poor white man from de norf, an a Yankee at
daat."

Among the blacks I find existing an antipathy towards what they are
pleased to call "poor white men"--individuals who do not possess slave
or landed property. The phrase itself expresses this antipathy; and
when applied by a negro to a white man is regarded by the latter as a
dire insult, and usually procures for the imprudent black a scoring with
the "cowskin," or a slight "rubbing down" with the "oil of hickory."

Among the slaves there is a general impression that their most
tyrannical "overseers" are from the New England States, or "Yankees," as
they are called in the South. This term, which foreigners apply
contemptuously to all Americans, in the United States has a restricted
meaning; and when used reproachfully it is only applied to natives of
New England. At other times it is used jocularly in a patriotic spirit;
and in this sense every American is proud to call himself a Yankee.
Among the southern blacks, "Yankee" is a term of reproach, associated in
their minds with poverty of fortune, meanness of spirit, wooden nutmegs,
cypress hams, and such-like chicanes. Sad and strange to say, it is
also associated with the whip, the shackle, and the cowhide. Strange,
because these men are the natives of a land peculiarly distinguished for
its Puritanism! A land where the purest religion and strictest morality
are professed.

This would seem an anomaly, and yet perhaps it is not so much an anomaly
after all. I had it explained to me by a Southerner, who spoke thus:--

"The countries where Puritan principles prevail are those which produce
vice, and particularly the smaller vices, in greatest abundance. The
villages of New England--the foci of blue laws and Puritanism.--furnish
the greatest number of the _nymphes du pave_ of New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and New Orleans; and even furnish a large export of them to
the Catholic capital of Cuba! From the same prolific soil spring most
of the sharpers, quacks, and cheating traders, who disgrace the American
name. This is not an anomaly. It is but the inexorable result of a
pseudo-religion. Outward observance, worship, Sabbath-keeping, and the
various forms, are engrafted in the mind; and thus, by complicating the
true duties which man owes to his fellow-man, obscure or take precedence
of them. The latter grow to be esteemed as only of secondary
importance, and are consequently neglected."

The explanati