A Southern Woman Reacts to Lincoln’s Election
KEZIAH GOODWIN HOPKINS BREVARDM, Diary (1860–1861)
Born and raised in South Carolina, Keziah Brevard was an educated and determined woman. Widowed in 1842, she managed and expanded her late husband’s estate, becoming one of the region’s leading planters, cultivating more than 2,600 acres with the labor of 209 enslaved African Americans. In her diary from late 1860 and early 1861, she notes the election of President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican from Illinois. Like many southerners, her anxiety about Republican intentions toward the issue of slavery colored her reaction to Lincoln’s election and pushed her toward secession.
[September] 15th Saturday … This night, if reports are true, had been set apart to cut us off — Oh God, because we own slaves — Lord thou knowest our hearts — save us for a calmer end & let us never cease to think & to bless thee for thy loving kindness — Lord, save this our good country & make us all & every one, bond & free, to love thee & do thy will as good servants — we are all thy servants — all in thy hands — Oh save us.
18 … Oh my God I have so many little things to unnerve me — I wish I was prepared to die & could go to my God. I wish to be kind to my negroes — but I receive little but impudence from Rosanna & Sylvia — it is a truth if I am compelled to speak harshly to them — after bearing every thing from them I get impudence — Oh my God give me fortitude to do what is right to these then give me firmness to go no farther — At my death it is my solemn desire that Tama — Sylvia — Mack — Maria & Rosanna be sold — I cannot think of imposing such servants on any one of my heirs.
[October] 13th Saturday … — it is time for us to shew the rabble of the North we are not to be murdered in cold blood because we own slaves — there are no doubts but thousands would have prefered being born in this beautiful country without the encumbrance — but they have been transmitted down to us & what can we do with them? — free such a multitude of half barbarians in our midst — no — no — we must sooner give up our lives than submit to such a degradation — From the time I could reason with myself I wished there was a way to get rid of them — but not free them in our midst yet. They are not prepared for freedom, many of them set no higher value on themselves than the beasts of the field do — I know a family in five miles of me where there are six women who have & have had children for thirty years back & not one of them but have [been] bastards & only one ever had a husband.…That wretch John Brown — if he had come as one of christ’s Apostles & preached down sin he might have been the instrument of good — but he come to cut our throats because we held property we could not do otherwise with — was preposterous — Did God set the children of Israel to cutting their masters’ throats to flee [free] them from bondage — no — no — he brought them out of Egypt in his own peculiar way & he can send Africa’s sons & daughters back when he knows they are ready for their exode. I own many slaves & many of the females are of the lowest cast — making miserable their own fellow servants by medling with the husbands of others — …This is a dirty subject — & had I not thought of those cruel abolitionists who wish to free such people in our midst I would not have spoken this truth here.
[9th November] Oh My God!!! This morning heard that Lincoln was elected — I had prayed that God would thwart his election in some way & I prayed for my Country — Lord we know not what is to be the result of this — but I do pray if there is to be a crisis — that we all lay down our lives sooner than free our slaves in our midst — no soul on this earth is more willing for justice than I am, but the idea of being mixed up with free blacks is horrid!! I must trust in God that he will not forget us as unworthy as we are — Lord save us — I would give my life to save my Country. I have never been opposed to giveing up slavery if we could send them out of our Country — …but the die is cast — “Caesar has past the Rubicon.”1 We now have to act, God be with us is my prayer & let us all be willing to die rather than free our slaves in their present uncivilized state.
[December] Monday 10th…I hope & trust in God as soon as Secession is carried out — we of the South begin to find a way to get all the Negroes sent back to Africa & let the generations to come after us live in more peace than we do — I can’t see how we are ever to be safe with them in our midst — I wish every soul of them were in Africa contented in their own homes — let us begin on corn bread & live in peace & security — as long as they are here & number so many more than the whites there is no safety any way — Men of the South — I fear our end is near & the Yankeys will glory over their work. I do hate a Northern Abolitionist — Lord forgive me — but who can love those whose highest ambition is to cut our throats.
28 Friday Mrs. James H. Adams with Janie, Laura, Carry, Ellen & Jim spent the day with Goodwyn & myself — Randy’s little Jane with them. They brought this morning’s paper with them, the “Guardian,” from it we read that Ft. Moultrie2 had been evacuated on the 27th & the Ft. was on fire at 5 O’clock thursday evening. God alone knows the design of it — we are all in the dark as to the future — Oh that this strife could be ended for the good of the whole country — I know not what to think, certainly awful troubles seem hanging over us —
[January] Thursday 10 … Last night we received the news of the Star of the West — from Charleston — O God put it into the hearts of the Northern people to do right & let us once more shew to the world we can yield to all that is right in thy sight — We have never invaded Northern rights — all we want is right in its plainest sense.
Wednesday 30 Oh my God I see nothing ahead but trouble — Our country will pass from bad to worse — the South never would be united or it might have sent Douglass [Stephen Douglas] instead of Lincoln — if she could have been united ’twould have been far better for her — I do hope if we have Civil war — that God will take me before the first drop of blood is shed — O God canst thou, wilt thou not spare us — I do not say we deserve it — no — no — slavery ever will make trouble I care not where found — I wish I had been born without them with a sufficiency to keep me from want in as good a country as this with our liberal religion —
February 28th … Now what of my country? — a few short days & we shall hear from Lincoln’s lips what we may expect — if he makes war on us the whole body of men No. & So. should rise against him & make a blow at the man himself who would dare to bring such trouble on this land won by the blood of our fore fathers from British encroachments. If the N. should be let loose on us, the fanatics will run mad with joy & tongues cannot tell where the scene will end — if ever, until a dark age sinks the nation into brutes — … I thank the Heavenly Father I have never had a son to mix my blood with negro blood — Oh such a sin would [be] & is disheartening to Christian Mothers —
Monday [March] 4th … I pray that Lincoln’s administration may disappoint his friends & his opposers — his friends are black republicans, our enemies — they must have dreadful hearts to wish to cut our throats because we are sinners — as if they were pure & undefiled — no surer sign of what deceivers they are than to see how self conceited they are — God can punish every sinner & will do it — perhaps many of them may yet have their eyes opened to the enormity of their own sins — if not in this world [then] in the next. Blessed be the Lord God Almighty who will make each answer for their own sins — & this will be like millstones to many deceivers. Thankful I am that I have a just God to go before & not Northern fanatics nor black Republicans — Lord let me have right feelings towards them because it [is] thy will, we should forgive our enemies. ’Tis hard for us to feel right towards those who sent John Brown (that Devil) to cut our throats —
April 2nd … O Lord let me not murmur — I am sorry our once strong country is now severed & I believe forever — for I see no disposition in the stubborn North to yield any thing from advantage — & the South thought she would make the North succumb to her — I never thought it — & have ever thought we have began troubles for ourselves & cannot see how we are to be one tittle better off than we were — if all the South had gone united we might have maintained ourselves — but six states only — we are doomed I fear to be the division of the Old United States. O my God help us — help us — Let me not live to see these six states disagree & I fear it very much.
April 3rd Wednesday … I still fear So. Ca. cannot be pleased — I do not love her disposition to cavil at every move — My heart has never been in this breaking up of the Union — but if we could be united lovingly & firmly, I will cling to my dear native land — for I love my country — but I hate contention: — too many are waiting for the loaves & fishes, South as well as North —
[April 11] How thankful I am — my Country is still spared — Lord save us & make us better — I pray that all things will be ordered for peace. How changeable my feelings are — sometimes buoyed with a hope of good times (this is momentary), then I can see & hear nothing to hang my hopes on — Why are they stubborn about the forts if they have any thought of reconciliation?
[13th April] Spent Sunday at home — had two little negroes sick — sent for Dr Taylor — he came in the afternoon & gave me the news from Charleston — Said Ft. Sumpter had been taken — Col. Anderson surrendered — he lost 9 or ten men — So. Ca. not one — Oh my God I thank thee for spareing blood here — Lord ’twas hard the citizens of Charleston should be rendered so miserable by that Fort — I am thankful it is no longer there a terror, but Oh my God we may still tremble for we have enemies in our midst — Oh God send them away to a land they love better than ours & Oh devise a way for our peace & safety & let the praise be thine — for who can doubt but thou didst so order it. A few months ago & ’twas said man could not take Ft. Sumpter unless walking over five or ten thousand dead — it has been taken — & not one life lost of those who aided in taking it — My God the work is thine & if we serve the[e] truthfully thou wilt save us — Oh save us & make us still a united contented people — we wish no ill to the North — all we ask is that they leave us to ourselves or gra[n]t us privileges & laws that will protect us — My God be with all thy dear Children — Oh how desolate many are now — Husbands & sons gone to the scenes of war — to save their [country].
Glenn M. Linden, Voices from the Gathering Storm: The Coming of the American Civil War (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2001), 222–227.
READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS