Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-06-29
South Carolina Society.

The great body of the aristocracy were
ruined by the war-some stepped in pov-
erty to the very lips at once. Not a few
sank under the blow into insanity, and
others were seized with apathy and de-
spair They lived on, as best they were
able, selling their lands and personal
property as necessity pressed them
Others went manfully to work. Plenty
of high-bred and naughty women, wild
owed by the recent strife, hesitated not
to enter the field and superintend their
laborers. Most gentlemen discharged
their Overseers and managed their own
estates. Young scions of the aristocra-
cy hired out to their more fortunate
neighbOrs as overseers, or scrupled not
to become clerks, teachers, or depot, ex-
press, insurance, or sewing machine
agents. The ladies advertised for board
ers, became teachers or governesses or
took in sewing. Those families who
were not Immediately Frustrated, CON
trived, as | have said, to drag on for
awhile. They persisted in keeping their
carriages, drivers and outriders, in Civ
ing stately family dinner parties, in
handing wine to visitors, and making
formal visits. Gradually they descend
ed They became their own drivers
they opened their own gates. Their We
hicles grew old and dingy: their horses,
at first kept solely for riding or driving,
were worn out at the plOw or sold, mules
replacing them in the carriages. Their
dinners were given at intervals few and
far between Their main solicitude be-
came to avoid starvation Many were
compelled to do their own cooking, and
most of them waited on themselves
The merchants, after crediting them un-
til ruinous amounts were lost, demanded
cash. Many were sold out for private
debts. Their efforts to keep up appear
ances have been often truly pitiable.
Since the war the people of South Caro-
lima have had many old home associa-
tions broken up Hundreds of houses
were burned during the war; almost as
many have since been fired by incendia-
ries. Bankruptcy was the universal or
der after the cessation of hostilities
Many have been sold out for taxes
Three-fOurths Of the whites have had to
change either their homes or their local
ity. This has caused much mental suf-
fering, The negroes also have been in.
cessantly moving The great majority
left their old owners. They are very
troublesome servants to keep. so that
they rarely remain long anchored in any
one vicinage. Indeed, this leads me to
say that one of the chief grievances of
white ladies since the war has been the
way in which house servants who leave
them and hire to others gossip about
them, or SANDER them to their new en-
ployers. In old times, as every family
had certain favorite old house servants
who were never sold, and always stayed
with their owners, this annoying gossip
was an unknown thing. The negroes
generally took the family names of their
owners on being set free, though a third
or more of them, whose owners had been
cruel, adopted the name of some former
white master noted for kindness, OF else
picked up names anywhere. They often
bear distinguished names, and in police
items one reads of Arthur Middleton be-
ing put in the guard-house for drunken
ness, or Dayton Bull, Grimke Legare,
or Preston Laurens committed for petit
larceny