NEW ORLEANS TO LONDON.
On leaving New Orleans we run through swamps, and presently skirt the
Gulf of Mexico and travel on. The next day (December 23rd), we feel it
perceptibly colder, for we are going north. The country is cultivated in
sugar, cotton, rice, grass, etc. We breakfast at Atlanta, and after
leaving that place, the scenery puts me more in mind of England. In
going through Georgia, I was told that the same black families which now
occupy many of the small wooden houses, or "cabins," which I see, are
the same families who occupied them before the abolition of slavery.
Although many slaves suffered cruelties through enforced separations and
hard treatment, yet very many had most comfortable homes, considerate
masters, and light work. I sat much during this day on the platform at
the end of the end car, observing the country. At one station some
little black urchins came to gaze, and I said to one boy, apparently
seven years old, "What is your name?" He said, "Willie Matthews." I
said, "How old are you? " He said, "I ain't old enough to know how old I
are." And his genuine simplicity delighted me.
We are now passing through cultivated lands, farms, and estates, and
these continue right on to New York. At Greers was a very large
collection of cotton. At Spartanville are large cotton mills, such as
one sees in Lancashire.
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