“No
sooner was the harvest over, than preparations for Christmas began.
Whole calves were barbequed, pigs roasted, while wild game and venison
were hunted. For days ahead there was much cooking of plum pudding,
fruit cakes, Sally White cakes, pies and all sorts of good things, (they
make your mouth water to think of them). The big Yule log was brought
in from the swamp the day before Christmas, where it had been soaking
for weeks, the alert darkies knowing that as long as it burned in the
“great house” they would stop working.
The
mansion was elaborately dressed with evergreens, while branches of
dried cedar dried hydrangea blooms were powdered with flour, making
feathery white blossoms, as if in summer time. The holly tree was
ornamented with long strings of popped corn, strung by the white and
colored children.
Early
Christmas morning the “Great House” was awakened by the singing of the
darkies and voices calling out – “Ch’mas gif’, master, “Ch’mas gif”,
mistress.” On the great tree were gifts for everyone on the plantation.
In the low country of the South the Negroes dressed themselves as
clowns, grotesque costumes (being known as “John Kunners”) and marched
around ringing bells, as the danced, singing – “Ch’mas comes but once a
year, hurrah Johnnie Kunner – give poor [Negro] one more cent, hurrah
John Kunner.” With the passing of their hats, pennies were dropped by
the “white folks.”
Words
fail to express the Christmas dinner of the old plantation. In front of
“Marster” was a roast pig (red apple in his mouth) or the largest
gobbler. Innumerable were the desserts or sweet – syllabub, custard,
trifle, wine jelly, cocoanut and lemon puddings, mince pies, every kind
of cake, and Snow Balls especially for the children.
With
the dinner, wines were served, made from the plantation scuppernong,
James or Catawba grapes, or from the luscious blackberry. In the
quarters was served a wonderful repast to the entire colored population,
and their gayeties were shown in dancing the “double shuffle,” the
“break down,” the “chicken in the bread tray,” and the “pigeon wing,”
followed by the “cake walk.” Up in the Mansion the family and guests
probably engaged in the Virginia Reel or other forms of dancing.
Until
New Years’ Day, the festivities would continue, a party at every
plantation within riding distance, each house overflowing with
merriment. A plantation Christmas would not be complete without a fox
hunt, for “to ride with the hounds” was one of the accomplishments
necessary to the planter and his sons. Space forbids further description
of the happiness of life on an antebellum plantation in the South, but
many of our Southern writers have given indelible pictures of the bond
between master and slave, which was unique, will go down as an example
of understanding affection. Without trying to condone the rare case of
unkindness from planters toward their slaves, on the whole they were
well treated and the hearts of the two races were closely knit in the
old plantation system.
There
was a personal interest in the heart of the planter and his family for
these dusky folks who belonged to them. And they had a pride in their
slaves that was reciprocated by them, who felt that their “White Folks”
were better than any others. In writing of the race problem (after the
Sixties) Henry W. Grady of Georgia said: “As I recall my old plantation
home, the spirit of my old Black Mammy from her home above the skies,
looks down to bless me, and through the tumult of the night the sweet
music of her crooning, as she held me in her arms and lead me smiling to
sleep.” One writer says: “The old plantation life is gone, but in that
era of the Old South were found the very finest and highest types of
loyalty and of patriotism that America will ever know.”
(Plantation Life in the Old South (excerpt), Lucy London Anderson, The Southern Magazine, May 1934, page 10)
The North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
