know, there were slaves under the French, and many more were brought from the Carolinas and Virginia. Though less in numbers than the whites, they more than kept pace with them in the matter of increase. They had a vast influence on everything, for most of the work was done by them. Yet there were many men who owned no slaves, many who

AN OLD PLANTATION HOME NEAR MONTGOMERY, AS IT LOOKS TO-DAY. In the foreground is "Uncle Julius," who was raised on the plantation and never lived anywhere else. Formerly the avenue was bordered by rows of fine trees.

owned but one or two, and some people in the mountain regions who for years at a time never saw a negro. In 1850 there were in the whole State less than 30,000 persons who owned slaves; in 1860, between 33,000 and 34,000 persons owned all the slaves in the State. The great bulk of the negroes were on the large plantations or in the towns. They

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were most useful in the growing of cotton and other work of a simple sort. They could not be trusted with work requiring much care and intelligence, for most of them were very ignorant, but the house servants were always much more intelligent than the field hands.

Of course there were some cruel men in Alabama, as there are everywhere, and by them the slaves were ill-treated, but travellers for the most part agree with the accounts which we have from our fathers that in the main the relations of master and slave were kindly; and that slavery in the South was as mild as slavery ever was anywhere. In Alabama masters were required by law to treat their slaves humanely. But a very thoughtful traveller who passed through Alabama in the fifties thought that slave labor was not then paying very well. His opinion was that the labor of the slaves cost the master more than was paid elsewhere for free labor; for the master fed and clothed the slave whether he worked or not, and the slave had no special reason to work hard, or to be thrifty. Senator C. C. Clay complained that even in the rich Tennessee Valley there were to be found deserted and worn-out fields and some people moving away to Texas. It is also sometimes said that slave labor is most profitable when employed on a large scale, so that the great planter had an advantage over the small farmer. But those views were not common in Alabama.

However this may have been, it is the big plantation we hear most about when there is talk of old times. Life on the plantation certainly had many charms. Travellers have had but little good to say about the roads or the hotels, but they have given us many pleasant glimpses of the old plantation home, the lavish hospitality, the easy, cordial manners, the good-natured, saucy house servants, the black "mammy," the masterful planter-a king within his own domain-and the gracious women and sweet-voiced children.

Such were the homes of the great planters, whose sons

either succeeded their fathers on the plantation or else went into law, or politics, or the ministry, or perhaps the army. The great planters were at the top of Southern society, just as the slaves were at the bottom. As they were accustomed to being obeyed, they usually had their way, and even in Congress their representatives stood together, and so were very powerful.

But on the other hand there were the small farmers and

the people who lived in the hill country. These had few slaves, and their fields were not broad. Among them were many poor, but paupers were not numerous in any class. It was the boast of the Southern people that among them paupers were as scarce as millionaires. Nevertheless, there were many whites who could neither read nor write, and so the control of politics was left largely to the great planters and lawyers. But the interest in politics was universal, and the people were fond of political speeches and joint debates, which had great educational value. When a real orator like

Mr. Yancey came among them, they heard him with a keen delight in his eloquence.

Such was Alabama in 1860,-a distinctly agricultural community of nearly a million souls. The population according to the census of that year was 965,201, and the whites outnumbered the blacks by less than a hundred thousand. Let us now inquire what was the great change that came upon this community in the early sixties, and how it came. It came suddenly, with uproar and excitement, but the causes that brought it about had been at work for many years.

QUESTIONS.

What is said of Governor Moore? Tell what you know of Alabama in 1860, under the following headings: Agriculture, travel and transportation, manufactures, newspapers, literature, cities, colleges, churches, the negroes, slave labor, the plantation, the great planters, the small farmers, and the poor whites, politics, and oratory.

CHAPTER XXIX.

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR MOORE-ALABAMA A

CONFEDERATE STATE.

WE have seen that Mr. Yancey and his friends, the Southern Rights men, were twice defeated in Alabama. They were defeated in 1848, when the Democrats of the nation refused to adopt the " Alabama Platform," requiring Congress to protect slave property in the Territories, and when the Democrats of Alabama refused to leave the party on that account. They were again defeated when the people voted in 1851 to sustain the Compromise of 1850, which left the inhabitants of the new Territories to settle the question themselves. But the Southern Rights leaders would not give up; in 1852 they nominated their own candidates, Troup and Quitman, for President and Vice-President, but they got few votes. It looked as if Mr. Yancey could not persuade the people to follow him.

Mr.

All this time there was debate in Alabama and throughout the South over the question of a remedy in case the Northern people would not return escaping slaves, and the South could not get what it considered its rights in the Territories. Yancey was clear as to the remedy he preferred. It was not a new idea, but had been advanced at various times by various men in different parts of the country. This remedy was secession that is, for the Southern States to withdraw from the Union. In South Carolina, in 1832-33, nullification had been tried, but the leading men of that State now favored secession. Its advocates argued that each State could withdraw from the Union. In 1850, during the excitement over