It was manifest that I was now in a country where the life of a black
man was no more regarded than that of an ox, except as far as the man
was worth the more money in the market. On all the plantations that we
passed, there was a want of live stock of every description, except
slaves, and they were deplorably abundant.
The fields were destitute of everything that deserved the name of grass,
and not a spear of clover was anywhere visible. The few cattle that
existed, were browsing on the boughs of the trees, in the woods.
Everything betrayed a scarcity of the means of supplying the slaves, who
cultivated the vast cotton-fields, with a sufficiency of food. We
traveled this day more than thirty miles, and crossed the Catawba river
in the afternoon, on the bottoms of which I saw, for the first time,
fields of rice, growing in swamps covered with water. Causeways were
raised through the low-lands in which the rice grew, and on which the
road was formed on which we traveled. These rice-fields, or rather
swamps, had, in my eyes, a beautiful appearance. The rice was nearly two
feet in height above the water, and of a vivid green color, covering a
large space, of at least a hundred acres. Had it not been for the water,
which appeared stagnant and sickly, and swarmed with frogs and thousands
of snakes, it would have been as fine a sight as one need wish to look
upon. After leaving the low grounds along the river, we again entered
plantations of cotton, which lined the roads on both sides, relieved,
here and there, by corn-fields and potato-patches. We stopped for the
night at a small tavern, and our master said we were within a day's
journey of Columbia.
We here, again, received boiled rice for supper, without salt, or any
kind of seasoning; a pint was allotted to each person, which we greedily
devoured, having had no dinner to-day, save an allowance of corn-cakes,
with the fat of about five pounds of bacon, extracted by frying, in
which we dipped our bread. I slept soundly after this day's march, the
fatigues of the body having, for once, overcome the agitations of the
mind. The next day, which was, if my recollection is accurate, the ninth
of June, was the last of our journey before our company separated; and
we were on the road before the stars had disappeared from the sky. Our
breakfast, this morning, consisted of bacon soup, a dish composed of
corn-meal, boiled in water, with a small piece of bacon to give the soup
a taste of meat. For dinner we had boiled Indian peas, with a small
allowance of bacon. This was the first time that we had received two
rations of meat in the same day, on the whole journey, and some of our
party were much surprised at the kindness of our master; but I had no
doubt that his object was to make us look fat and hearty, to enable him
to obtain better prices for us at Columbia.
At supper this night, we had corn mush, in large wooden trays, with
melted lard to dip the mush in before eating it. We might have reached
Columbia this day if we had continued our march, but we stopped, at
least an hour before sun-set, about three miles from town, at the house
of a man who supported the double character of planter and keeper of a
house of entertainment; for I learned from his slaves that their master
considered it disreputable to be called a tavern-keeper, and would not
put up a sign, although he received pay of such persons as lodged with
him. His house was a frame building, weather-boarded with pine boards,
but had no plastering within. The furniture corresponded with the house
which contained it, and was both scanty and mean, consisting of pine
tables and wooden chairs, with bottoms made of cornhusks. The house was
only one story high, and all the rooms, six or seven in number, parlor,
bed-rooms, and kitchen, were on the first floor. As the weather was warm
and the windows open, I had an opportunity of looking into the sleeping
rooms of the family, as I walked round the house, which I was permitted
freely to do. The beds and their furniture answered well to the chairs
and tables; yet in the large front room I observed on an old fashioned
side-board, a great quantity of glass-ware, of various descriptions,
with two or three dozen silver spoons, a silver tea-urn, and several
knives and forks with silver handles. In the corner of this room stood a
bed with gaudy red curtains, with figures of lions, elephants, naked
negroes, and other representations of African scenery.
The master of the house was not at home when we arrived, but came in
from the field shortly afterwards. He met my master with the cordiality
of an old friend, though he had never seen him before; said he was happy
to see him at his house, and that the greatest pleasure he enjoyed was
derived from the entertainment of such gentlemen as thought proper to
visit his house; that he was always glad to see strangers, and more
especially gentlemen who were adding so much to the wealth and
population of Carolina, as those merchants who imported servants from
the North. He then observed that he had never seen a finer lot of
property pass his house than we were, and that any gentleman who brought
such a stock of hands into the country was a public benefactor, and
entitled to the respect and gratitude of every friend of the South. He
assured my master that he was happy to see him at his house, and that if
he thought proper to remain a few days with him, it would be his chief
business to introduce him to the gentlemen of the neighborhood, who
would all be glad to become acquainted with a merchant of his
respectability. In the State of Maryland, my master had been called a
_negro buyer, or Georgia trader_, sometimes a _negro driver_; but here,
I found that he was elevated to the rank of merchant, and a merchant of
the first order too; for it was very clear that in the opinion of the
landlord, no branch of trade was more honorable than the traffic in us
poor slaves. Our master observed that he had a mind to remain here a
short time, and try what kind of market Columbia would present, for the
sale of his lot of servants; and that he would make his house his home,
until he had ascertained what could be done in town, and what demand
there was in the neighborhood for servants. We were not called _slaves_
by these men, who talked of selling us, and of the price we would bring,
with as little compunction of conscience as they would have talked of
the sale of so many mules.
It is the custom throughout all the slave-holding States, amongst people
of fashion, never to speak of their negroes as slaves, but always as
servants; but I had never before met with the keeper of a public house,
in the country, who had arrived at this degree of refinement. I had been
accustomed to hear this order of men, and indeed the greater number of
white people speak of the people of color as _niggers_.
We remained at this place more than two weeks; I presume because my
master found it cheaper to keep us here than in town, or perhaps,
because he supposed we might recover from the hardships of our journey
more speedily in the country.
As it was here that my real acquaintance with South Carolina commenced,
I have noted with more particularity the incidents that occurred, than I
otherwise should have done. This family was composed of the husband,
wife, three daughters, all young women, and two sons, one of whom
appeared to be about twenty, and the other, perhaps seventeen years old.
They had nine slaves in all, one very old man, quite crooked with years
and labor--two men of middle age--one lad, perhaps sixteen--one woman
with three children, the oldest about seven,--and a young girl of twelve
or fourteen. The farm, or plantation, they lived on, contained about one
hundred and fifty acres of cleared land, sandy, and the greater part of
it poor, as was proved by the stinted growth of the cotton.
At the time of our arrival at this house, I saw no persons about it,
except the four ladies--the mother and her three daughters--the husband
being in the field, as noticed above. According to the orders of my
master, I had taken the saddle from his horse and put him in a stable;
and it was not until after the first salutations of the new landlord to
my master were over, that he seemed to think of asking him whether he
had come on foot, on horse-back, or in a coach. He at length, however,
turned suddenly and asked him, with an air of surprise, where he had
left his horses and carriage. My master said he had no carriage, that he
traveled on horse-back, and that his horse was in the stable. The
landlord then apologized for the trouble he must have had, in having his
horse put away himself; and said that at this season of the year, the
planters were so hurried by their crops, and found so much difficulty in
keeping down the grass, that they were generally obliged to keep all
their servants in the field; that for his part, he had been compelled to
put his coachman, and even the waiting-maids of his daughters into the
cotton-fields, and that at this time, his family were without servants,
a circumstance that had never happened before! "For my part," said he,
"I have always prided myself on bringing up my family well, and can
say, that although I do not live in so fine a house as some of the other
planters of Carolina, yet my children are as great ladies and gentlemen
as any in the state. Not one of them has ever had to do a day's work
yet, and as long as I live, never shall. I sent two of my daughters to
Charleston last summer, and they were there three months; and I intend
to send the youngest there this summer. They have all learned to dance
here in Columbia, where I sent them two quarters to a Frenchman, and he
made me pay pretty well for it. They went to the same dancing school
with the daughters of Wade Hampton and Colonel Fitzhugh. I am determined
that they shall never marry any but gentlemen of the first character,
and I know they will always follow my advice in matters of this kind.
They are prudent and sensible girls, and are not going to do as Major
Pollack's daughter did this spring, who ran away with a Georgia cracker,
who brought a drove of cattle for sale from the Indian country, and who
had not a _nigger_ in the world. He staid with me sometime, and wished
to have something to say to my second daughter, but the thing would not
do."
Here he stopped short in his narrative, and seeming to muse a moment,
said to his guest, "I presume, as you travel alone, you have no family."
"No," replied my master, "I am a single man." "I thought so by your
appearance," said the loquacious landlord, "and I shall be glad to
introduce you to my family this evening. My sons are two as fine fellows
as there are in all Carolina. My oldest boy is lieutenant in the
militia, and in the same company that marched with Gen. Marion in the
war. He was on the point of fighting a duel last winter, with young
M'Corkle in Columbia; but the matter was settled between them. You will
see him this evening, when he returns from the quoit-party. A
quoit-party of young bucks meet once every week about two miles from
this, and as I wish my sons to keep the best company, they both attend
it. There is to be a cock-fight there this afternoon, and my youngest
son, Edmund, has the finest cock in this country. He is one of the true
game blood,--the real Dominica game breed; and I sent to Charleston for
his gaffs. There is a bet of ten dollars a side between my son's cock
and the one belonging to young Blainey, the son of Major Blainey. Young
Blainey is a hot-headed young blood, and has been concerned in three
duels, though I believe he never fought but one; but I know Edmund will
not take a word from him, and it will be well if he and his cock do not
both get well licked."
Here the conversation was arrested by the sound of horses' feet on the
road, and in the next instant, two young men rode up at a gallop,
mounted on lean looking horses; one of the riders carrying a pole on
his shoulder, with a game cock in a net bag, tied to one end of it. On
perceiving them the landlord exclaimed with an oath, "There's two lads
of spirit! stranger--and if you will allow me the liberty of asking you
your name, I will introduce you to them." At the suggestion of his name,
my master seemed to hesitate a little, but after a moment's pause, said,
"They call me M'Giffin, sir." "My name is Hulig, sir," replied the
landlord, "and I am very happy to be acquainted with you, Mr. M'Giffin,"
at the same time shaking him by the hand, and introducing his two sons,
who were by this time at the door.
This was the first time I had ever heard the name of my master, although
I had been with him five weeks. I had never seen him before the day on
which he seized and bound me in Maryland, and as he took me away
immediately, I did not hear his name at the time. The people who
assisted to fetter me, either from accident or design, omitted to name
him, and after we commenced our journey, he had maintained so much
distant reserve and austerity of manner towards us all, that no one
ventured to ask him his name. We had called him nothing but "master,"
and the various persons at whose houses we had stopped on our way, knew
as little of his name as we did. We had frequently been asked the name
of our master, and perhaps had not always obtained credence, when we
said we did not know it.
Throughout the whole journey, until after we were released from our
irons, he had forbidden us to converse together beyond a few words in
relation to our temporary condition and wants; and as he was with us all
day, and never slept out of hearing of us at night, he rigidly enforced
his edict of silence. I presume that the reason of this prohibition of
all conversation was to prevent us from devising plans of escape; but he
had imposed as rigid a silence on himself as was enforced upon us; and
after having passed from Maryland to South Carolina, in his company, I
knew no more of my master, than, that he knew how to keep his secrets,
guard his slaves, and make a close bargain. I had never heard him speak
of his home or family; and therefore had concluded that he was an
unmarried man, and an adventurer, who felt no more attachment for one
place than another, and whose residence was not very well settled; but,
from the large sums of money which he must have been able to command and
carry with him to the North, to enable him to purchase so large a number
of slaves, I had no doubt that he was a man of consequence and
consideration in the place from whence he came.
In Maryland, I had always observed that men, who were the owners of
large stocks of negroes, were not averse to having publicity given to
their names; and that the possession of this species of property even
there, gave its owner more vanity and egotism, than fell to the lot of
the holders of any other kind of estate; and in truth, my subsequent
experience proved that without the possession of slaves, no man could
ever arrive at, or hope to rise to any honorable station in
society;--yet, my master seemed to take no pride in having at his
disposal the lives of so many human beings. He never spoke to us in
words of either pity or hatred; and never spoke of us, except to order
us to be fed or watered, as he would have directed the same offices to
be performed for so many horses, or to inquire where the best prices
could be obtained for us. He regarded us only as objects of traffic and
the materials of his commerce; and although he had lived several years
in Carolina and Georgia, and had there exercised the profession of an
overseer, he regarded the Southern planters as no less the subjects of
trade and speculation than the slaves he sold to them; as will appear in
the sequel. It was to this man that the landlord introduced his two
sons, and upon whom he was endeavoring to impose a belief, that he was
the head of a family which took rank with those of the first planters of
the district. The ladies of the household, though I had seen them in the
kitchen when I walked round the house, had not yet presented themselves
to my master, nor indeed were they in a condition to be seen anywhere
but in the apartment they occupied at the time. The young gentlemen gave
a very gasconading account of the quoit-party and cock-fight, from which
they had just returned, and according to their version of the affair, it
might have been an assemblage of at least half the military officers of
the state; for all the persons of whom they spoke, were captains, majors
and colonels. The eldest said, he had won two bowls of punch at quoits;
and the youngest, whose cock had been victor in the battle, on which ten
dollars were staked, vaunted much of the qualities of his bird; and
supported his veracity by numerous oaths, and reiterated appeals to his
brother for the truth of his assertions. Both these young men were so
much intoxicated that they with difficulty maintained an erect posture
in walking.
By this time the sun was going down, and I observed two female slaves, a
woman and girl, approaching the house on the side of the kitchen from
the cotton-field. They were coming home to prepare supper for the
family; the ladies whom I had seen in the kitchen not having been there
for the purpose of performing the duties appropriate to that station,
but having sought it as a place of refuge from the sight of my master,
who had approached the front of their dwelling silently, and so suddenly
as not to permit them to gain the foot of the stairway in the large
front room, without being seen by him, to whose view they by no means
wished to expose themselves before they had visited their toilets. About
dark the supper was ready in the large room, and, as it had two fronts,
one of which looked into the yard where my companions and I had been
permitted to seat ourselves, and had an opportunity of seeing, by the
light of the candle, all that was done within, and of hearing all that
was said. The ladies, four in number, had entered the room before the
gentlemen; and when the latter came in my master was introduced, by the
landlord to his wife and daughters, by the name and title of _Colonel
M'Giffin_, which, at that time, impressed me with a belief that he was
really an officer, and that he had disclosed this circumstance without
my knowledge; but I afterwards perceived that in the south it is deemed
respectful to address a stranger by the title of Colonel, or Major, or
General, if his appearance will warrant the association of so high a
rank with his name. My master had declared his intention of becoming the
inmate of this family for some time, and no pains seemed to be spared on
their part to impress upon his mind the high opinion that they
entertained of the dignity of the owner of fifty slaves; the possession
of so large a number of human creatures being, in Carolina, a
certificate of character, which entitles its bearer to enter whatever
society he may choose to select, with out any thing more being known of
his birth, his life or reputation. The man who owns fifty servants must
needs be a gentleman amongst the higher ranks, and the owner of half a
hundred _niggers_ is a sort of nobleman amongst the low, the ignorant,
and the vulgar. The mother and three daughters, whose appearance, when I
saw them in the kitchen, would have warranted the conclusion that they
had just risen from bed without having time to adjust their dress, were
now gaily, if not neatly attired; and the two female slaves, who had
come from the field at sundown to cook the supper, now waited at the
table. The landlord talked much of his crops, his plantation and slaves,
and of the distinguished families who exchanged visits with his own; but
my master took very little part in the conversation of the evening, and
appeared disposed to maintain the air of mystery which had hitherto
invested his character.
After it was quite dark, the slaves came in from the cotton-field, and
taking little notice of us, went into the kitchen, and each taking
thence a pint of corn, proceeded to a little mill, which was nailed to a
post in the yard, and there commenced the operation of grinding meal for
their suppers, which were afterwards to be prepared by baking the meal
into cakes at the fire. The woman who was the mother of the three small
children, was permitted to grind her allowance of corn first, and after
her came the old man, and the others in succession. After the corn was
converted into meal, each one kneaded it up with cold water into a thick
dough, and raking away the ashes from a small space on the kitchen
hearth, placed the dough, rolled up in green leaves, in the hollow, and
covering it with hot embers, left it to be baked into bread, which was
done in about half an hour. These loaves constituted the only supper of
the slaves belonging to this family for I observed that the two women
who had waited at the table, after the supper of the white people was
disposed of, also came with their corn to the mill on the post and
ground their allowance like the others. They had not been permitted to
taste even the fragments of the meal that they had cooked for their
masters and mistresses. It was eleven o'clock before these people had
finished their supper of cakes, and several of them, especially the
younger of the two lads, were so overpowered with toil and sleep, that
they had to be roused from their slumbers when their cakes were done, to
devour them.
We had for our supper to-night, a pint of boiled rice to each person,
and a small quantity of stale and very rancid butter, from the bottom of
an old keg, or firkin, which contained about two pounds, the remnant of
that which once filled it. We boiled the rice ourselves, in a large
iron kettle; and, as our master now informed us that we were to remain
here some time, many of us determined to avail ourselves of this season
of respite from our toils, to wash our clothes, and free our persons
from the vermin which had appeared amongst our party several weeks
before, and now begun to be extremely tormenting. As we were not allowed
any soap, we were obliged to resort to the use of a very fine and
unctuous kind of clay, resembling fullers' earth, but of a yellow color,
which was found on the margin of a small swamp near the house. This was
the first time that I had ever heard of clay being used for the purpose
of washing clothes; but I often availed myself of this resource
afterwards, whilst I was a slave in the south. We wet our clothes, then
rubbed this clay all over the garments, and by scouring it out in warm
water with our hands, the cloth, whether of woollen, or cotton, or linen
texture, was entirely clean. We subjected our persons to the same
process, and in this way freed our camp from the host of enemies that
had been generated in the course of our journey.
This washing consumed the whole of the first day of our residence on the
plantation of Mr. Hulig. We all lay the first night in a shed, or summer
kitchen, standing behind the house, and a few yards from it a place in
which the slaves of the plantation washed their clothes, and passed
their Sundays in warm weather, when they did not work; but as this
place was quite too small to accommodate our party, or indeed to contain
us, without crowding us together in such a manner as to endanger our
health, we were removed, the morning after our arrival, to an old
decayed frame building, about one hundred yards from the house, which
had been erected, as I learned, for a cotton-gin, but into which its
possessor, for want of means I presume, had never introduced the
machinery of the gin. This building was near forty feet square; was
without any other floor than the earth, and neither doors nor windows,
to close the openings which had been left for the admission of those who
entered it. We were told that in this place the cotton of the plantation
was deposited in the picking season, as it was brought from the field,
until it could be removed to a neighboring plantation, where there was a
gin to divest it of its seeds.
Here we took our temporary abode--men and women, promiscuously. Our
provisions, whilst we remained here, were regularly distributed to us;
and our daily allowance to each person, consisted of a pint of corn, a
pint of rice, and about three or four pounds of butter, such as we had
received on the night of our arrival, divided amongst us, in small
pieces from the point of a table knife. The rice we boiled in the iron
kettle--we ground our corn at the little mill on the post in the
kitchen, and converted the meal into bread, in the manner we had been
accustomed to at home--sometimes on the hearth, and sometimes before the
fire on a hoe. The butter was given us as an extraordinary ration, to
strengthen and recruit us after our long march, and give us a healthy
and expert appearance at the time of our future sale.
We had no beds of any kind to sleep on, but each one was provided with a
blanket, which had been the companion of our travels. We were left
entirely at liberty to go out or in when we pleased, and no watch was
kept over us either by night or day.
Our master had removed us so far from our native country, that he
supposed it impossible for any of us ever to escape from him, and
surmount all the obstacles that lay between us and our former homes. He
went away immediately after we were established in our new lodgings, and
remained absent until the second evening about sundown, when he
returned, came into our shed, sat down on a block of wood in the midst
of us, and asked if any one had been sick; if we had got our clothes
clean; and if we had been supplied with an allowance of rice, corn and
butter. After satisfying himself upon these points, he told us that we
were now at liberty to run away if we chose to do so; but if we made the
attempt we should most certainly be re-taken, and subjected to the most
terrible punishment. "I never flog," said he, "my practice is to
_cat-haul_; and if you run away, and I catch you again--as I surely
shall do--and give you one cat-hauling, you will never run away again,
nor attempt it." I did not then understand the import of cat-hauling,
but in after times, became well acquainted with its signification.
We remained in this place nearly two weeks, during which time our
allowance of food was not varied, and was regularly given to us. We were
not required to do any work; and I had liberty and leisure to walk about
the plantation, and make such observations as I could upon the new state
of things around me. Gentlemen and ladies came every day to look at us,
with a view of becoming our purchasers; and we were examined with minute
care as to our ages, former occupations, and capacity of performing
labor. Our persons were inspected, and more especially the hands were
scrutinized, to see if all the fingers were perfect, and capable of the
quick motions necessary in picking cotton. Our master only visited us
once a day, and sometimes he remained absent two days; so that he seldom
met any of those who came to see us; but, whenever it so happened that
he did meet them, he laid aside his silence and became very talkative,
and even animated in his conversation, extolling our good qualities, and
averring that he had purchased some of as of one colonel, and others of
another general in Virginia; that he could by no means have procured us,
had it not been that, in some instances, our masters had ruined
themselves, and were obliged to sell us to save their families from
ruin; and in others, that our owners were dead, their estates deeply in
debt, and we had been sold at public sale; by which means he had become
possessed of us. He said our habits were unexceptionable, our characters
good; that there was not one among us all who had ever been known to run
away, or steal any thing from our former masters. I observed that
running away, and stealing from his master, were regarded as the highest
crimes of which a slave could be guilty; but I heard no questions asked
concerning our propensity to steal from other people besides our
masters, and I afterwards learned, that this was not always regarded as
a very high crime by the owner of a slave, provided he would perpetrate
the theft so adroitly as not to be detected in it.
We were severally asked by our visitors, if we would be willing to live
with them, if they would purchase us, to which we generally replied in
the affirmative; but our owner declined all the offers that were made
for us, upon the ground that we were too poor--looked too bad to be sold
at present--and that in our condition he could not expect to get a fair
value for us.
One evening, when our master was with us, a thin, sallow-looking man
rode up to the house, and alighting from his horse, came to us, and told
him that he had come to buy a boy; that he wished to get a good field
hand, and would pay a good price for him. I never saw a human
countenance that expressed more of the evil passions of the heart than
did that of this man, and his conversation corresponded with his
physiognomy. Every sentence of his language was accompanied with an oath
of the most vulgar profanity, and his eyes appeared to me to be the
index of a soul as cruel as his visage was disgusting and repulsive.
After looking at us for some time, this wretch singled _me_ out as the
object of his choice, and coming up to me, asked me how I would like him
for a master. In my heart I detested him; but a slave is often afraid to
speak the truth, and divulge all he feels; so with myself in this
instance, as it was doubtful whether I might not fall into his hands,
and be subject to the violence of his temper, I told him that if he was
a good master, as every gentleman ought to be, I should be willing to
live with him. He appeared satisfied with my answer, and turning to my
master, said he would give a high price for me. "I can," said he, "by
going to Charleston, buy as many Guinea negroes as I please for two
hundred dollars each, but as I like this fellow, I will give you four
hundred for him." This offer struck terror into my heart, for I knew it
was as much as was generally given for the best and ablest slaves, and I
expected that it would immediately be accepted as my price, and that I
should be at once consigned to the hands of this man, of whom I had
formed so abhorrent an opinion. To my surprise and satisfaction,
however, my master made no reply to the proposition; but stood for a
moment, with one hand raised to his face and his fore-finger on his
nose, and then turning suddenly to me, said, "Go into the house; I shall
not sell you to-day." It was my business to obey the order of departure,
and as I went beyond the sound of their voices, I could not understand
the purport of the conversation which followed between these two
traffickers in human blood; but after a parley of about a quarter of an
hour, the hated stranger started abruptly away, and going to the road,
mounted his horse, and rode off at a gallop, banishing himself and my
fears together.
I did not see my master again this evening, and when I came out of our
barracks in the morning, although it was scarcely daylight, I saw him
standing near one corner of the building, with his head inclined towards
the wall, evidently listening to catch any sounds within. He ordered me
to go and feed his horse, and have him saddled for him by sunrise. About
an hour afterwards he came to the stable in his riding dress; and told
me that he should remove us all to Columbia in a few days. He then rode
away, and did not return until the third day afterwards.