I just finished Bessie's book and am also reading the more dense recollections of Sam McGill, both writings about their memories of Williamsburg County, SC. Roughly, you might say that they were written about times one and two centuries ago, respectively. Bessie regales us with a couple of Civil War anecdotes while Sam unravels yarns regarding Revolutionary War veterans.
Both frequently refer to 'Colored' or 'Negro' folks in the stories, which was not meant to be offensive in the slightest. In fact, I was impressed with how unprejudiced they seemed to be.
Societal conditions seemed fairly accepted by them, and Sam and Bessie were fairly privileged, but they both seemed to regard their black neighbors and slaves, in Sam's case, with a respect for human dignity.
Sam recounts a story of being out late and alone one night, in some fear of robbers he believed he had seen hiding just off the road. He tells of riding up to a wonderful home and being greeted by a man, who urges him, if he has time, to stay there for the night. Sam gushes, "Yes sir! thank you, sir! thank you, sir!" Only later does he relay that the man was 'Colored' and was a house servant. Perhaps it was common in the time, but I hadn't expected that the white upper class would term black slaves as 'sir'. It also seemed surprising that he didn't mention the man's skin color from the beginning, as I believe I expected white slaveholders to view black slaves as rather sub-human, and would therefore always precede 'man' with the important descriptor. Sam may have been particularly progressive, though, as he does relate that the master of the house referred to the slave as 'Son' when he instructed him to take care of Sam's things. Hmm, perhaps he was literally the master's 'son'--since we know about the common occurence of mulatto and quadroon house servants? Wouldn't be unheard of, though I wouldn't expect them to be so transparent about it--so probably not. I expect and initially perceived it to simply be a term of condescending endearment (and more what I initially expected from Sam himself).
Of racial interest in the same tale, Sam tells of how there was little traffic on the roads at the time between the self-sustaining plantations, then mentions offhandedly, "except for the Negro men with wives and families on other plantations". The separation of slave families is one of the horrors of slavery of which I have always been appalled, and I felt that horror subside greatly at the idea that this seemed to be very similar to the idea of 'commuting' to work. The white men of the time would also leave their families to go into town for a while to take care of business matters for part of the year.
I'm not trying to belittle the atrocities of slavery, but I was impressed that Sam would term a slave 'sir' and assume that of course the men slaves would head home to their families 'after work'. Sam seems to have a very human regard for slaves as people. Earlier in his book, he relates the distribution of the turkeys on Christmas, and the slaves received what sounded like an equal portion of both turkey and liquors, though of course we don't know if that was completely technically true, or if 'equal' meant that the Sam's own nuclear family received the exact same amount as dozens of slaves, perhaps? He seems to see them much as family, though any unfairness inherent in their slave condition seems to escape him (thus far in my readings, at least).
Bessie doesn't surprise me quite as much, but I did notice that when she related a tale about playing near some horses, that she named the other girls to include a black girl named Lula. Bessie also related a tale of a deranged black man named Ed, who was loved by her family and Gaynelle's family. Ed considered Bessie's and Gaynelle's family 'blood kin', and he took to patrolling the back alleys as part of the 'police force', which did keep them safe, in large part...until Ed lost his temper with someone and killed him. When Ed was committed to an asylum, Bessie's husband (a state senator) and Gaynelle's husband (the police chief) both visited the asylum to petition that poor Ed be granted some liberties beyond his room 'cell'. I could see no reason for this effort excepting their affection for poor Ed. Hmm...was he really 'blood kin'? Perhaps, but even so the warmth and affection seem real and pertinent to relate.
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