I have before observed that the negroes of the cotton plantations are
exceedingly superstitious; and they are indeed prone, beyond all other
people that I have ever known, to believe in ghosts, and the existence
of an infinite number of supernatural agents. No story of a miraculous
character can be too absurd to obtain credit with them; and a narrative
is not the less eagerly listened to, nor the more cautiously received,
because it is impossible in its circumstances. Within a few weeks after
the deaths of the two malefactors, to whose horrible crimes were awarded
equally horrible punishments, the forest that had been the scene of
these bloody deeds was reported and believed to be visited at night by
beings of unearthly make, whose groans and death-struggles were heard in
the darkest recesses of the woods, amidst the flapping of the wings of
vultures, the fluttering of carrion crows, and the dismal croaking of
ravens. In the midst of this nocturnal din, the noise caused by the
tearing of the flesh from the bones was heard, and the panting breath
of the agonized sufferer, quivering under the beaks of his tormentors,
as they consumed his vitals, floated audibly upon the evening breeze.
The murdered lady was also seen walking by moonlight, near the spot
where she had been dragged from her horse, wrapped in a blood-stained
mantle, overhung with gory and dishevelled locks.
The little island in the swamp was said to present spectacles too horrid
for human eyes to look upon, and sounds were heard to issue from it
which no human ear could bear. Terrific and ghastly fires were seen to
burst up, at midnight, amongst the evergreens that clad this lonely
spot, emitting scents too suffocating and sickly to be endured; whilst
demoniac yells, shouts of despair and groans of agony, mingled their
echos in the solitude of the woods.
Whilst I remained in this neighborhood, no colored person ever traveled
this road alone after night-fall; and many white men would have ridden
ten miles round the country to avoid the passage of the ridge road,
after dark. Generations must pass away before the tradition of this
place will be forgotten; and many a year will open and close, before the
last face will be pale, or the last heart beat, as the twilight traveler
skirts the borders of the Murderer's Swamp.
We had allowances of meat distributed to all the people twice this
fall--once when we had finished the saving the fodder, and again soon
after the murder of the young lady. The first time we had beef, such as
I had driven from the woods when I went to the alligator pond; but now
we had two hogs given to us, which weighed, one a hundred and thirty,
and the other a hundred and fifty-six pounds. This was very good pork,
and I received a pound and a quarter as my share of it. This was the
first pork that I had tasted in Carolina, and it afforded a real feast.
We had, in our family, full seven pounds of good fat meat; and as we now
had plenty of sweet potatoes, both in our gardens and in our weekly
allowance, we had on the Sunday following the funeral, as good a dinner
of stewed pork and potatoes as could have been found in all Carolina. We
did not eat all our meat on Sunday, but kept part of it until Tuesday,
when we warmed it in a pot, with an addition of parsley and other herbs,
and had another very comfortable meal.
I had, by this time, become in some measure acquainted with the country,
and began to lay and execute plans to procure supplies of such things as
were not allowed me by my master. I understood various methods of
entrapping rackoons, and other wild animals that abounded in the large
swamps of this country; and besides the skins, which were worth
something for their furs, I generally procured as many rackoons,
opossums, and rabbits, as afforded us two or three meals in a week. The
woman with whom I lived, understood the way of dressing an opossum, and
I was careful to provide one for our Sunday dinner every week, so long
as these animals continued fat and in good condition.
All the people on the plantation did not live as well as our family did,
for many of the men did not understand trapping game, and others were
too indolent to go far enough from home to find good places for setting
their traps. My principal trapping ground was three miles from home, and
I went three times a week, always after night, to bring home my game,
and keep my traps in good order. Many of the families in the quarter
caught no game, and had no meat, except that which we received from the
overseer, which averaged about six or seven meals in the year.
Lydia, the woman whom I have mentioned heretofore, was one of the women
whose husbands procured little or nothing for the sustenance of their
families, and I often gave her a quarter of a rackoon or a small
opossum, for which she appeared very thankful. Her health was not
good--she had a bad cough, and often told me she was feverish and
restless at night. It appeared clear to me that this woman's
constitution was broken by hardships and sufferings, and that she could
not live long in her present mode of existence. Her husband, a native
of a country far in the interior of Africa, said he had been a priest in
his own nation, and had never been taught to do any kind of labor, being
supported by the contributions of the public; and he now maintained, as
far as he could, the same kind of lazy dignity, that he had enjoyed at
home. He was compelled by the overseer to work, with the other hands, in
the field, but as soon as he had come into his cabin, he took his seat,
and refused to give his wife the least assistance in doing any thing.
She was consequently obliged to do the little work that it was necessary
to perform in the cabin; and also to bear all the labor of weeding and
cultivating the family patch or garden. The husband was a morose, sullen
man, and said he formerly had ten wives in his own country, who all had
to work for, and wait upon him; and he thought himself badly off here,
in having but one woman to do any thing for him. This man was very
irritable, and often beat and otherwise maltreated his wife, on the
slightest provocation, and the overseer refused to protect her, on the
ground, that he never interfered in the family quarrels of the black
people. I pitied this woman greatly, but as it was not in my power to
remove her from the presence and authority of her husband, I thought it
prudent not to say nor do any thing to provoke him further against her.
As the winter approached, and the autumnal rains set in, she was
frequently exposed in the field, and was wet for several hours together;
this, joined to the want of warm and comfortable woollen clothes, caused
her to contract colds, and hoarseness, which increased the severity of
her cough. A few days before Christmas, her child died, after an illness
of only three days. I assisted her and her husband to inter the
infant--which was a little boy--and its father buried with it a small
bow and several arrows; a little bag of parched meal; a miniature canoe,
about a foot long, and a little paddle, (with which he said it would
cross the ocean to his own country) a small stick, with an iron nail,
sharpened, and fastened into one end of it; and a piece of white muslin,
with several curious and strange figures painted on it in blue and red,
by which, he said, his relations and countrymen would know the infant to
be his son, and would receive it accordingly, on its arrival amongst
them.
Cruel as this man was to his wife, I could not but respect the
sentiments which inspired his affection for his child; though it was the
affection of a barbarian. He cut a lock of hair from his head, threw it
upon the dead infant, and closed the grave with his own hands. He then
told us the God of his country was looking at him, and was pleased with
what he had done. Thus ended the funeral service.
As we returned home, Lydia told me she was rejoiced that her child was
dead, and out of a world in which slavery and wretchedness must have
been its only portion. I am now, said she, ready to follow my child, and
the sooner I go the better for me. She went with us to the field until
the month of January, when, as we were returning from our work, one
stormy and wet evening, she told me she should never pick any more
cotton--that her strength was gone, and she could work no more. When we
assembled, at the blowing of the horn, on the following morning, Lydia
did not appear. The overseer, who had always appeared to dislike this
woman, when he missed her, swore very angrily, and said he supposed she
was pretending to be sick, but if she was he would soon cure her. He
then stepped into his house and took some copperas from a little bag,
and mixed it with water. I followed him to Lydia's cabin, where he
compelled her to drink this solution of copperas. It caused her to vomit
violently, and made her exceedingly sick. I think to this day, that this
act of the overseer was the most inhuman of all those that I have seen
perpetrated upon defenceless slaves.
Lydia was removed that same day to the sick room, in a state of extreme
debility and exhaustion. When she left this room again she was a corpse.
Her disease was a consumption of the lungs, which terminated her life
early in March. I assisted in carrying her to the grave, which I closed
upon her, and covered with green turf. She sleeps by the side of her
infant, in a corner of the negro grave-yard of this plantation. Death
was to her a welcome messenger, who came to remove her from toil that
she could not support, and from misery that she could not sustain.
Christmas approached, and we all expected two or three holidays--but we
were disappointed, as only one was all that was allotted to us.
I went to the field and picked cotton all day, for which I was paid by
the overseer, and at night I had a good dinner of stewed pork and sweet
potatoes. Such were the beginning and end of my first Christmas on a
cotton plantation. We went to work as usual the next morning, and
continued our labor through the week, as if Christmas had been stricken
from the calendar. I had already saved and laid by a little more than
ten dollars in money, but part of it had been given to me at the
funeral. I was now much in want of clothes, none having been given me
since I came here. I had, at the commencement of the cold weather, cut
up my old blanket, and, with the aid of Lydia, who was a very good
seamstress, converted it into a pair of trowsers, and a long roundabout
jacket; but this deprived me of my bed, which was imperfectly supplied
by mats, which I made of rushes. The mats were very comfortable things
to lie upon, but they were by no means equal to blankets for covering.
A report had been current among us for some time, that there would be a
distribution of clothes to the people at New-Year's day; but how much,
or what kind of clothes we were to get no one pretended to know except
that we were to get shoes, in conformity to a long-established rule of
this plantation. From Christmas to New-Year appeared a long week to me,
and I have no doubt that it appeared yet longer to some of my fellow
slaves, most of whom were entirely barefoot. I had made moccasins for
myself, of the skins of squirrels that I had caught in my traps, and by
this means protected my feet from the frost, which was sometimes very
heavy and sharp in the morning.
On the first day of January, when we met at the blowing of the morning
horn, the overseer told us we must all proceed to the great house, where
we were to receive our winter clothes; and surely, no order was ever
more willingly obeyed. When we arrived at the house our master was up,
and we were all called into the great court yard in front of the
dwelling. The overseer now told us that shoes would be given to all
those who were able to go to the field to pick cotton. This deprived of
shoes the children, and several old persons, whose eye-sight was not
sufficiently clear to enable them to pick cotton. A new blanket was then
given to every one above seven years of age--children under seven
received no blanket, being left to be provided for by their parents.
Children of this age and under, go entirely naked, in the day-time, and
sleep with their mothers at night, or are wrapped up together in such
bedding as the mother may possess.
It may well be supposed, that in our society, although we were all
slaves, and all nominally in a condition of the most perfect equality,
yet there was in fact a very great difference in the manner of living,
in the several families. Indeed, I doubt if there is as great a
diversity in the modes of life, in the several families of any white
village in New York or Pennsylvania, containing a population of three
hundred persons, as there was in the several households of our quarter.
This may be illustrated by the following circumstance: Before I came to
reside in the family with whom I lived at this time, they seldom tasted
animal food, or even fish, except on meat-days, as they were called;
that is, when meat was given to the people by the overseer, under the
orders of our master. The head of the family was a very quiet, worthy
man; but slothful and inactive in his habits. When he had come from the
field at night, he seldom thought of leaving the cabin again before
morning. He would, and did, make baskets and mats, and earned some money
by these means; he also did his regular day's work on Sunday; but all
his acquirements were not sufficient to enable him to provide any kind
of meat for his family. All that his wife and children could do, was to
provide him with work at his baskets and mats; and they lived even then
better than some of their neighbors. After I came among them and had
acquired some knowledge of the surrounding country, I made as many
baskets and mats as he did, and took time to go twice a week to look at
all my traps.
As the winter passed away and spring approached, the proceeds of my
hunting began to diminish. The game became scarce, and both rackoons and
opossums grew poor and worthless. It was necessary for me to discover
some new mode of improving the allowance allotted to me by the overseer.
I had all my life been accustomed to fishing in Maryland, and I now
resolved to resort to the water for a living; the land having failed to
furnish me a comfortable subsistence. With these views, I set out one
Sunday morning, early in February, and went to the river at a distance
of three miles from home. From the appearance of the stream I felt
confident that it must contain many fish; and I went immediately to work
to make a weir. With the help of an axe that I had with me, I had
finished before night the frame-work of a weir of pine sticks, lashed
together with white oak splits. I had no canoe, but made a raft of dry
logs, upon which I went to a suitable place in the river and set my
weir. I afterwards made a small net of twine that I bought at the
store; and on next Thursday night I took as many fish from my weir as
filled a half bushel measure. This was a real treasure--it was the most
fortunate circumstance that had happened with me since I came to the
country.
I was enabled to show my generosity, but, like all mankind, even in my
liberality, I kept myself in mind. I gave a large fish to the overseer,
and took three more to the great house. These were the first fresh fish
that had been in the family this season; and I was much praised by my
master and young mistresses, for my skill and success in fishing; but
this was all the advantage I received from this effort to court the
favor of the great:--I did not even get a dram. The part I had performed
in the detection of the murderers of the young lady was forgotten, or at
least not mentioned now. I went away from the house not only
disappointed but chagrined, and thought with myself that if my master
and young mistresses had nothing but words to give me for my fish, we
should not carry on a very large traffic.
On next Sunday morning, a black boy came from the house, and told me
that our master wished to see me. This summons was not to be disobeyed.
When I returned to the mansion, I went round to the kitchen, and sent
word by one of the house-slaves that I had come. The servant returned
and told me, that I was to stay in the kitchen and get my breakfast; and
after that to come into the house. A very good breakfast was sent to me
from my master's table, after the family had finished their morning
meal; and when I had done with my repast I went into the parlor. I was
received with great affability by my master, who told me he had sent for
me to know if I had been accustomed to fish in the place I had come
from. I informed him that I had been employed at a fishery on the
Patuxent, every spring, for several years; and that I thought I
understood fishing with a seine, as well as most people. He then asked
me if I could knit a seine, to which I replied in the affirmative. After
some other questions, he told me that as the picking of cotton was
nearly over for this season, and the fields must soon be ploughed up for
a new crop, he had a thought of having a seine made, and of placing me
at the head of a fishing party, for the purpose of trying to take a
supply of fish for his hands. No communication could have been more
unexpected than this was, and it was almost as pleasing to me as it was
unexpected by me. I now began to hope that there would be some respite
from the labors of the cotton field, and that I should not be doomed to
drag out a dull and monotonous existence, within the confines of the
enclosures of the plantation.
In Maryland, the fishing season was always one of hard labor, it is
true, but also a time of joy and hilarity. We then had, throughout the
time of fishing, plenty of bread, and at least bacon enough to fry our
fish with. We had also a daily allowance of whisky, or brandy, and we
always considered ourselves fortunate when we left the farm to go to the
fishery.
A few days after this, I was again sent for by my master, who told me
that he had bought twine and ropes for a seine, and that I must set to
work and knit it as quickly as possible; that as he did not wish the
twine to be taken to the quarter, I must remain with the servants in the
kitchen, and live with them while employed in constructing the seine. I
was assisted in making the seine by a black boy, whom I had taught to
work with me; and by the end of two weeks we had finished our job.
While at work on this seine, I lived rather better than I had formerly
done when residing at the quarter. We received among us--twelve in
number, including the people who worked in the garden--the refuse of our
master's table. In this way we procured a little cold meat every day;
and when there were many strangers visiting the family, we sometimes
procured considerable quantities of cold and broken meats.
My new employment afforded me a better opportunity than I had hitherto
possessed of making correct observations upon the domestic economy of
my master's household, and of learning the habits and modes of life of
the persons who composed it. On a great cotton plantation, such as this
of my master's, the field hands, who live in the quarter, are removed so
far from the domestic circle of their master's family, by their servile
condition and the nature of their employment, that they know but little
more of the transactions within the walls of the great house than if
they lived ten miles off. Many a slave has been born, lived to old age,
and died on a plantation, without ever having been within the walls of
his master's domicile.
My master was a widower; and his house was in charge of his sister, a
maiden lady, apparently of fifty-five or sixty. He had six children,
three sons and three daughters, and all unmarried; but only one of the
sons was at home, at the time I came upon the estate; the other two were
in some of the northern cities--the one studying medicine, and the other
at college. At the time of knitting the twine, these young gentlemen had
returned on a visit to their relations, and all the brothers and sisters
were now on the place. The young ladies were all grown up, and
marriageable; their father was known to be a man of great wealth, and
the girls were reputed very pretty in Carolina; one of them, the second
of the three, was esteemed a great beauty.
The reader might deem my young mistress' pretty face and graceful person
altogether impertinent to the narrative of my own life; but they had a
most material influence upon my fortunes, and changed the whole tenor of
my existence. Had she been less beautiful, or of a temper less romantic
and adventurous, I should still have been a slave in South Carolina, if
yet alive, and the world would have been saved the labor of perusing
these pages.
Any one at all acquainted with southern manners, will at once see that
my master's house possessed attractions which would not fail to draw
within it numerous visiters; and that the head of such a family as dwelt
under its roof was not likely to be without friends.
I had not been at work upon the seine a week before I discovered, by
listening to the conversation of my master and the other members of the
family, that they prided themselves not a little upon the antiquity of
their house, and the long practice of a generous hospitality to
strangers, and to all respectable people who chose to visit their
homestead. All circumstances seemed to conspire to render this house one
of the chief seats of the fashion, the beauty, the wit, and the
gallantry of South Carolina. Scarcely an evening came but it brought a
carriage, and ladies and gentlemen and their servants; and every day
brought dashing young planters, mounted on horseback, to dine with the
family; but Sunday was the day of the week on which the house received
the greatest accession of company. My master and family were members of
the Episcopal Church, and attended service every Sunday, when the
weather was fine, at a church eight miles distant. Each of my young
masters and mistresses had a saddle-horse, and in pleasant weather they
frequently all went to church on horseback, leaving my old master and
mistress to occupy the family carriage alone. I have seen fifteen or
twenty young people come to my master's for dinner on Sunday from
church; and very often the parson, a young man of handsome appearance,
was among them. I had observed these things long before, but now I had
come to live at the house, and became more familiar with them. Three
Sundays intervened while I was at work upon the seine, and on each of
these Sundays more than twenty persons, besides the family, dined at my
master's. During these three weeks, my young masters were absent far the
greater part of the time; but I observed that they generally came home
on Sunday for dinner. My young mistresses were not from home much, and I
believe they never left the plantation unless either their father or
some one of their brothers was with them. Dinner parties were frequent
in my master's house; and on these occasions of festivity, a black man,
who belonged to a neighboring estate, and who played the violin, was
sent for. I observed that whenever this man was sent for, he came, and
sometimes even came before night, which appeared a little singular to
me, as I knew the difficulty that colored people had to encounter in
leaving the estate to which they were attached.