KENTUCKY

This was too much for the captain and pilot, who decided to retire till the unseasonable weather moderated. "Twenty-four hours spent in a little creek, to which we fell back to await the thaw," noted Beaumont. "The thaw doesn't come. The cold increases.**

"The captain makes up his mind to set us on the shore, which we approach by breaking the ice little by little, thus opening a passage for our boat. Disembarked at West-Port, small village in Kentucky, situated at about twenty-five miles from Louisville. Impossible to find either carriage or horses to carry us to Louisville; necessary to make the journey on foot; our luggage thrown into a cart with which we keep pace. We march all day through the woods in a half-foot of snow. America is still nothing but a forest. ..."

"A great jovial pioneer of the neighborhood," according to Tocqueville, had "offered to carry our trunks to Louisville in his cart. Our traveling companions, to the number of ten, came to the same decision, and there we were all marching, on foot, in the midst of the woods and mountains of Kentucky, where a loaded wagon had never been since the beginning of the world. It got through, however, thanks to the good shoulder shoves and the daring spirit of our driver; but we were marching in the snow, and it was up to our knees. This manner of travelling finally became so fatiguing that our companions began to abandon us one after the other."

It was small wonder. Even hardened westerners might balk at having to walk 25 miles, through six inches of snow, and all in one day. For the slender Tocqueville it must have been a real hardship. One cannot help noticing that for him Beaumont's "half-foot" of snow seemed "up to the knees." Yet when travelling, or when he had set out to do something, it was not his custom to stop. "Repose was antipathetic to his nature" there was no use arguing with him, Beaumont well knew.

So now it did not seem to occur to Tocqueville to imitate their American companions. "As for us," he concluded his account of the incident, "we stuck to our point, and finally arrived in Louisville, toward nine o'clock in the evening."

(Pierson, p. 575)

[** Pierson noted in a footnote that Beaumont may have recreated some of the details when he was later writing about this incident. His original diary was never found. The 24 hours spent on the boat, for example, is questionable according to other dates given.]

[written] Dec. 6, 1831

(Pierson, p. 566)

"This information having been given us by those most worthy of confidence, we did not hesitate, and we left Louisville for Memphis. One hundred and fifty leagues, about, separate the two towns; the journey had to be made by the most abominable roads, in the most infernal carriages, and above all in the most unbelievable cold you can possibly imagine: the order of nature seemed to have been turned upside down just for us. Tennessee is almost beneath the latitude of the Sahara desert in Africa. Cotton and all the exotic plants are grown there. And when we were crossing it, it was freezing at I5ø; nothing like it had ever been seen. ..."

It had been a horrible journey of two days and two nights. But worse was to come. On reaching Nashville Beaumont learned "with anguish" that the Cumberland was frozen over.

(Pierson, p. 577)

Q. They say that the prosperity of Louisville has mad great strides in the last few years?
A. Immense. When I came to settle here seven years ago Louisville had only 3,000 inhabitants; it reckons 13,000 today. At the moment I by myself do more trade than the whole of Louisville was doing seven years ago.

Q. Why has there been such a rapid increase?
A. Principally the incredible flow of emigration which is directed towards the West. Louisville has become the entrepot for almost all the goods that go up the Mississippi to provide for the emigrants. I think that Louisville is destined to become a very large town.

Q. Is it true that there is a great distance between the prosperity of Kentucky and that of Ohio?
A. Yes. The difference is striking.

Q. What is the reason?
A. Slavery. I think that slavery is even more prejudicial to the masters than to the slaves. The slaves in Kentucky are treated very gently, well fed, well clothed. Nothing is more uncommon than to see them flee from their master's house. But slavery prevents emigrants from coming to us. It deprives us of the energy and spirit of enterprise that characterize the States that have no slaves.

Q. Is it true that slavery prevents a State from becoming industrialized?
A. Many people think that the Negroes cannot become good workers in factories. I hold the opposite view. When blacks are placed young in a factory, they are as apt as the whites to become good workmen. We have an example of that in Kentucky; several factories, worked by slaves, prosper there. If the South is not as industrialized as the North, that is not because slaves cannot work in factories, it is because slavery deprives the masters of the necessary industry to establish and manage them.

Q. Is it true that public opinion begins to be against slavery in Kentucky?
A. Yes. In the last few years there has been an incredible mental revolution. I am convinced that if one canvassed opinions man by man in Kentucky, the majority would come out for the abolition of slavery. But we do not know what to do with the slaves. Our fathers did us terrible harm by introducing them among us.

Q. But since opinion is so decidedly against slavery, why did Missouri obstinately refuse to abolish it, when it was so easy to do so?
A. At that time the mental revolution of which I was speaking just now, had by no means come about. Besides it is so convenient for new emigrants to have slaves to help them cut the trees and clear the ground in a country where it is hardly possible to find free labor, so it is understandable that the distant benefit of the abolition of slavery was not felt at its true value in Missouri. I think, too, that now they feel the mistake they made.

Q. Is the black population increasing fast in Kentucky?
A. Yes, but it can never become dangerous for the white population. The land in Kentucky is divided into small holdings; on each small holding there is a white family with a few slaves. The division of land and the type of cultivation which requires few slaves, prevents us having hundreds of Negroes cultivating the land of one white man as one sees in the South. With us slavery is a great evil, but not a peril.

Q. What is cultivated in Kentucky?
A. Corn, wheat, flax, tobacco.

Q. Do you think that for those various crops, slaves would be more economical than free labor?
A. I think the opposite. Slaves work less well than free laborers, and also they are an expense the whole time. They must be brought up, and supported in their old age.

(Tocqueville, p. 92)