But we were constantly told that the plantation hands in the interior were a different order of beings. We saw many plantation hands, as on the Sea Islands, and at numerous other points, who were the superiors in good-breeding, and not much the inferiors in education, of many of the “poor whites;”[41] but these, we were always assured, were only the smart ones, who knew enough to run away. Could we but see the stupid residuum still in the interior, who constituted the vast majority, we would form radically changed notions as to their fitness for any right of a citizen, or, indeed, for taking care of themselves at all. It was not till some months later that I was to see this stupid residuum. Till then, I may fitly leave its description in the language of those who professed to know it best. But of the great masses of negroes whom we did see in May and June, two general statements may safely be made: They were as orderly, quiet, and industrious as any other class of the population;[42] and, They were far more eager than any others to secure the advantages of education for themselves, and especially for their children. ----- Footnote 41: I have several times spoken of this class. Lest it should be thought that I am exaggerating their condition, let me quote the description of a writer against whom no accusation of prejudice, or lack of familiarity with the subject, can be brought. Mrs. Fanny Kemble Butler says of the poor whites, on page 146 of her Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation, (to wit, that of her husband): “They are, I suppose, the most degraded race of human beings claiming an Anglo-Saxon origin, that can be found on the face of the earth—filthy, lazy, ignorant, brutal, proud, penniless savages, without one of the nobler attributes that have been found occasionally allied to the vices of savage nature. They own no slaves, for they are, almost without exception, abjectly poor; they will not work, for that, as they conceive, would reduce them to an equality with the abhorred negroes; they squat, and steal, and starve on the outskirts of the lowest of all civilized societies, and their countenances bear witness to the squalor of their condition and the degradation of their natures.” Fortunately, this class is confined almost exclusively to the Eastern slaveholding States. Footnote 42: This statement is literally true, but, without another, it might convey a wrong impression. The negroes were everywhere found quiet, respectful, and peaceable; they were the only class at work; and in, perhaps, most respects, their outward conduct was that of excellent citizens. But they _would_ steal. Petty pilfering seemed as natural to three-fourths of them as eating. Our officers and missionaries thought they saw some reformation in this respect; but there was still abundance of room for more. CHAPTER XXXI.