The South Carolina Gazette, as with many of the colonial newspapers, is full of poetry. As one of the only sources of literary work for many of the colonists, the poetry served a relevant role for the readers. However, the use of poetry in the newspaper was often filler. The writers of these poems were various gentlemen who dabbled in verse writing as a way of making themselves seem more like British gentlemen. In South Carolina the interest in poetry was not tied to a push for education as it was in the Northern colonies. Southern poets most often wrote about contemporary affairs or made disparaging remarks about America, a pattern not shown with such frequency in Northern poetry.
The poem “The Cameleon Lover” fits with the precedent for critiquing society. The anonymous writer chastises the wealthy white men for having affairs with their African slave women. The writer is working under the socially accepted view that darker skin reflected a particularly sinful soul, and as a result, black slaves were considered tainted by sin. This first poem expresses a disapproval of the white slave owners sleeping with their black slaves because the black women would sully the purity of the slave owner. From a modern perspective, the racial prejudiced of the writer is apparent, but this perspective would not have been objectionable in the early eighteenth century readers. In fitting with the same model as the articles by and about the meddlers, the second poem is a direct response to the first. However, with the poem “The Cameleon’s Defence,” the author under the name Sable argues that these men have their faults but are overall still good people. The author’s choice of pseudonym is significant because the word sable, often referring to brown skin or hair, suggests that he is a slave owner who has had relations with his slaves, and according to the accusation of the previous poem, he is now dark himself. He has based his argument on a claim that wise men often fall victim to love. “Sable” claims that love is the monarch that none have authority over. Yet, as a white master the more realistic situation than the romanticized idea from the poem would be that he forced his female slave or slaves to sleep with him. The poem reprimands the “The Cameleon Lover” for being too judgmental because a man cannot control the love in his heart.
The final poem takes a more political topic as it deals with opinions that some South Carolinians had toward the colony of Georgia. “The Petition” introduces a sentiment of disagreement with the colony of Georgia, which would eventually lead to a dispute over boarders that ended with the Treaty of Beaufort in 1787. The poem takes the voice of the Georgian colonists in order to make the statement that many South Carolinians felt that Georgians were lazy. After the South Carolinians had given support and finances to Georgia, eventually their enthusiasm for their neighbor colony dwindled and negative sentiments arose. Many of the published materials that appeared in the South Carolina Gazette dealt with politics. Although the newspaper would have been censored for any article or poem against the South Carolina government or the British, critique of another colony seems not to have been objectionable.
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From SC Gazette March 11, 1732
“The Cameleon Lover”
If what the Curious have observ’d be true,
That the Cameleon will assume the Hue
Of all the Objects that approach its Touch;
No Wonder then, that the Amours of such
Whose Taste betrays them to a close Embrace
With the dark Beauties of the Sable Race,
(Stain’d with the Tincture of the Sooty Sin,)
Imbibe the Blackness of their Charmer’s Skin.
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From SC Gazette March 18, 1732:
“The Cameleon’s Defence” by Sable
All Men have Follies, which they blindly trace
Thro’ the dark Turnings of a dubious Maze:
But happy those, who, by a prudent Care,
Retreat betimes, from the fallacious Snare.
The eldest Sons of Wisdom were not free,
From the same Failure you condemn in Me.
If as the Wisest of the Wise have err’d,
I go astray and am condemn’d unheard,
My Faults you too severely reprehend,
More like a rigid Censor than a Friend.
Love is the Monarch of Passion of the Mind,
Knows no Superior, by no Laws confin’d;
But triumphs still, impatient of Controul,
O’er all the proud Endowments of the Soul.
From SC Gazette Oct. 19,1734:
October the 10th, 1734
THE PETITION of some of the Inhabitants of the
Province of G—–a, to the P[rovince] of S. C——a
SHEWETH, That
Your petitioners being reduc’d to a wretched Condition
To you our known friends make our humble Petition
That as you have done you would further proceed
And furnish u still with whatever we’ve need,
Provide us with bread, with beef and with pork
For we’ve never the least Inclination to work,
Let us have a good store both for use and for pleasure
We imagine there’s money enough in your treasure,
And that it will very well answer you ends
To bestow it on us your poor lady friends
Who to earn our own bread have no more inclination
Than we have to earn bread for the whole English nation.
“The Cameleon Lover” and “The Cameleon’s Defense” were used from Kenneth Silverman’s Colonial American Poetry. “THE PETITION” was found in Hennig Cohen’s The South Carolina Gazette.