Produced by David Reed and Liz Warren
WITH LEE IN VIRGINIA
A Story Of The American Civil War.
by G. A. Henty
PREFACE.
My Dear Lads:
The Great War between the Northern and Southern States of America
possesses a peculiar interest for us, not only because it was a struggle
between two sections of a people akin to us in race and language, but
because of the heroic courage with which the weaker party, with ill-fed,
ill-clad, ill-equipped regiments, for four years sustained the contest
with an adversary not only possessed of immense numerical superiority,
but having the command of the sea, and being able to draw its arms and
munitions of war from all the manufactories of Europe. Authorities still
differ as to the rights of the case. The Confederates firmly believed
that the States having voluntarily united, retained the right of
withdrawing from the Union when they considered it for their advantage
to do so. The Northerners took the opposite point of view, and an appeal
to arms became inevitable. During the first two years of the war the
struggle was conducted without inflicting unnecessary hardship upon the
general population. But later on the character of the war changed, and
the Federal armies carried wide-spread destruction wherever they
marched. Upon the other hand, the moment the struggle was over the
conduct of the conquerors was marked by a clemency and generosity
altogether unexampled in history, a complete amnesty being granted, and
none, whether soldiers or civilians, being made to suffer for their
share in the rebellion. The credit of this magnanimous conduct was to a
great extent due to Generals Grant and Sherman, the former of whom took
upon himself the responsibility of granting terms which, although they
were finally ratified by his government, were at the time received with
anger and indignation in the North. It was impossible, in the course of
a single volume, to give even a sketch of the numerous and complicated
operations of the war, and I have therefore confined myself to the
central point of the great struggle--the attempts of the Northern armies
to force their way to Richmond, the capital of Virginia and the heart of
the Confederacy. Even in recounting the leading events in these
campaigns, I have burdened my story with as few details as possible, it
being my object now, as always, to amuse as well as to give instruction
in the facts of history.
G. A. HENTY.
Contents
Chapter 1. A Virginian Plantation.
Chapter 2. Buying a Slave.
Chapter 3. Aiding a Runaway.
Chapter 4. Safely Back.
Chapter 5. Secession.
Chapter 6. Bull Run.
Chapter 7. The Merrimac and the Monitor.
Chapter 8. McClellan's Advance.
Chapter 9. A Prisoner.
Chapter 10. The Escape.
Chapter 11. Fugitives.
Chapter 12. The Bush-Whackers.
Chapter 13. Laid Up.
Chapter 14. Across the Border.
Chapter 15. Fredericksburg.
Chapter 16. The Search for Dinah.
Chapter 17. Chancellorsville.
Chapter 18. A Perilous Undertaking.
Chapter 19. Free.
Chapter 20. The End of the Struggle.
WITH LEE IN VIRGINIA:
A STORY OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
CHAPTER I. A VIRGINIAN PLANTATION.
"I won't have it, Pearson; so it's no use your talking. If I had my way
you shouldn't touch any of the field hands. And when I get my way--that
won't be so very long--I will take good care you sha'n't. But you
sha'n't hit Dan."
"He is not one of the regular house hands," was the reply; "and I shall
appeal to Mrs. Wingfield as to whether I am to be interfered with in the
discharge of my duties."
"You may appeal to my mother if you like, but I don't think that you
will get much by it. I tell you you are a deal too fond of that whip,
Pearson. It never was heard of on the estate during my father's time,
and it sha'n't be again when it comes to be mine, I can tell you. Come
along, Dan; I want you at the stables."
So saying, Vincent Wingfield turned on his heel, and followed by Dan, a
negro lad of some eighteen years old, he walked off toward the house,
leaving Jonas Pearson, the overseer of the Orangery estate, looking
after him with an evil expression of face.
Vincent Wingfield was the son of an English officer, who, making a tour
in the States, had fallen in love with and won the hand of Winifred
Cornish, a rich Virginian heiress, and one of the belles of Richmond.
After the marriage he had taken her home to visit his family in England;
but she had not been there many weeks before the news arrived of the
sudden death of her father. A month later she and her husband returned
to Virginia, as her presence was required there in reference to business
matters connected with the estate, of which she was now the mistress.
The Orangery, so called from a large conservatory built by Mrs.
Wingfield's grandfather, was the family seat, and the broad lands around
it were tilled by upward of two hundred slaves. There were in addition
three other properties lying in different parts of the State. Here
Vincent, with two sisters, one older and one younger than himself, had
been born. When he was eight years old Major and Mrs. Wingfield had gone
over with their children to England, and had left Vincent there for four
years at school, his holidays being spent at the house of his father's
brother, a country gentleman in Sussex. Then he had been sent for
unexpectedly; his father saying that his health was not good, and that
he should like his son to be with him. A year later his father died.
Vincent was now nearly sixteen years old, and would upon coming of age
assume the reins of power at the Orangery, of which his mother, however,
would be the actual mistress as long as she lived. The four years
Vincent had passed in the English school had done much to render the
institution of slavery repugnant to him, and his father had had many
serious talks with him during the last year of his life, and had shown
him that there was a good deal to be said upon both sides of the
subject.
"There are good plantations and bad plantations, Vincent; and there are
many more good ones than bad ones. There are brutes to be found
everywhere. There are bad masters in the Southern States just as there
are bad landlords in every European country. But even from self-interest
alone, a planter has greater reason for caring for the health and
comfort of his slaves than an English farmer has in caring for the
comfort of his laborers. Slaves are valuable property, and if they are
overworked or badly cared for they decrease in value. Whereas if the
laborer falls sick or is unable to do his work the farmer has simply to
hire another hand. It is as much the interest of a planter to keep his
slaves in good health and spirits as it is for a farmer to feed and
attend to his horses properly.
"Of the two, I consider that the slave with a fairly kind master is to
the full as happy as the ordinary English laborer. He certainly does not
work so hard, if he is ill he is carefully attended to, he is well fed,
he has no cares or anxieties whatever, and when old and past work he has
no fear of the workhouse staring him in the face. At the same time I am
quite ready to grant that there are horrible abuses possible under the
laws connected with slavery.
"The selling of slaves, that is to say, the breaking up of families and
selling them separately, is horrible and abominable. If an estate were
sold together with all the slaves upon it, there would be no more
hardship in the matter than there is when an estate changes hands in
England, and the laborers upon it work for the new master instead of the
old. Were I to liberate all the slaves on this estate to-morrow and to
send them North, I do not think that they would be in any way benefited
by the change. They would still have to work for their living as they do
now, and being naturally indolent and shiftless would probably fare much
worse. But against the selling of families separately and the use of the
lash I set my face strongly.
"At the same time, my boy, whatever your sentiments may be on this
subject, you must keep your mouth closed as to them. Owing to the
attempts of Northern Abolitionists, who have come down here stirring up
the slaves to discontent, it is not advisable, indeed it is absolutely
dangerous, to speak against slavery in the Southern States. The
institution is here, and we must make the best we can of it. People here
are very sore at the foul slanders that have been published by Northern
writers. There have been many atrocities perpetrated undoubtedly, by
brutes who would have been brutes whenever they had been born; but to
collect a series of such atrocities, to string them together into a
story, and to hold them up, as Mrs. Beecher Stowe has, as a picture of
slave-life in the Southern States, is as gross a libel as if any one
were to make a collection of all the wife-beatings and assaults of
drunken English ruffians, and to publish them as a picture of the
average life of English people.
"Such libels as these have done more to embitter the two sections of
America against each other than anything else. Therefore, Vincent, my
advice to you is, be always kind to your slaves--not over-indulgent,
because they are very like children and indulgence spoils them--but be
at the same time firm and kind to them, and with other people avoid
entering into any discussions or expressing any opinion with regard to
slavery. You can do no good and you can do much harm. Take things as you
find them and make the best of them. I trust that the time may come when
slavery will be abolished; but I hope, for the sake of the slaves
themselves, that when this is done it will be done gradually and
thoughtfully, for otherwise it would inflict terrible hardship and
suffering upon them as well as upon their masters."
There were many such conversations between father and son, for feeling
on the subject ran very high in the Southern States, and the former felt
that it was of the utmost importance to his son that he should avoid
taking any strong line in the matter. Among the old families of Virginia
there was indeed far less feeling on this subject than in some of the
other States. Knowing the good feeling that almost universally existed
between themselves and their slaves, the gentry of Virginia regarded
with contempt the calumnies of which they were the subject. Secure in
the affection of their slaves, an affection which was afterward
abundantly proved during the course of the war, they scarcely saw the
ugly side of the question. The worst masters were the smallest ones; the
man who owned six slaves was far more apt to extort the utmost possible
work from them than the planter who owned three or four hundred. And the
worst masters of all were those who, having made a little money in trade
or speculation in the towns, purchased a dozen slaves, a small piece of
land, and tried to set up as gentry.
In Virginia the life of the large planters was almost a patriarchal one;
the indoor slaves were treated with extreme indulgence, and were
permitted a far higher degree of freedom of remark and familiarity than
is the case with servants in an English household. They had been the
nurses or companions of the owners when children, had grown up with
them, and regarded themselves, and were regarded by them, as almost part
of the family. There was, of course, less connection between the
planters and their field hands; but these also had for the most part
been born on the estate, had as children been taught to look up to their
white masters and mistresses, and to receive many little kindnesses at
their hands.
They had been cared for in sickness, and knew that they would be
provided for in old age. Each had his little allotment, and could raise
fruit, vegetables, and fowls for his own use or for sale in his leisure
time. The fear of loss of employment or the pressure of want, ever
present to English laborers, had never fallen upon them. The climate was
a lovely one, and their work far less severe than that of men forced to
toil in cold and wet, winter and summer. The institution of slavery
assuredly was capable of terrible abuses, and was marked in many
instances by abominable cruelty and oppression; but taken all in all,
the negroes on a well-ordered estate, under kind masters, were probably
a happier class of people than the laborers upon any estate in Europe.
Jonas Pearson had been overseer in the time of Major Wingfield, but his
authority had at that time been comparatively small, for the major
himself personally supervised the whole working of the estate, and was
greatly liked by the slaves, whose chief affections were, however,
naturally bestowed upon their mistress, who had from childhood been
brought up in their midst. Major Wingfield had not liked his overseer,
but he had never had any ground to justify him making a change. Jonas,
who was a Northern man, was always active and energetic; all Major
Wingfield's orders were strictly and punctually carried out, and
although he disliked the man, his employer acknowledged him to be an
excellent servant.
After the major's death, Jonas Pearson had naturally obtained greatly
increased power and authority. Mrs. Wingfield had great confidence in
him, his accounts were always clear and precise, and although the
profits of the estate were not quite so large as they had been in her
husband's lifetime, this was always satisfactorily explained by a fall
in prices, or by a part of the crops being affected by the weather. She
flattered herself that she herself managed the estate, and at times rode
over it, made suggestions, and issued orders, but this was only in fits
and starts; and although Jonas came up two or three times a week to the
house nominally to receive her orders, he managed her so adroitly that
while she believed that everything was done by her directions, she in
reality only followed out the suggestions which, in the first place,
came from him.
She was aware, however, that there was less content and happiness on the
estate than there had been in the old times. Complaints had reached her
from time to time of overwork and harsh treatment. But upon inquiring
into these matters, Jonas had always such plausible reasons to give that
she was convinced he was in the right, and that the fault was among the
slaves themselves, who tried to take advantage of the fact that they had
no longer a master's eye upon them, and accordingly tried to shirk work,
and to throw discredit upon the man who looked after the interests of
their mistress; and so gradually Mrs. Wingfield left the management of
affairs more and more in the hands of Jonas, and relied more implicitly
upon him.
The overseer spared no pains to gain the good-will of Vincent. When the
latter declared that the horse he rode had not sufficient life and
spirit for him, Jonas had set inquiries on foot, and had selected for
him a horse which, for speed and bottom, had no superior in the State.
One of Mrs. Wingfield's acquaintances, however, upon hearing that she
had purchased the animal, told her that it was notorious for its vicious
temper, and she spoke angrily to Jonas on the subject in the presence of
Vincent. The overseer excused himself by saying that he had certainly
heard that the horse was high spirited and needed a good rider, and that
he should not have thought of selecting it had he not known that Mr.
Vincent was a first-class rider, and would not care to have a horse that
any child could manage.
The praise was not undeserved. The gentlemen of Virginia were celebrated
as good riders; and Major Wingfield, himself a cavalry man, had been
anxious that Vincent should maintain the credit of his English blood,
and had placed him on a pony as soon as he was able to sit on one. A
pony had been kept for his use during his holidays at his uncle's in
England, and upon his return Vincent had, except during the hours he
spent with his father, almost lived on horseback, either riding about
the estate, or paying visits to the houses of other planters.
For an hour or more every day he exercised his father's horses in a
paddock near the house, the major being wheeled down in an easy-chair
and superintending his riding. As these horses had little to do and were
full of spirit, Vincent's powers were often taxed to the utmost, and he
had many falls; but the soil was light, and he had learned the knack of
falling easily, and from constant practice was able at the age of
fourteen to stick on firmly even without a saddle, and was absolutely
fearless as to any animal he mounted.
In the two years which had followed he had kept up his riding. Every
morning after breakfast he rode to Richmond, six miles distant, put up
his horse at some stable there, and spent three hours at school; the
rest of the day was his own, and he would often ride off with some of
his schoolfellows who had also come in from a distance, and not return
home till late in the evening. Vincent took after his English father
rather than his Virginian mother both in appearance and character, and
was likely to become as tall and brawny a man as the former had been
when he first won the love of the rich Virginian heiress.
He was full of life and energy, and in this respect offered a strong
contrast to most of his schoolfellows of the same age. For although
splendid riders and keen sportsmen, the planters of Virginia were in
other respects inclined to indolence; the result partly of the climate,
partly of their being waited upon from childhood by attendants ready to
carry out every wish. He had his father's cheerful disposition and good
temper, together with the decisive manner so frequently acquired by a
service in the army, and at the same time he had something of the warmth
and enthusiasm of the Virginian character.
Good rider as he was he was somewhat surprised at the horse the overseer
had selected for him. It was certainly a splendid animal, with great
bone and power; but there was no mistaking the expression of its
turned-back eye, and the ears that lay almost flat on the head when any
one approached him.
"It is a splendid animal, no doubt, Jonas," he said the first time he
inspected it; "but he certainly looks as if he had a beast of a temper.
I fear what was told my mother about him is no exaggeration; for Mr.
Markham told me to-day, when I rode down there with his son, and said
that we had bought Wildfire, that a friend of his had had him once, and
only kept him for a week, for he was the most vicious brute he ever
saw."
"I am sorry I have bought him now, sir," Jonas said. "Of course I should
not have done so if I had heard these things before; but I was told he
was one of the finest horses in the country, only a little tricky, and
as his price was so reasonable I thought it a great bargain. But I see
now I was wrong, and that it wouldn't be right for you to mount him; so
I think we had best send him in on Saturday to the market and let it go
for what it will fetch. You see, sir, if you had been three or four
years older it would have been different; but naturally at your age you
don't like to ride such a horse as that."
"I sha'n't give it up without a trial," Vincent said shortly. "It is
about the finest horse I ever saw; and if it hadn't been for its temper,
it would be cheap at five times the sum you gave for it. I have ridden a
good many bad-tempered horses for my friends during the last year, and
the worst of them couldn't get me off."
"Well, sir, of course you will do as you please," Jonas said; "but
please to remember if any harm comes of it that I strongly advised you
not to have anything to do with it, and I did my best to dissuade you
from trying."
Vincent nodded carelessly, and then turned to the black groom.
"Jake, get out that cavalry saddle of my father's, with the high cantle
and pommel, and the rolls for the knees. It's like an armchair, and if
one can't stick on on that, one deserves to be thrown."
While the groom was putting on the saddle, Vincent stood patting the
horse's head and talking to it, and then taking its rein led it down
into the inclosure.
"No, I don't want the whip," he said, as Jake offered him one. "I have
got the spurs, and likely enough the horse's temper may have been
spoiled by knocking it about with a whip; but we will try what kindness
will do with it first."
"Me no like his look, Massa Vincent; he debbil ob a hoss dat."
"I don't think he has a nice temper, Jake; but people learn to control
their temper, and I don't see why horses shouldn't. At any rate we will
have a try at it. He looks as if he appreciates being patted and spoken
to already. Of course if you treat a horse like a savage he will become
savage. Now, stand out of the way."
Gathering the reins together, and placing one hand upon the pommel,
Vincent sprang into the saddle without touching the stirrups; then he
sat for a minute or two patting the horse's neck. Wildfire, apparently
disgusted at having allowed himself to be mounted so suddenly, lashed
out viciously two or three times, and then refused to move. For half an
hour Vincent tried the effect of patient coaxing, but in vain.
"Well, if you won't do it by fair means you must by foul," Vincent said
at last, and sharply pricked him with his spurs.
Wildfire sprang into the air, and then began a desperate series of
efforts to rid himself of his rider, rearing and kicking in such quick
succession that he seemed half the time in the air. Finding after awhile
that his efforts were unavailing, he subsided at last into sulky
immovability. Again Vincent tried coaxing and patting, but as no success
attended these efforts, he again applied the spur sharply. This time the
horse responded by springing forward like an arrow from a bow, dashed at
the top of his speed across the inclosure, cleared the high fence
without an effort, and then set off across the country.
He had attempted to take the bit in his teeth, but with a sharp jerk as
he drove the spurs in, Vincent had defeated his intention. He now did
not attempt to check or guide him, but keeping a light hand on the reins
let him go his own course. Vincent knew that so long as the horse was
going full speed it could attempt no trick to unseat him, and he
therefore sat easily in his saddle.
For six miles Wildfire continued his course, clearing every obstacle
without abatement to his speed, and delighting his rider with his power
and jumping qualities. Occasionally, only when the course he was taking
would have led him to obstacles impossible for the best jumper to
surmount, Vincent attempted to put the slightest pressure upon one rein
or the other, so as to direct it to an easier point.
At the end of six miles the horse's speed began slightly to abate, and
Vincent, abstaining from the use of his spurs, pressed it with his knees
and spoke to it cheerfully urging it forward. He now from time to time
bent forward and patted it, and for another six miles kept it going at a
speed almost as great as that at which it had started. Then he allowed
it gradually to slacken its pace, until at last first the gallop and
then the trot ceased, and it broke into a walk.
"You have had a fine gallop, old fellow," Vincent said, patting it; "and
so have I. There's been nothing for you to lose your temper about, and
the next road we come upon we will turn our face homeward. Half a dozen
lessons like this, and then no doubt we shall be good friends."
The journey home was performed at a walk, Vincent talking the greater
part of the time to the horse. It took a good deal more than six lessons
before Wildfire would start without a preliminary struggle with his
master, but in the end kindness and patience conquered. Vincent often
visited the horse in the stables, and, taking with him an apple or some
pieces of sugar, spent some time there talking to and petting it. He
never carried a whip, and never used the spurs except in forcing it to
make its first start.
Had the horse been naturally ill-tempered Vincent would probably have
failed, but, as he happened afterward to learn, its first owner had been
a hot-tempered and passionate young planter, who, instead of being
patient with it, had beat it about the head, and so rendered it restive
and bad-tempered. Had Vincent not laid aside his whip before mounting it
for the first time, he probably would never have effected a cure. It was
the fact that the animal had no longer a fear of his old enemy the whip
as much as the general course of kindness and good treatment that had
effected the change in his behavior.
It was just when Vincent had established a good under-standing between
himself and Wildfire that he had the altercation with the overseer, whom
he found about to flog the young negro Dan. Pearson had sent the lad
half an hour before on a message to some slaves at work at the other end
of the estate, and had found him sitting on the ground watching a tree
in which he had discovered a possum. That Dan deserved punishment was
undoubted. He had at present no regular employment upon the estate.
Jake, his father, was head of the stables, and Dan had made himself
useful in odd jobs about the horses, and expected to become one of the
regular stable hands. The overseer was of opinion that there were
already more negroes in the stable than could find employment, and had
urged upon Mrs. Wingfield that one of the hands there and the boy Dan
should be sent out to the fields. She, however, refused.
"I know you are quite right, Jonas, in what you say. But there were
always four hands in the stable in my father's time, and there always
have been up to now; and though I know they have an easy time of it, I
certainly should not like to send any of them out to the fields. As to
Dan, we will think about it. When his father was about his age he used
to lead my pony when I first took to riding, and when there is a vacancy
Dan must come into the stable. I could not think of sending him out as a
field hand, in the first place for his father's sake, but still more for
that of Vincent. Dan used to be told off to see that he did not get into
mischief when he was a little boy, and he has run messages and been his
special boy since he came back. Vincent wanted to have him as his
regular house servant; but it would have broken old Sam's heart if,
after being my father's boy and my husband's, another had taken his
place as Vincent's."
And so Dan had remained in the stable, but regarding Vincent as his
special master, carrying notes for him to his friends, or doing any odd
jobs he might require, and spending no small portion of his time in
sleep. Thus he was an object of special dislike to the overseer; in the
first place because he had not succeeded in having his way with regard
to him, and in the second because he was a useless hand, and the
overseer loved to get as much work as possible out of every one on the
estate. The message had been a somewhat important one, as he wanted the
slaves for some work that was urgently required; and he lost his temper,
or he would not have done an act which would certainly bring him into
collision with Vincent.
He was well aware that the lad did not really like him, and that his
efforts to gain his good-will had failed, and he had foreseen that
sooner or later there would be a struggle for power between them.
However, he relied upon his influence with Mrs. Wingfield, and upon the
fact that she was the life-owner of the Orangery, and believed that he
would be able to maintain his position even when Vincent came of age.
Vincent on his side objected altogether to the overseer's treatment of
the hands, of which he heard a good deal from Dan, and had already
remonstrated with his mother on the subject. He, however, gained nothing
by this. Mrs. Wingfield had replied that he was too young to interfere
in such matters, that his English ideas would not do in Virginia, and
that naturally the slaves were set against the overseer; and that now
Pearson had no longer a master to support him, he was obliged to be more
severe than before to enforce obedience. At the same time it vexed her
at heart that there should be any severity on the Orangery estate, where
the best relations had always prevailed between the masters and slaves,
and she had herself spoken to Jonas on the subject.
He had given her the same answer that she had given her son: "The slaves
will work for a master, Mrs. Wingfield, in a way they will not for a
stranger. They set themselves against me, and if I were not severe with
them I should get no work at all out of them. Of course, if you wish it,
they can do as they like; but in that case they must have another
overseer. I cannot see a fine estate going to ruin. I believe myself
some of these Abolition fellows have been getting among them and doing
them mischief, and that there is a bad spirit growing up among them. I
can assure you that I am as lenient with them as is possible to be. But
if they won't work I must make them, so long as I stay here."
And so the overseer had had his way. She knew that the man was a good
servant, and that the estate was kept in excellent order. After all, the
severities of which she had heard complaints were by no means excessive;
and it was not to be expected that a Northern overseer could rule
entirely by kindness, as the owner of an estate could do. A change would
be most inconvenient to her, and she would have difficulty in suiting
herself so well another time. Besides, the man had been with her sixteen
years, and was, as she believed, devoted to her interests. Therefore she
turned a deaf ear to Vincent's remonstrances.
She had always been somewhat opposed to his being left in England at
school, urging that he would learn ideas there that would clash with
those of the people among whom his life was to be spent; and she still
considered that her views had been justified by the result.
The overseer was the first to give his version of the story about Dan's
conduct; for on going to the house Vincent found his sisters, Rosa and
Annie, in the garden, having just returned from a two days' visit to
some friends in Richmond, and stayed chatting with them and listening to
their news for an hour, and in the meantime Jonas had gone in and seen
Mrs. Wingfield and told his story.
"I think, Mrs. Wingfield," he said when he had finished, "that it will
be better for me to leave you. It is quite evident that I can have no
authority over the hands if your son is to interfere when I am about to
punish a slave for an act of gross disobedience and neglect. I found
that all the tobacco required turning, and now it will not be done this
afternoon owing to my orders not being carried out, and the tobacco will
not improbably be injured in quality. My position is difficult enough as
it is; but if the slaves see that instead of being supported I am
thwarted by your son, my authority is gone altogether. No overseer can
carry on his work properly under such circumstances."
"I will see to the matter, Jonas," Mrs. Wingfield said decidedly. "Be
assured that you have my entire support, and I will see that my son does
not again interfere."
When, therefore, Vincent entered the house and began his complaint he
found himself cut short.
"I have heard the story already, Vincent. Dan acted in gross
disobedience, and thoroughly deserved the punishment Jonas was about to
give him. The work of the estate cannot be carried on if such conduct is
to be tolerated; and once for all, I will permit no interference on your
part with Jonas. If you have any complaints to make, come to me and make
them; but you are not yourself to interfere in any way with the
overseer. As for Dan, I have directed Jonas that the next time he gives
cause for complaint he is to go into the fields."
Vincent stood silent for a minute, then he said quietly:
"Very well, mother. Of course you can do as you like; but at any rate I
will not keep my mouth shut when I see that fellow ill-treating the
slaves. Such things were never done in my father's time, and I won't see
them done now. You said the other day you would get me a nomination to
West Point as soon as I was sixteen. I should be glad if you would do
so. By the time I have gone through the school, you will perhaps see
that I have been right about Jonas."
So saying, he turned and left the room and again joined his sisters in
the drawing-room.
"I have just told mother that I will go to West Point, girls," he said.
"Father said more than once that he thought it was the best education I
could get in America."
"But I thought you had made up your mind that you would rather stop at
home, Vincent?"
"So I had, and so I would have done, but mother and I differ in opinion.
That fellow Jonas was going to flog Dan, and I stopped him this morning,
and mother takes his part against me. You know, I don't like the way he
goes on with the slaves. They are not half so merry and happy as they
used to be, and I don't like it. We shall have one of them running away
next, and that will be a nice thing on what used to be considered one of
the happiest plantations in Virginia. I can't make mother out; I should
have thought that she would have been the last person in the world to
have allowed the slaves to be harshly treated."
"I am sure we don't like Jonas more than you do, Vincent; but you see
mamma has to depend upon him so much. No, I don't think she can like it;
but you can't have everything you like in a man, and I know she thinks
he is a very good overseer. I suppose she could get another?"
Vincent said he thought that there could not be much difficulty about
getting an overseer.
"There might be a difficulty in getting one she could rely on so
thoroughly," Rosa said. "You see a great deal must be left to him. Jonas
has been here a good many years now, and she has learned to trust him.
It would be a long time before she had the same confidence in a
stranger; and you may be sure that he would have his faults, though,
perhaps, not the same as those of Jonas. I think you don't make
allowance enough for mamma, Vincent. I quite agree with you as to Jonas,
and I don't think mamma can like his harshness to the slaves any more
than you do; but every one says what a difficulty it is to get a really
trustworthy and capable overseer, and, of course, it is all the harder
when there is no master to look after him."
"Well, in a few years I shall be able to look after an overseer,"
Vincent said.
"You might do so, of course, Vincent, if you liked; but unless you
change a good deal, I don't think your supervision would amount to much.
When you are not at school you are always on horseback and away, and we
see little enough of you, and I do not think you are likely for a long
time yet to give up most of your time to looking after the estate."
"Perhaps you are right," Vincent said, after thinking for a minute; "but
I think I could settle down too, and give most of my time to the estate,
if I was responsible for it. I dare say mother is in a difficulty over
it, and I should not have spoken as I did; I will go in and tell her
so."
Vincent found his mother sitting as he had left her. Although she had
sided with Jonas, it was against her will; for it was grievous to her to
hear complaints of the treatment of the slaves at the Orangery. Still,
as Rosa had said, she felt every confidence in her overseer, and
believed that he was an excellent servant. She was conscious that she
herself knew nothing of business, and that she must therefore give her
entire confidence to her manager. She greatly disliked the strictness of
Jonas; but if, as he said, the slaves would not obey him without, he
must do as he thought best.
"I think I spoke too hastily, mother," Vincent said as he entered; "and
I am sure that you would not wish the slaves to be ill-treated more than
I should. I dare say Jonas means for the best."
"I feel sure that he does, Vincent. A man in his position cannot make
himself obeyed like a master. I wish it could be otherwise, and I will
speak to him on the subject; but it will not do to interfere with him
too much. A good overseer is not easy to get, and the slaves are always
ready to take advantage of leniency. An easy master makes bad work, but
an easy overseer would mean ruin to an estate. I am convinced that Jonas
has our interests at heart, and I will tell him that I particularly wish
that he will devise some other sort of punishment, such as depriving men
who won't work of some of their privileges instead of using the lash."
"Thank you, mother. At any rate, he might be told that the lash is never
to be used without first appealing to you."
"I will see about it, Vincent, and talk it over with him." And with that
Vincent was satisfied.