Daily Archive

Interview background: Life on the Plantation

Part One | Two

Health and Medical Care on the Plantation

GVD: what did you do for medical care, with so many people on a plantation to attend to?

NBD: My mother had a magnificent constitution or she could never have accomplished the amount of work required of her. I never knew her to have until her latter years a physician for herself. But for family needs we had colored nurses who, under a physician, were competent and devoted in sickness.

It was a revelation to me of the tender care that old patriarch gave to his slaves, no wonder that they loved him. . . . . If a negro was sick, your father would always send him food from his own table, which was received with great pleasure.

Typical Day-Life on the Plantation

GVD: What kind of resources did your plantation provide?

NBD: We had a steam mill for sawing lumber, and mills for grinding corn and wheat. Sugar was made in quantities for negroes, but there was no way of refining it. Everything was bountiful and we lacked nothing, but coffee and tea. Every known and unknown substitute was used for these drinks, but none were satisfactory; otherwise we never lived with greater abundance. Our swamps yielded us all game bountifully, venison, wild turkeys, partridges, and reed birds. It was a rich country and could feed an army.

GVD: how did a typical day begin on your plantation?

NBD: The day was always begun with family prayers, for my father’s religious principles were his staff in life, and he derived much strength from them. Fortunately, the love he gave the slaves was fully returned, and I doubt if there was ever a more devoted and united family.

GVD: what did slaves typically do in the evenings after work?

NBD: . . . . they [slaves] gathered in groups about their bright fires, roasting corn and singing their quaint and wonderfully sweet plantation songs.

GVD: What normally took place after breakfast on the plantation?

NBD: .… after breakfast it was customary for the head nurse to report any cases of sickness on the plantation to my mother. Mother’s medicine chest was brought out and together they consulted about the condition of each patient. If anyone were very ill, a man was sent to call in a physician who lived several miles away. My mother then hastened to the negro quarters, and if the invalids could be removed they were brought to the sick house - a large, long building fitted with cots - where they could be better cared for.

I can remember going fearlessly in and out of the cabins, carrying dainty dishes to many little ones who were suffering with what they then called putrid sore throat. It was really diphtheria, and, strange to say, not one of our family took the disease, though there were forty cases on the plantation.

GVD: After attending the sick, what was next?

NBD: After attending the sick, mother’s next duty was to give out the daily provisions. She made a pretty picture in her quaint gown carrying a basket of keys on her arm. The Bible verse, “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness,” could well have been written of her. With twenty-five house and garden servants and the many little children to be looked after, this daily provisioning took a great deal of time, and thought. The house servants had their own kitchen and cook.

GVD: What was a typical Sunday like?

NBD: On Sunday they attended the same churches as the family, the galleries being reserved for them. I might have added in telling of their prayer meeting, that when we were present they always prayed for “Ole Massa and Missus,” and the various members of the family, including the “young Missus from the North.” The little negro children would leave their play to gather around me as they saw me walking about the grounds. On Sundays your mother and her daughters used to go around to the negroes’ houses to read the Bible, and teach the children Bible verses.

GVD: Were young mothers expected to work?

NBD: Mothers with babies were only required to do light work, such as raking leaves, spinning, or sewing, that they might be ready and in condition to nurse their babies.

GVD: How were the slaves provided clothing?

NDB: Another care of hers was to provide clothing for all the negroes, of whom there were over five hundred. To accomplish this, seamstresses were at work all the year round; three in the house and five or six in the negro quarters. These made the men’s and women’s clothing. All the cutting was done under mother’s supervision; and during the early part of the war, all the spinning and weaving of cloth, and even of blankets, was done on the plantation.

HEADQUARTERS WHARTON’S CAVALRY,
Unionville, March 18, 1863–7 p.m.
Lieut. Gen. LEONIDAS POLK,
Commanding at Shelbyville:
GENERAL: Your dispatch just received.(*) I have no guides who know the country. Colonel Roddey has been in his present position six weeks, and ought to know the country now. My scouts are just in. The enemy are still encamped at the junction of this and the College Grove pike. Another scout met a regiment of Federal cavalry to-day about 12 m., 1 mile this side of Salem. As yet I can see nothing which induces me to believe the enemy are evacuating Murfreesborough. Scouts are ordered for to-morrow, and, should they discover a retrograde meeting [movement?], the enemy will be pressed. Please let me [know] to-night why you think the enemy are leaving Murfreesborough. A dispatch from Colonel [J. R.] Butler, stationed at Beech Grove, advises me that the enemy attacked his pickets 3 miles out on the Bradyville road to-day. He would dispatch me again as soon as the movement was developed. I send you two late papers.
Most respectfully, general, your obedient servant,
JNO. A. WHARTON,
Brigadier-General

O.R.– SERIES I–VOLUME XXIII/2 [S# 35]
Correspondence, Orders, And Returns Relating To Operations In Kentucky, Middle And East Tennessee, North Alabama, And Southwest Virginia, From January 21 To August 10, 1863.
CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE. ETC.–#4
Page 708

CHAPEL HILL, March 18, 1863—5 p.m.
General POLK,  Shelbyville, Tenn.:
GENERAL: So far have heard nothing from the party who left last night. Their instructions were to procure guides whenever they could, and to ascertain the whereabouts and movements of the enemy about Murfreesborough; to report everything deemed important as soon as ascertained.
I learn to-day that some Federals are on this side of Harpeth River, about 3 miles below College Grove, foraging, but have not learned their strength or position. Citizens say they were foraging for camps at Triune. Will endeavor to learn more about them.
Very respectfully,
P. D. RODDEY,
Colonel.

******************

O.R.– SERIES I–VOLUME XXIII/2 [S# 35]
Correspondence, Orders, And Returns Relating To Operations In Kentucky, Middle And East Tennessee, North Alabama, And Southwest Virginia, From January 21 To August 10, 1863.
CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE. ETC.–#4
Page 707-08

An authentic interview between Grapevine Dispatches and Mrs. De Sausssure (1837-1915).

Nancy Bostick (1837-1915) was one of twelve children born to a prominent plantation owner in Hampton County, South Carolina. She was educated at home by private tutors and took music lessons in Charleston, where she met Henry William De Saussure. They married in 1859 and settled in Robertville, South Carolina, a central location from which Dr. De Saussure found it easier to visit patients.

During the Civil War, Dr. De Saussure served the Confederacy as a surgeon, first with the Charleston Light Dragoons, and later along the South Carolina coast. While her husband was away, Nancy and her young daughter lived at Nancy’s father’s plantation, which was close enough to her husband’s camp to enable her to visit him relatively frequently. When General Sherman’s army swept through South Carolina, Nancy fled their home, which was destroyed by fire. After the Civil War, Nancy Saussure taught at Vassar College.

Nancy Bostick De Saussure wrote Old Plantation Days: Being Recollections of the Days Before the Civil War (1909) in the form of a letter to her granddaughter, Dorothy.

What you are about to read is an “authentic” interview between Grapevine Dispatches and Mrs. De Saussure. The answers Mrs. De Saussure [pronounced DES-suh-sore] provides are historically-accurate, taken from her journal, diaries or letters. The questions are contemporary, but chosen and phrased in a manner as if Mrs. De Saussure were interviewed by a 21st century reporter.

No attempt has been made to contemporize the language of Mrs. De Sausssure. For example, she often used the term ‘negroes’. Though certain terms, idioms and phrases are no longer used, or perhaps acceptable today, we feel it is important to hear Mrs. De Saussure in her context, which includes her original language.

This is a fascinating interview. In it, you will learn things like:

• What life was like for slaves on a real plantation during the Civil War?
• How were slaves cared for medically?
• Was there a master-slave attachment?
• Were de Saussure’s slaves treated well?
• What was it like to personally observe the firing upon Ft. Sumter?
• How did Charlestonians feel about the war?
• What kind of destruction and ruin did Charlestonians experience?
• And many more interesting questions answered by a personal witness who was just 24 years old in 1861.

Imagine a reporter from Grapevine Dispatches sitting down with Mrs. De Saussure in 1909, on a large shaded porch, in Charleston of course; sipping ice tea . . . . asking questions we’d all love the answers to.

In 1861 the De Saussure’s lived in Robertville, SC; a little northwest of Beaufort.

This interview will cover these topics:

• The Old South vs The New South
• The de Saussure Family
• The Slaves and the Plantation
  • The Master/Slave Attachment
  • Health and Medical Care
  • Typical Day/Life on the Plantation
  • Education for the de Saussure Children
  • The Social-life Around the Plantation Community
• Life and Times in Charleston during the Civil War (1861-1865)
  • Early in the War
  • The Firing on Sumter, April 1861
  • Post-Sumter Days
  • The Capture of Port Royal, November 1861
  • Late-War Reminscences, Charleston-area
  • The Effect of War: Ruin and Destruction
  • Sherman’s march through the Carolinas
  • The War Comes to an End