Abstract

The South As It Is

The traveler from North Carolina passes but a little distance into this State before he finds the outward indications of a widely different social organization. The scenery in its general aspect is the same. There, as well as here, for a hundred miles from the coast, the surface is very flat and traversed by many sluggish streams; Pine Barrens alternate with swamps, and by far the larger portion of the country is covered with forests. But the clearing of the small farmer is rarely seen; the fields of the great plantations spread wide on either hand till their bounding lines of woods appear as irregular black walls; the Negro cabins, often neatly built, are gathered into little villages of twenty or thirty houses, and often it is possible to ride three or four miles in a straight line within the limits of one man's land.