procure what was not destroyed
by drought. Many were tortured beyond
endurance by lawsuits, which took away
homes and lands, giving no opportunity
to raise crop and pay debts. He COM
pared the cotton factors to birds of prey,
that gained livelihood by the woes of
others. .3
"Is this suffering general?" I asked.
eyes, the storekeepers excepted, and
perhaps, ten farmers in the county. But
there is a class of people who conceal
their necessities. Now, there are the Ms
and AS, friends of mine, who have been
without bread for weeks, living on vege-
tables, without meat. Why, they would
suffer twice as much before they would
let it be known, outside of little circle"
"What classes suffer most?"
"The utterly destitute are those whites
and negroes who depend upon chance or
daily labor for living. These cannot
find relief at the stores in long credit as
regular croppers or land owners often do,
and therefore must steal: a number OF
these people are thriftless and vicious,
and really prefer to gain living by
thefs. They think the general want
gives them license to commit highway
robberies, to break into houses, and to
steal in any way that opportunity may
offer. The late terrible murders in this
county and over the river in Georgia are
due in almost every instance to this
famine.bred disposition to plunder.-
Look at my case: I was well provided
with sheep, hogs and cattle six months
ago; now you see the few yonder l keep
under my eye in pens, where l must 60
to the extra trouble of feeding them by
hand. These rowing thieves have de-
stroyed the best of my stock, besides rob-
bing me in every other way. After all,
believe the chief sufferers are those who
work hardest and save most; and these
are the class who receive none of the
charity that mistaken people are sending
to U.S."
"Is not this charity timely and accepta-
ble?"
fit could be wisely bestowed, certain
ly, but those who bring on so much OF
the distress will gain most by it. The
proud, sensitive ladies, and even a GER
tain class of men, will endure greater
suffering still before they will see their
names hawked about as the recipients
of aid, in common with known thieves
and plunderers. Now, sir, if you are
what I take you to be, newspaper man,
lust write that our Governor must station
a good detective in each neighborhood,
% thosa thieues and murderers 90 to the