British Travelers in America (early 1800's)

A British man named James Silk Buckingham visited America in the late 1830's and traveled exclusively in the southern states. He wrote a book about his travels that he called "The Slave States of America" which can be found online for free. It is a long book, almost 600 pages, but very interesting. He thoroughly thrashes slavery and slave owners, but that wasn't really my interest in the book. I was more interested in everyday life in 1830's South, about 25 years before the Civil War. And there's plenty in his book relating to that.

One of his main points of contention with Americans was their propensity to chew tobacco. He said most every man in the South, even rich plantation owners and professionals, chewed tobacco and spit the juices all over the floor. He mentioned how he visited Athens, GA and went to the college there (now UGA) and had a meeting with the president and various other members of the university. All of them were chewing tobacco, even during their speeches. He went to numerous church services where the pastor was chewing tobacco during the sermons.

He mentioned the peculiar pronunciation of words he noticed in Georgia, but not elsewhere. He noticed that words like "stairs" were pronounced "stars" or "pears" was pronounced "parrs" (you get the idea). You can still hear this in rural places in the south, but back then it seemed more prevalent.

He noted how the "firefly" had a peculiar name in the south. Lightning bug. I didn't realize the term was that old.

He did not understand why Americans refused to use the word "cock." He mentioned that he later found out but said it was "not something I want to put to writing."

He had a lot of adventures on his horse and buggy, sometimes getting stuck out after dark and having to find shelter with the first house he could find. One man in Georgia refused him saying "I have no place for strangers." He continued down the road and luckily found a hotel which he found to be "dirty" and "miserable" and described his room as a "cell." The hotel clerk didn't even have candles but was using sticks of wood as a torch. When he asked for a candle, the clerk told him "you're mighty particular."

One interesting anecdote to leave you with. He had arrived at Tallulah Falls, GA (which is now a state park). This was 1839, so it was about 50 years before Tallulah Falls became incorporated. He stopped off at the "hotel" which at that time was just a cabin ran by a random farmer and his wife. I will quote:

quote:

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The house and its accommodations were not better than that from which we were so inhospitably turned away by Mr. Holkham; but here, at least, there was no unwillingness to receive us; and though the fare was " rough," as the country phrase is, and everything of the rudest kind, yet, as there was good-will and an evident desire to please, we made the best of everything, and thus inspired those around us with a wish to do their best also.

The master of the house, Mr. Taylor, was not yet returned from "the plantation," as all farms are called here; but his wife, the mother of thirteen children, though not more than thirty-five years of age, set about preparing all we required, as far as her store would furnish it. The only bread we could procure, was that made of maize, or Indian corn; tea and sugar were articles never used by them, but fortunately we were provided with both; though in making the tea, a jug or pitcher had to be used instead of a tea-pot, by which leaves and water were poured out into the cup together. We made a hearty supper, nevertheless, though, according to the custom of the country, our party was made to include the driver of the barouche, the driver of the waggon, and our own white servant, all sitting with us at the same table and at the same time. It was the only place at which we saw no negroes or coloured people employed; and we were told that there were two causes for this; one that the farmers here were too poor in money, though rich in produce, to buy negroes; the other, that the climate of the mountains was too severely cold for them in winter ; so that whites alone were used for every description of labour.

The rudeness of manners among these dwellers in the woods, is unpleasant to those accustomed to receive courtesy and respect from their attendants. The master of the house, as well as his farming men and boys, come in and out without making any sign of respect or recognition, take a chair close by your side, sit down with their hats on, their legs thrown up in the most careless position, spit their tobacco at your feet, and accost you in the roughest way imaginable. The mistress and her grown-up daughters will do the same, wearing their cotton-quilted bonnets, with a deep curtain hanging down over the neck behind, and covering the ears and shoulders, never taking them off when they enter the room, or take their seat at the table. Another disagreeable feature of their manners is, that whatever they do for the guest or visitor, is done by them as though it were a favour; and not a service for which a fair equivalent was to be given in money paid; for though their own charges are made, and no abatement asked or wished for, they not only think, but generally contrive to say, or make you understand, that they consider you much more under an obligation to them for the accommodation they afford you, than they can possibly be to you for the money you pay to them.

We slept as well as we could on a straw mattress, placed above the soft down-beds used here by the poorest persons; but the interruption to our rest arose from the numbers of bugs with which we found all these country houses to abound. These were of the largest, blackest, and most voracious kind, so that we had often to get out of bed, and commence a hunt, before we could obtain even the respite of a short and broken repose. Add to this, the combined noises of the numerous dogs which are everywhere kept in town and country, swelled by those of the hogs, goats, sheep, and poultry, which all occupied the common yard immediately outside the aperture in our bed-room called the "window," but which had neither frame, glass, or shutter, and it may well be conceived that our sleep was neither sweet nor refreshing.

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I chuckled pretty hard at the above passage. I can just imagine a British artistocrat coming to the North Georgia mountains expecting to be treated as royalty by these poor "mountain dwellers." He found it so strange that they insisted his buggy driver and assistant sit at the same table with him.