Document text
Accession .no.
V10040
-thi4L144i. Writers UNIT
Form --.3
Folklore
Collection (or Type)
Date received TftleSookal_ouetoms_of_the_peet.
10/10/40
Consignment no. Ie1n 1,1.. Doane. of ..Peaufor.t.
1
Shipped from Place of origin Be aufor t Co t SA. Date 61211138_
Wash. Office r. D. C.
Label Project workerChlOtild.W..R......MartillA
Amount
10p.
Project editor
Remarks
Project #-1655
ahlotilde R. Martin
Beaufort County
37a5106=7"
Social Customs
SOCIAL CUSTOMS OF TIE PAST
Mrs. I. B. Doane of Beaufort, who is 81 years old, gives an
interesting picture of life in the Lowcountry, of South Carolina
during the Civil War priod. She was the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. William Cummings and one of eleven children. She was born
in Barnwell County, but moved with her parents while a snail
child to the lower end of Colleton County, where her father had
purchased 3,000 acres of land in the fork of the Salkehatdhis
River. The family was living there when the war began and her
father entered the Confederate army.
Mrs. Doane remembers very little of the beginning of the
war, since she was only four years old. However, she recalls
the excitement on the plantation then they heard the booming
of big guns from the coast. They did not know then what had
happened, but later learned that Port Royal and Beaufort had
fallen.
Recollections of the years which followed and of her mother's
struggles to feed and clothe her large family are indelibly
stamped upon her memory, however. The oldest of the children
was a boy of fourteen and with his help and that of two faith-
ful slaves, Peter and a woman called "Mudder", who remained
with the family, her mother continued to operate the plantation.
That she was a very level-headed woman was proven by an incident
which Mrs. Doane relates. Mrs. Doane's father had left the gin
house full of cotton when he went off to war. Some of their
neighbors also had a large supply of cotton on hand, but hearing
W10040
Project #-1655
Chlotilde R. Martin
Beaufort County
Page 2
that the Yankees were coming, they decided to burn it rather
than give the enemy the pleasure. They tried to persuade Mrs.
Cummings to do likewise, but she refused, replying that if
the Yankees came and burned the cotton, there was nothing she
could do about it, but until that time came, she would keep
it. The Yankees never came and she thus saved the cotton and
the proceeds of its sale after the war enabled the family to
make a fresh start.
Mrs. Doane says they never even saw any Yankees except
for a few stragglers who passed now and then. When Sherman's
army was approaching, the Confederates burned the bridge
across Salkehatchie River to prevent them crossing, which
proved to be most fortunate for the Cummings' family. The
river was very high from recent rains and the Yankees were
unable to get across. So that, although Sherman's army was
so near they could hear them on the other side of the river,
this plantation at least escaped the fate which fall to many
in this section.
Undisturbed by marauding Yankees, the Cummings' were fre-
quently visited by Confederate soldiers. These, ragged and
half-starved, passed in hordes, raiding their provisions, kill-
ing their chickens, hogs and cattle. Althought this was hard,
Mrs. Cummings did not begrudge food to these soldiers. Mrs.
Doane says she well remembers her mother and "Mudder" baking
hoecakes in the kitchen for these hungry soldiers, who were
Project #-1655
Chlotilde R. Martin
Beaufort County
Page 3
so ravenous that they could not wait for the bread to be browned
on both sides, but would snatch it from their hands and eat it
half -cooked. She recalls seeing her mother disk up sauer-kraut
for the soldiers until they had eaten her entire winter's supply
two barrels.
Late one afternoon word came that Confederate soldiers were
passing through Salkohatdhie, near lemassee, and that her father
was among them. he could not get away to visit his family, but
wanted them to meet him at Salkehatchie. It did not take her
mother long to make plans. She gave the children their supper,
then laid mattresses in the big covered wagon, which was used to
haul provisions from Charleston, and put them to bed under the
watchful care of "Madder", who was indeed like a second mother
to them. Peter drove the wagon, which was also stodked with
food, and Mrs. Cummings, with the baby and her oldest son, drove
in the buggy. It was very exciting, Mrs. Deane says, seeing her
father and all the Confederate soldiers, but almost as exciting
was the experience of camping with the other families who had
also come to see soldier husbands and fathers.
Life on the plantation was very hard in those days, for
everything which the family ate or wore or had need of in any
way had to be manufactured at home. The family was up at dawn
and glad to go to bed at night. The clothes they wore were
spun and woven from their own cotton and wool. The dyes were
all made at home. hid indigo from the woods made a blue dye,
Project #-1655
Chlotilde R. Martin
beaufort County
Page 4
copperas was used for brown, walnut juice was mixed with svme-
thing else, which Mrs. Doane has forgotten, to make black.
Sufficient wheat, rice, corn, vegetables, potatoes, grain,
meat, milk, eggs and butter were raised to feed those on the
plantation, but there were a few things which could not be
bought and for which substitutes had to be found. Among these
were sugar, salt, coffee and tea. Brown sugar was made from
sugar cane and had to serve the purpose of granulated sugar.
Salt was very difficult to obtain. Mrs. Cummings dug up the
dirt in her smoke house, boiled it and allowed it to drip to
get the salt which had fallen from the neat in the years past.
When this was exhausted, she sent to the coast and had salt
water boiled to get the deposit. Parched Wheat, rye and grits
made a fair substitute for coffee and holly leaves and sassa-
fras were used for tea. Rats were made out of palmetto gather-
ed in Salkehatchie swamp and pretty ones they were, too, Mrs.
Doane says. Even medicine was made at home. The nearest doc-
tor was miles away and hone remedies were always used for com-
mon ailments. If the patient did not respond to this treat-
ment, then Mrs. Cummings sent for the doctor. The medicine
cabinet was kept well stocked with home -concocted medicines,
the ingredients for which were gathered in the woods and fields.
For fever there was a bitter tea made from fever weed. It
caused profuse perspiration and usually proved effective. An
iron tonic was made by gathering the cinders from the black-
Project #-1655
Chletilde R. Martin
Beaufort County
rage 5
smith shop, pounding them into fine powder and mixing with mo-
lasses and ginger to make it palatable. syrup, ginger and
soda made an excellent cough remedy. Cherokee root, oak bark,
whiskey and another ingredient, which Mrs. Deane does not re-
call, was a good general tonic. Soap was all made on the plan-
tation and was called lye soap. When soap -making time CARO a
number of hardwood trees were cut and burned on a clean -swept
piece of ground. The ashes were gathered, wet and allowed to
drip, then mixed with fat which had been saved for the purpose
from the hog -killings.
Family life in those days was very different from now, Mrs.
Doane says. Children were taught to be obedient and respectful
to their parents and elders. As soon as they were large enough,
they were given chores for which they were responsible. The
boys worked on the plantation and the girls in the house. As
soon as she was able to reach the thread in the loom, each girl
was taught to spin and was required to spin two ounces of
thread before she could go out to play.
On Sundays everybody went to church and in the evenings the
children studied their lessons and the older ones read and sew-
ed. The celebration of Christmas on the plantation during the
four years of the war and immediately following was nothing
like it is today. There were no gaily decorated trees and there
were few gifts, except small ones to the children. For the
girls there were rag dolls. Mrs. Doane says she remembers vivid-
Project #-1655
Chlotilde R. Martin
Beaufort County
Page 6
ly the first "bought" doll she ever had. Her baby sister broke
it and she never got another because by then her father thought
she was too big to play with dolls anyway. The doll was a
china one and gate the prettiest thing she had ever had. Mrs.
Doane says she has never forgotten it. Easter was noted chief-
ly for the dyed eggs which mysteriously made their appearance.
When people visited in those days, whole families came for
a day or several days. Visiting was especially heavy at Christ-
mas, when uncles, aunts, cousins and friends came. In the even-
ings there would be parties. They played games unknown to this
generation, but which furnished good amusement than. One of
these was "spin -the -plate", in which the players sat in a circle
while someone spun a tin plate in the middle of the floor. The
point of the game was to catch the plats before it stopped
spinning and get back to a chair. The one left without a chair
was "It". Another game was "Steal partners." There were also
square dances, fish fries, sewing bees, log-rollings and quilt-
ings. The leg -railings and quiltings were usually joint events
and took place when some neighbor had a piece of new ground to
be cleared. ne would invite his friends for miles around and
while the men cleared the ground, rolled the logs and burned
them, the women quilted. Then wild follow a big dinner and a
party in the evening. Days of fasting and prayer for the war
to end were frequently held.
Families were closer then than now, Mrs. Doane believes.
Project #-1655
Chlotilde R. Martin
i3eaufort County
Page
There were fewer outside amusements and interests were centered
in the home. People have changed in their attitude toward
marriage more than in any other one thing, she thinks. When a
couple married in those days, they expected to settle down and
establish a home, have children and stay married as long as
they both lived. Now, there is a feeling that if marriage
doesn't work out as the couple would like, it can easily be
dissolved. ner own father never went anywhere without her
mother and they were rarely separated. Mrs. Doane recalls that
once her mother went to the mountains with one of her older sis-
ters and that her father was completely lest. He grieved so
that they had to write their mother, without the knowledge of
their father, to come home. She came and found a number of
gifts that her husband had bought for her during her absence,
among them being an entire set of china.
Children did not get much education during and following
the war. T.here were only small one -room, one -teacher schools,
usually four or five miles away. Children walked the distance
twice a day except in rainy weather, when they rode horseback.
School was closed when time came to plant the crops, for the
children were needed at home. They started again after the
crops were planted and ran until it was time to harvest, when
they closed again. They studied the old Blue Back Speller and
later the Dictionary. Arithmetic, grammar, history and geo-
graphy were also taught. When the one -teacher school was fin-
kroject #-1655
Chlotilde R. Martin
13eaufort County
Page 8
ished, those who amid afford it, sent their children into town
to board and attend school.
Churches were small frame structures located four and five
miles away. There was no way to heat the buildings but ser-
vices were held in winter as well as summer. Bach church usual-
ly had two services a month and although the Cummings? family
were Baptists, they attended the Methodist church just as often
as they did their own. Sunday School was held every Sunday
afternoon beneath a brush arbor built for the purpose. It was
a mile away from the plantation by the side of a little creek
called Rice Patch. The creek was crossed by a foot log and the
children thought it great fun to cross on this log.
Roads were built for teams and while fairly good in nice
weather, they were pretty bad when it rained. They were worked
by the men of the countryside. Ilach month the road supervisor
would call out a certain number of men to work the roads and
those who did not wish to work themselves had to hire somebody
else to work for them, or else forfeit the right to vote.
Mr. Cummings owned only a few slaves and since slaves were
expensive to own, he believed it to his advantage to treat them
well in order to get the most interest out of his investment.
The slaves lived in small, two -room cabins very much like the
Negro cabins of today. -g'ach family had its own cabin, furnish-
ed with beds, tables, benches and other necessary furniture.
The clothfbr their clothing was woven by Mrs. Cummings with the
Project #-1655
ahlotilde R. Martin
Beaufort County
Page 9
assistance of her daughters and the slave women. When the
cloth was made, she cut the garments and gave them to the slave
mothers to sew under her direction. The house slaves ate in
the house, the same food being served them as was served the
family. The others were given regular supplies of grits, meal,
rice, potatoes, meat, molasses, etc. They were not taught to
read and write but were given religious instruction on Sunday
afternoons, when they mistress usually read the Bible and talk-
ed to them. When they were ill they were given the same medi-
cine as she gave her children and if they did not respond at
home treatment the doctor was called. The children of the
slaves played with the Ahite children of the house and many a
good time they had, too, Mrs. Doane recalls.
Mrs. Doane remembers her father coming itome from the war,
six months after the conflict had ended, he had been in prison,
and had to walk all the way home from the prison camp. She re-
members that he would not come into the house until he had wash-
ed and changed his clothes in one of the outhouses on the place
as he was covered with vermin. She recalls hearing him tell of
a profitable little trading business he had developed while in
prison. His initial stock consisted of some knitted gloves,
socks and other articles which his wife had sent him. It had
been very cold that winter and these warm articles of clothing
were in great demand. ter father's brother had been killed dur-
ing a battle in Virginia. The flag had been shot down and he
Project #-1655
Chlotilde R. Martin
Beaufort County
Page 10
was the third man killed while attempting to run it up again.
In Mrs. Deanefs neighborhood there was no KU -Klux -Klan, nor
was there any trouble with the Negroes during Reconstruction.
She went to sehoel in Walterboro during that time and remembers,
however, that there was great excitement one night when it was
rumored that the Negroes ef the place planned to uprise against
the whites. Fortunately, nothing came of it, though. She re-
members hearing her father complain of the hard and unfair
military rule at Walterbore.
Sources Mrs. I. E. Doane, 81 years old, zeaufort, S. C.