An affair was now in progress, which, though the persons who were actors
in it were far removed from me, had in its effects a great influence
upon the fortunes of my life. I have informed the reader that my master
had three daughters, and that the second of the sisters was deemed a
great beauty. The eldest of the three was married about the time of
which I now write, to a planter of great wealth, who resided near
Columbia; but the second had formed an attachment to a young gentleman
whom she had frequently seen at the church attended by my master's
family. As this young man, either from want of wealth, or proper persons
to introduce him, had never been at my master's house, my young mistress
had no opportunity of communicating to him the sentiments she
entertained towards him, without violating the rules of modesty in which
she had been educated. Before she would attempt any thing which might be
deemed a violation of the decorum of her sex, she determined to take a
new method of obtaining a husband. She communicated to her father, my
master, a knowledge of the whole affair, with a desire that he would
invite the gentleman of her choice to his house. This the father
resolutely opposed, upon the ground that the young man upon whom his
daughter had fixed her heart was without property, and consequently
destitute of the means of supporting his daughter in a style suitable to
the rank she occupied in society. A woman in love is not easily foiled
in her purposes; my young mistress, by continual entreaties, so far
prevailed over the affections, or more probably the fears of her father,
that he introduced the young man to his family, and about two months
afterwards my young mistress was a bride; but it had been agreed amongst
all the parties, as I understood, before the marriage, that as the
son-in-law had no land or slaves of his own, he should remove with his
wife to a large tract of land that my master owned in the new purchase
in the State of Georgia.
In the month of September, my master came to the quarter one evening, at
the time of our return from the field, in company with his son-in-law,
and informed me that he had given me, with a number of others of his
slaves, to his daughter: and that I, with eight other men and two or
three women, must set out on the next Sunday with my new master, for
his estate in Georgia, whither we were to go, to clear land, build
houses, and make other improvements, necessary for the reception of the
newly married lady, in the following spring.
I was much pleased with the appearance and manners of my new master, who
was a young man apparently about twenty-seven or eight years old, and of
good figure. We were to take with us, in our expedition to Georgia, a
wagon, to be drawn by six mules, and I was appointed to drive the team.
Before we set off my young mistress came in person to the quarter, and
told us that all those who were going to the new settlement must come to
the house, where she furnished each of us with two full suits of
clothes, one of coarse woollen, and the other of hempen cloth. She also
gave a hat to each of us, and two pairs of shoes, with a trifle in
money, and enjoined us to be good boys and girls, and get things ready
for her, and that when she should come to live with us we should not be
forgotten. The conduct of this young lady was so different from that
which I had been accustomed to witness since I came to Carolina, that I
considered myself highly fortunate in becoming her slave, and now
congratulated myself with the idea that I should, in future, have a
mistress who would treat me kindly, and if I behaved well, would not
permit me to want.
At the time appointed we set out for Georgia, with all the tools and
implements necessary to the prosecution of a new settlement. My young
master accompanied us, and traveled slowly for several days to enable me
to keep up with him. We continued our march in this order until we
reached the Savannah river at the town of Augusta, where my master told
me that he was so well satisfied with my conduct, that he intended to
leave me with the team to bring on the goods and the women and children;
but that he would take the men and push on as fast as possible, to the
new settlement, and go to work until the time of my arrival. He gave me
directions to follow on and inquire for Morgan county Court House, and
said that he would have a person ready there on my arrival to guide me
to him and the people with him. He then gave me twenty dollars to buy
food for the mules and provisions for myself and those with me, and left
me on the high road master of myself and the team. I was resolved that
this striking proof of confidence on the part of my master should not be
a subject of regret to him, and pursued my route with the greatest
diligence, taking care to lay out as little money as possible for such
things as I had to buy. On the sixth day, in the morning, I arrived at
our new settlement in the middle of a heavy forest of such timber as is
common to that country, with three dollars and twenty-five cents in my
pocket, part of the money given to me at Augusta. This I offered to
return, but my master refused to take it, and told me to keep it for my
good conduct. I now felt assured that all my troubles in this world were
ended, and that, in future, I might look forward to a life of happiness
and ease, for I did not consider labor any hardship, if I was well
provided with good food and clothes, and my other wants properly
regarded.
My master and the people who were with him had, before our arrival with
the wagon, put up the logs of two cabins, and were engaged, when we
came, in covering one of them with clapboards. In the course of the next
day we completed both these cabins, with puncheon floors and small glass
windows, the sash and glass for which I had brought in the wagon. We put
up two other cabins, and a stable for the mules, and then began to clear
land. After a few days my master told me he meant to go down into the
settlements to buy provisions for the winter, and that he should leave
me to oversee the hands, and carry on the work in his absence. He
accordingly left us, taking with him the wagon and two boys, one to
drive the team, and another to drive cattle and hogs, which he intended
to buy and drive to our settlement. I now felt myself almost proprietor
of our new establishment, and believe the men left under my charge did
not consider me a very lenient overseer. I in truth compelled them to
work very hard, as I did myself. At the end of a week my master returned
with a heavy load of meal and bacon, with salt and other things that we
needed, and the day following a white man drove to our station several
cows and more than twenty hogs, the greater part of which were breeders.
At this season of the year neither the hogs nor the cattle required any
feeding at our hands. The woods were full of nuts, and the grass was
abundant; but we gave salt to our stock, and kept the hogs in a pen two
or three days, to accustom them to the place.
We now lived very differently from what we did on my old master's
plantation. We had as much bacon every day as we could eat, which,
together with bread and sweet potatoes, which we had at will,
constituted our fare. My master remained with us more than two months;
within which time we had cleared forty acres of ground, ready for the
plough; but, a few days before Christmas, an event took place, which, in
its consequences, destroyed all my prospects of happiness, and totally
changed the future path of my life. A messenger one day came to our
settlement with a letter, which had been forwarded in this manner, by
the postmaster at the Court House, where the post-office was kept. This
letter contained intelligence of the sudden death of my old master, and
that difficulties had arisen in the family which required the immediate
attention of my young one. The letter was written by my mistress. My
master forthwith took an account of the stock of provisions and other
things that he had on hand, and putting the whole under my charge, gave
me directions to attend to the work, and set off on horseback that
evening; promising to return within one month at furthest. We never saw
him again, and heard nothing of him until late in the month of January,
when the eldest son of my late master came to our settlement in company
with a strange gentleman. The son of my late master informed me, to my
surprise and sorrow, that my young master, who had brought us to
Georgia, was dead; and that he and the gentleman with him, were
administrators of the deceased, and had come to Georgia for the purpose
of letting out on lease, for the period of seven years, our place, with
all the people on it, including me.
To me, the most distressing part of this news was the death of my young
master, and I was still more sorry when I learned that he had been
killed in a duel. My young mistress, whose beauty had drawn around her
numerous suitors, many of whom were men of base minds and cowardly
hearts, had chosen her husband, in the manner I have related, and his
former rivals, after his return from Georgia, confederated together, for
the dastardly purpose of revenging themselves, of both husband and
wife, by the murder of the former.
In all parts of the cotton country there are numerous taverns, which
answer the double purpose of drinking and gambling houses. These places
are kept by men who are willing to abandon all pretensions to the
character and standing of gentlemen, for the hope of sordid gain, and
are frequented by all classes of planters, though it is not to be
understood that all the planters resort to these houses. There are men
of high and honorable virtue among the planters, who equally detest the
mean cupidity of the men who keep these houses, and the silly wickedness
of those who support them. Billiards is the game regarded as the most
polite amongst men of education and fashion; but cards, dice and every
kind of game, whether of skill or of hazard, are openly played in these
sinks of iniquity. So far as my knowledge extends, there is not a single
district of ten miles square, in all the cotton region, without at least
one of these vile ordinaries, as they are frequently and justly termed.
The keeping of these houses is a means of subsistence resorted to by men
of desperate reputation, or reckless character, and they invite as
guests all the profligate, the drunken, the idle, and the unwary of the
surrounding country. In a community where the white man never works,
except at the expense of forfeiting all claim to the rank of a
gentleman, and where it is beneath the dignity of a man to oversee the
labor of his own plantation, the number of those who frequent these
gaming houses may be imagined.
My young master, fortunately for his own honor, was of those who kept
aloof from the precincts of the tavern, unless compelled by necessary
business to go there; but the band of conspirators, who had resolved on
his destruction, invited him through one of their number, who pretended
to wish to treat with him concerning his property, to meet them at an
ordinary one evening. Here a quarrel was sought with him, and he was
challenged to fight with pistols, over the table around which they sat.
My master, who, it appears, was unable to bear the reproach of
cowardice, even amongst fools, agreed to fight, and as he had no pistols
with him, was presented with a pair belonging to one of the gang; and
accepted their owner, as his friend, or second in the business. The
result was as might have been expected. My master was killed at the
first fire, by a ball which passed through his breast, whilst his
antagonist escaped unharmed.
A servant was immediately despatched with a letter to my mistress,
informing her of the death of her husband. She was awakened in the night
to read the letter, the bearer having informed her maid that it was
necessary for her to see it immediately. The shock drove her into a
feverish delirium, from which she never recovered. At periods, her
reason resumed its dominion, but in the summer following, she became a
mother, and died in child-bed, of puerperal fever. I obtained this
account from the mouth of a black man, who was the traveling servant of
the eldest son of my old master, and who was with his master at the time
he came to visit the tenant, to whom he let his sister's estate in
Georgia.
The estate to which I was now attached, was advertised to be rented for
the term of seven years, with all the stock of mules, cattle, and so
forth, upon it--together with seventeen slaves, six of whom were too
young to be able to work at present. The price asked, was one thousand
dollars for the first year, and two thousand dollars for each of the six
succeeding years; the tenant to be bound to clear thirty acres of land
annually.
Before the day on which the estate was to be let, by the terms of the
advertisement, a man came up from the neighborhood of Savannah, and
agreed to take the new plantation, on the terms asked. He was
immediately put into possession of the premises, and from this moment, I
became his slave for the term of seven years.
Fortune had now thrown me into the power of a new master, of whom, when
I considered the part of the country from whence he came, which had
always been represented to me as distinguished for the cruelty with
which slaves were treated in it, I had no reason to expect much that was
good. I had indeed, from the moment I saw this new master, and had
learned the place of his former residence, made up my mind to prepare
myself for a harsh servitude; but as we are often disappointed for the
worse, so it sometimes happens, that we are deceived for the better.
This man was by no means so bad as I was prepared to find him; and yet,
I experienced all the evils in his service, that I had ever apprehended;
but I could never find in my heart to entertain a revengeful feeling
towards him, for he was as much a slave as I was; and I believe of the
two, the greater sufferer. Perhaps the evils he endured himself, made
him more compassionate of the sorrows of others; but notwithstanding the
injustice that was done me while with him, I could never look upon him
as a bad man.
At the time he took possession of the estate, he was alone, and did not
let us know that he had a wife, until after he had been with us at least
two weeks. One day, however, he called us together, and told us that he
was going down the country, to bring up his family--that he wished us to
go on with the work on the place in the manner he pointed out; and
telling the rest of the hands that they must obey my orders, he left
us. He was gone full two weeks; and when he returned, I had all the
cleared land planted in cotton, corn, and sweet potatoes, and had
progressed with the business of the plantation so much to his
satisfaction, that he gave me a dollar, with which I bought a pair of
new trowsers--my old ones having been worn out in clearing the new land,
and burning logs.
My master's family, a wife and one child, came with him; and my new
mistress soon caused me to regret the death of my former young master,
for other reasons than those of affection and esteem.
This woman (though she was my mistress, I cannot call her lady,) was the
daughter of a very wealthy planter, who resided near Milledgeville, and
had several children besides my mistress. My master was a native of
North Carolina--had removed to Georgia several years before this--had
acquired some property, and was married to my mistress more than two
years, when I became his slave for a term of years, as I have stated. I
saw many families, and was acquainted with the moral character of many
ladies while I lived in the South; but I must, in justice to the
country, say that my new mistress was the worst woman I ever saw amongst
the southern people. Her temper was as bad as that of a speckled viper;
and her language, when she was enraged, was a mere vocabulary of
profanity and virulence.
My master and mistress brought with them when they came twelve slaves,
great and small, seven of whom were able to do field work. We now had on
our new place a very respectable force; and my master was a man who
understood the means of procuring a good day's work from his hands, as
well as any of his neighbors. He was also a man who, when left to pursue
his own inclinations, was kind and humane in his temper and conduct
towards his people; and if he had possessed courage enough to whip his
wife two or three times, as he sometimes whipped his slaves, and to
compel her to observe a rule of conduct befitting her sex, I should have
had a tolerable time of my servitude with him; and should, in all
probability, have been a slave in Georgia until this day. Before my
mistress came, we had meat in abundance, for my master had left his keys
with me, and I dealt out the provisions to the people.
Lest my master should complain of me at his return, or suspect that I
had not been faithful to my trust, I had only allowed ourselves (for I
fared in common with the others) one meal of meat in each day. We had
several cows that supplied us with milk, and a barrel of molasses was
among the stores of provisions. We had mush, sweet potatoes, milk,
molasses, and sometimes butter for breakfast and supper, and meat for
dinner. Had we been permitted to enjoy this fine fare after the arrival
of our mistress, and had she been a woman of kindly disposition and
lady-like manners, I should have considered myself well off in the
world; for I was now living in as good a country as I ever saw, and I
much doubt if there is a better one any where.
Our mistress gave us a specimen of her character on the first morning
after her arrival amongst us, by beating severely, with a raw cow-hide,
the black girl who nursed the infant, because the child cried, and could
not be kept silent. I perceived by this that my mistress possessed no
control over her passions; and that when enraged she would find some
victim to pour her fury upon, without regard to justice or mercy.
When we were called to dinner to-day, we had no meat, and a very short
supply of bread; our meal being composed of badly cooked sweet potatoes,
some bread, and a very small quantity of sour milk. From this time our
allowance of meat was withdrawn from us altogether, and we had to live
upon our bread, potatoes, and the little milk that our mistress
permitted us to have. The most vexatious part of the new discipline was
the distinction that was made between us, who were on the plantation
before our mistress came to it, and the slaves that she brought with
her. To these latter, she gave the best part of the sour milk, all the
buttermilk, and I believe frequently rations of meat.
We were not on our part (I mean us of the old stock) wholly without
meat, for our master sometimes gave us a whole flitch of bacon at once;
this he had stolen from his own smoke-house--I say stolen, because he
took it without the knowledge of my mistress, and always charged us in
the most solemn manner not to let her know that we had received it. She
was as negligent of the duties of a good housewife, as she was arrogant
in assuming the control of things not within the sphere of her domestic
duties, and never missed the bacon that our master gave to us, because
she had not taken the trouble of examining the state of the meat-house.
Obtaining all the meat we ate by stealth, through our master, our
supplies were not regular, coming once or twice a week, according to
circumstances. However, as I was satisfied of the good intentions of my
master towards me, I felt interested in his welfare, and in a short time
became warmly attached to him. He fared but little better at the hands
of my mistress than I did, except as he ate at the same table with her,
he always had enough of comfortable food; but in the matter of ill
language, I believe my master and I might safely have put our goods
together as a joint stock in trade, without either the one or the other
being greatly the loser. I had secured the good opinion of my master,
and it was perceivable by any one that he had more confidence in me than
in any of his other slaves, and often treated me as the foreman of his
people.
This aroused the indignation of my mistress, who, with all her ill
qualities, retained a sort of selfish esteem for the slaves who had come
with her from her father's estate. She seldom saw me without giving me
her customary salutation of profanity; and she exceeded all other
persons that I have ever known in the quickness and sarcasm of the jibes
and jeers with which she seasoned her oaths. To form any fair conception
of her volubility and scurrilous wit, it was necessary to hear her, more
especially on Sunday morning or a rainy day, when the people were all
loitering about the kitchens, which stood close round her dwelling. She
treated my master with no more ceremony than she did me. Misery loves
company, it is said, and I verily believe that my master and I felt a
mutual attachment on account of our mutual sufferings.