The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-04-16

ested painfully and deeply in the political
excitement which was surging over the
country.
Far outnumbered as our people in the
planting districts were by the negro pop
ulation, and dwelling on isolated planta-
tions with two white men to 100 or 200
negroes, the necessity OF keeping
'abolition tractsn out of the negroes
hands were imperative. How to do this,
when the postoffices and post roads would
be manned by men who were ''free
soldiers - /. E., abolitionists, was the
hard problem presented to the people of
the south.
There were many newspapers andpoliti-
cal magazines taken in almost every
southern household, and the men, anx-
ious and absorbed in the progress of
events. read them to and with the women
of the family, and both attempted to ar
rive at an independent judgment and
understanding of our rights under the
constitution, the infraction of them, also
the dangers to which the women OF the
south would be exposed in case of war
and all shrunk, while they could not
escape from their gruesome conclusions.
Many women thought there would be
no war, because they believed in the sa-
credness of he constitution. That, to the
south, was an ark of the covenant which
TO touch would be sacrilege. Others
noted the depression of their husbands
and heard signs and warnings from the
head of the house which filed them with
the most dreadful forebodings.
The women of the south did not shrink
from the prospect of great and painful
economies; they also appreciated that
their own patriotic duty was as cheerfully
as possible to bid farewell to the men OF
their family who must go to the front,
perhaps never to return; sometimes hope
& how ~alr i
sunny side and believed that ther dear
ones would be spared because their cause
was righteous.
They did shrink, however, affrighted
from the prospect Of being left alone
with a multitude of ignorant negroes
who might be instigated to rebellion,
without physicians to attend their chill
dren or priests to bury them If they died.
These horrors oppressed them.
Many woman, buckling on her hus-
bands sword, asked him to show her
how to load and shoot pistol, adding,
mot that l am afraid of anything, but
in case of need; Her next problem was
now to handle that pistol, which was an
object Of almost as great dread IS would
be the foe it was to repel.
GOOD CONDUCT OF THE NEGROES.
All southern women acknowledge with
pride the good conduct of the rank and
war. They generally remained true to
the families left in their charge, and pro-
tected the women and children to the best
of their ability. In short, their course
was a powerful testimonial TO the life
long kind and just exercise of their mas
ter's power over them.
However, the crops failed frequently;
the negroes grew to psrtake more or less
OF the excitement which pervaded the
whole country, and this interfered with
the needful routine of their labor. Then.
again, the work horses were levied upon
for the use of the government. Thus
were the means Of cultivation narrowed.
The fallow land grew impossible with
weeds; the fences and levees fell; the
fields which had waved with corn and the
cotton blossoms became s. tangle OF vines
and bushes. sunprofitably gay with the
blue flowers of the morning glory, the
execrated tie-vine. -
Moreover, all large balances OF cash Law
out of reach, invested, so that there was
little whereHith to buy from the neigh
boring towns or cities;- and as the pros
perity of these centers was dependent
upon the grain and cotton sent in from
the plantations, want came upon all.
The very poor suffered in the absence of
their breadwinners. Necessarily those
better provided for gave OF their surplus.
and when they became sorely pressed
themselves they spared whatever could be
spared by their families; as the poorest
classes expressed it, they chad divide. -
Eow THE WOMEN FACED THE SITUATION.
When this peine forte 81 dare began to
affiict the women, their powers of endur-
ance were at once demonstrated to the
world.
The harbors were closed by the block
ade. No supplies of clothing could be i'm
ported. The time came when the stock
Of cloth, shoes, medicines. machinery
indeed, Of almost everything necessary
to civilized people--was nearly exhausted.
The south had proved agriculture to be
the most profitable employment, and had
never fostered manufactures; besides.
her operative classes We're not suited to
the care OF machinery. Now the people
found themselves confronted with new
problems which they must learn to solve.