University of Virginia Library

LETTER XXXII.

This will be the last letter I shall address you from
this state, as to-morrow we re-embark at Natehez on our
voyage to New Orleans. In this letter I shall touch upon
an interesting subject, suggested by a visit which we all
made yesterday to a neighboring estate to dine. It was
at the residence of one of the old families, whose American
origin dates back to the Spanish times. Everything
was in the most unexceptionable style. But there was
one thing which I did not like, and will tell you frankly
what it was. I knew that in the family was a young lady of
great mental accomplishments and personal beauty, from
the North, who was a governess, or, as it is termed here,
“teacher” in the family, and having known her in New
England, I was anticipating no little pleasure in meeting
her on this occasion. Not seeing her at dinner, upon
inquiring of the lady of the mansion for her, she answered
me that “she was in her study-room, and that
she never came to the table when guests were present.
She at such times takes her meals in her room.”

Here then I found an educated girl of twenty, whose
grandfather has left a glorious name on the page of
American history, whose father has been a member of
Congress, treated as an inferior, placed on a level with

a housekeeper, because left a destitute orphan, she chose
rather to teach than be dependent on relatives.

“I will send a servant for her if you wish to see her,”
added the lady coldly.

“No,” I said, “I will see her in her room.”

I was escorted by a servant across a noble hall hung
with fine pictures, and supported by corinthian columns,
to a wing of the villa. He knocked at a polished walnut
door. It was opened by my lovely friend, who, on recognizing
me, almost shrieked with joy, and clasped me
to her heart. The door was closed, and we were soon
engaged in conversation. Upon my expressing my regret
at the false position which she held there, she smiled,
(sadly, I thought,) and replied—

“It is not altogether disagreeable, as I do not wish to
mingle in society where the ladies, however polite, would
regard me as not their full equal; so I prefer dining in
my room: though to tell you the truth, I am never invited
at the dinner parties; nor when invitations are sent
for the family am I included; and if I go, it is expected
I shall keep an eye on my two sweet little pupils.
Teaching here is by some families looked upon as beneath
`position,' as the phrase is. But I am content
to endure all this neglect for the emoluments, which are
seven hundred dollars per annum, which enable me to
send four hundred dollars yearly to my mother, who has
need of all the aid I can render her. With the balance,
save what I absolutely require for my own use, I am
paying a debt left by my father. For these advantages
I am content to hold an apparently inferior position. I
have no pride, dear Kate. Reverses have made me
humble.” Such is the true position, Mr. —, of the

governess in the more fashionable Southern families.
But in some she is regarded as an equal. Usually she
holds a place midway between the lady of the mansion,
and the overseer's wife. Too far above one to be her
companion, and too much beneath the other, she has an
isolated position, under which the spirits of the most
cheerful girl will by and by give way. Even her pupils
feel themselves her superiors. She can never marry here;
for the gentleman would not address “a teacher,” and
with her education and refinement she can marry no one
beneath a gentleman. This line of distinction between
the governess and the mother of the young children she
teaches is more strongly defined in the older and more
aristocratic families. Indeed it is in some of them quite
as distinct as in the families of the nobility in England,
where, all readers of romance have learned, the governess
never associates on terms of equality with the
family. But there are many families of planters who
do not live in so much style and exclusiveness, where a
teacher would feel at home, and be treated with affection
and respect; but she is the “teacher” still, in the eyes
of the neighborhood. A plain planter's family is the
best to teach in, let me say to such aspirants for places
as governesses as may read this letter. To be sure the
eclat of being in a very rich, stylish family, in a large,
superbly-furnished mansion, is a temptation that ensnares
the inexperienced; but let me tell such that, the
higher the fashion of the family, the lower will be the
station of the governess, and the more she will be made
to feel her position. Much, however, depends on the
young lady herself. True refinement will always find
respect; while vulgarity or brusqueness of manner will
meet its level.

There are, however, in all pursuits and avocations
“disagreeables.” No condition of industry is free from
them; and this is one of the privations and disagreeables
those young ladies who seek situations in Southern
families must take with the situation. Teaching here is
looked upon as a trade, both in males and females. For
a Southern lady to teach as a governess, she loses caste
with many, though not, of course, with the sensible and
right minded. I know a lady with two grown daughters
who has a school not far from Vicksburg, who will not
let her daughters assist her in teaching, lest it should be
an obstacle in the way of their marrying en regle. This
woman understands the character of the people. Now
in New England, teaching is regarded directly the reverse.
Our teachers there are a part of the “respectability”
of society. Our professors are aristocrats.
Some of our first ladies have been teachers when girls.
In a word, a New England mind can scarcely comprehend
how teaching youth can be looked upon as a lowering
vocation.

The gentlemen who teach in the South as private
tutors, are placed exactly in the same position as the
governesses. I am told that a gentleman, who has since
left a brilliant name for genius behind him, was tutor for
two years in a distinguished private family near New
Orleans, and in all that time was never an invited guest
at any dinner party in the house. When the planter
has furnished him a room, a horse, and his meals, and
paid him his salary, all obligations are considered discharged
towards the “teacher.” Professors in colleges

in the South are often called “teachers,” and the wife
of a president is but the “teacher's wife.” In a word,
no body is really aristocratic but the wealthy cotton-planter.

The number of private tutors of both sexes throughout
the South is very great. The distance at which planters
dwell from towns renders it incumbent on them to employ
teachers at home. The situation is pleasant or unpleasant
according to the family and the disposition of the
tutor. If he or she, for the sake of laying up something,
is willing to endure privation, and even “to lose position,”
for a year or two, why these trifles can be borne. The
usual salary for a young lady is four hundred and fifty to
five and six hundred dollars with board. Some receive
more, especially as in the case of my fair friend, if music
and French be included. Latin is sometimes required,
but not often. In general, the planters keep their daughters
under governesses till they are fourteen, and then
send them to some celebrated school, North or South,
to remain a year or two to graduate. The sons, also,
at eighteen, and often earlier, are dispatched to Northern
colleges. Few daughters “finish off” at home. Since
the recent agitation upon the slavery question, the Mississippians
are disposed to be shy of Northern teachers,
and fewer will be employed.

In one county here, at a public meeting, resolutions
were passed that no teacher should be employed who was
not born South, or was not a Northern man with Southern
principles. The good people of New England have
contributed to close an avenue to preferment, South, for
their educated sons and daughters, by their injudicious

interposition between Southerners and their institution.[1]
It will be difficult, indeed, to find Southern born young
ladies and gentlemen who will teach, and thus prevent
the necessity of depending on the North; but there will
be, for a long time, a reluctance to employ New England
teachers; and thousands, who would have found employment
on the ten thousand Southern plantations, will be
excluded. It will be one benefit to the South. Its youth
will prepare themselves to be teachers, and this despised
vocation will become honorable.

In my own case, I have not felt the sense of inferiority
attached to a governess. The family in which I have
so long dwelt at Overton Park have too much refinement,
education, and good sense to think any less of me
for being a teacher. Indeed, I am as agreeably situated
as if I were an honored relative, and feel like a daughter
rather than a governess. If the situation of all who
teach in families was like mine, teaching would be the
most delightful occupation one could choose.

Great attention is paid here to the manly education
of boys. They are taught to ride fearlessly and sit a
horse well. The two sons of the gentleman, eleven and
thirteen years old, where we are now visiting, ride up to
Natchez three times a week, to take fencing lessons, boxing
lessons, and lessons in dancing. They are also taught
pistol and rifle shooting. The eldest son, who has just
turned his nineteenth year, has displayed to me for my
amusement, some surprising exhibitions of his skill. With
a pistol, I saw him shoot three humble-bees on the wing,
at six paces distant. He will do this all day without
scarcely missing a shot. With a double-barreled shot-gun,

I have seen him repeatedly, to-day, hit two oranges
which he threw into the air together, firing right and
left, and putting balls through both before they touched
the ground. He has an old gun which he calls “Sharp's
rifle,” with which I saw him shoot and bring to the ground,
a vulture that was flying so high, it seemed no bigger
than a sparrow. I was admiring the plumage of a beautiful
red bird which was perched on the top of an oak,
when he sent in for his rifle, and before I could prevent
him he had taken its head off with a rifle ball and brought
it to me saying, quietly, “There it is—you see it is a cardinal.”
If he goes out shooting, he disdains to kill birds
at rest; but first starts them up and assuredly brings
them down on the wing. This evening, he threw up two
quarter-of-a-dollar pieces, and hit them both in the air with
a double-barreled pistol. Yet this thorough-bred marksman
is an intellectual, pale, oval-faced young man, with
long, flowing hair, a slight moustache, and the elegant, indolent
manners of a Chestnut street lounger. His eye is
quiet, and his demeanor gentle, and one would hardly suppose,
to look at his almost effeminate form, that it would be
certain death to stand before him in a hostile rencontre.
It is this training which won for the immortal Mississippi
Rifles, in Mexico, their great celebrity; when a corps of
three hundred of them checked the advance of six thousand
Mexican cavalry, and turned the tide of battle.

I have just seen an Indian chief. He came to the
house, bringing five wild turkeys which he had shot. He
is a Choctaw, and yet bears in his independent carriage
some traces of his former free and wild life. He was
grave in aspect, and said but little. His rifle was tied
upon the stock with thongs of deer's hide; and had

a rusty flint lock. He had a powder-horn and shot-bag
of deerskin slung at his side; wore fringed leggings, moccasins,
and a blue hunting shirt. His black, coarse hair
was bound by an old red sash. He seemed to listen with
deep attention to the piano, but no change of countenance
betrayed emotion. He was much taken with my young
friend's “Sharp's rifle,” which he examined with great
care; and then made him a sign to shoot with it. Two
hundred and fifty yards distant, a crow was perched
upon a dead limb. The young man leveled his gun:
the Indian watched the result eagerly, yet with a slight
smile of incredulity. The crow fell to the earth simultaneously
with the report. The Indian clapped the rifle
on the barrel with a grunt of praise, and, taking the
marksman's hand, pressed it in token of fellowship in
hunter's skill. He fairly fell in love with the rifle, and
finally putting it down, walked away sadly towards the
forest where he had his camp.

I was then told by our host a very striking and touching
incident associated with him. A chapel was about
to be erected on a neighboring estate. The walls were
commenced, but the work of the first day was pulled
down in the night by an unknown hand. They were
recommenced, and the same thing occurred thrice. This
chief confessed that it was his act.

“You have covered with your prayer-house the grave
of my wife!” was the abrupt and touching reason he
gave. He was threatened if he interfered again. But
a fourth time the walls were destroyed, and, at length,
the sensibilities of the Indian were respected, and the
church erected a few feet farther south, when the devoted
husband gave no further molestations. What a subject

for a poem from the pen of Amelia, or some of our female
poetesses, or Prentice, or Park Benjamin!

My next letter will be written en voyage on our way to
New Orleans, where we hope to be by the day after to-morrow.
Till then, adieu.