PECULIARITIES OF PLANTATION LABOR.
Resuming Operation.--Difficulties in the Way.--A New Method of Healing
the Sick.--A Thief Discovered by his Ignorance of Arithmetic.--How
Cotton is Planted.--The Uses of Cotton-Seed.--A Novel
Sleeping-Room.--Constructing a Tunnel.--Vigilance of a Negro Sentinel.
On the 24th of March a small post was established at Waterproof, and
on the following day we recommenced our enterprise at the plantation.
We were much crippled, as nearly all our mules were gone, and the work
of replacing them could not be done in a day. The market at Natchez
was not supplied with mules, and we were forced to depend upon the
region around us. Three days after the establishment of the post we
were able to start a half-dozen plows, and within two weeks we had
our original force in the field. The negroes that had left during the
raid, returned to us. Under the superintendence of our overseer
the work was rapidly pushed. Richmond was back again on our smaller
plantation, whence he had fled during the disturbances, and was
displaying an energy worthy of the highest admiration.
Our gangs were out in full force. There was the trash-gang clearing
the ground for the plows, and the plow-gang busy at its appropriate
work. The corn-gang, with two ox-teams, was gathering corn at the rate
of a hundred bushels daily, and the fence-gang was patting the fences
in order. The shelling-gang (composed of the oldest men and women)
was husking and shelling corn, and putting it in sacks for market.
The gardener, the stock-tenders, the dairy-maids, nurserymaids,
hog-minders, and stable-keepers were all in their places, and we began
to forget our recent troubles in the apparent prospect of success.
One difficulty of the new system presented itself. Several of the
negroes began to feign sickness, and cheat the overseer whenever it
could be done with impunity. It is a part of the overseer's duty to go
through the quarters every morning, examine such as claim to be sick,
determine whether their sickness be real or pretended, and make the
appropriate prescriptions. Under the old system the pretenders were
treated to a liberal application of the lash, which generally drove
away all fancied ills. Sometimes, one who was really unwell, was
most unmercifully flogged by the overseer, and death not unfrequently
ensued from this cause.
As there was now no fear of the lash, some of the lazily-inclined
negroes would feign sickness, and thus be excused from the field. The
trouble was not general, but sufficiently prevalent to be annoying. We
saw that some course must be devised to overcome this evil, and keep
in the field all who were really able to be there.
We procured some printed tickets, which the overseer was to issue
at the close of each day. There were three colors--red, yellow, and
white. The first were for a full day's work, the second for a half
day, and the last for a quarter day. On the face of each was the
following:--
AQUASCO & MONONO
PLANTATIONS.
1864.
These tickets were given each day to such as deserved them. They were
collected every Saturday, and proper credit given for the amount of
labor performed during the week. The effect was magical. The day
after the adoption of our ticket system our number of sick was reduced
one-half, and we had no further trouble with pretended patients.
Colburn and myself, in our new character of "doctors," found our
practice greatly diminished in consequence of our innovations.
Occasionally it would happen that one who was not really able to work,
would go to the field through a fear of diminished wages.
One Saturday night, a negro whom we had suspected of thievish
propensities, presented eight full-day tickets as the representative
of his week's work.
"Did you earn all these this week?" I asked.
"Yes, sir," was the reply; "Mr. Owen gave them to me. I worked every
day, straight along."
"Can you tell me on which days he gave you each ticket?"
"Oh, yes. I knows every one of them," said the negro, his countenance
expressing full belief in his ability to locate each ticket.
As I held the tickets in my hand, the negro picked them out. "Mr. Owen
gave me this one Monday, this one Tuesday," and so on, toward the end
of the week. As he reached Friday, and saw three tickets remaining,
when there was only another day to be accounted for, his face suddenly
fell. I pretended not to notice his embarrassment.
"Which one did he give you to-day?"
There was a stammer, a hesitation, a slight attempt to explain, and
then the truth came out. He had stolen the extra tickets from two
fellow-laborers only a few minutes before, and had not reflected
upon the difficulties of the situation. I gave him some good advice,
required him to restore the stolen tickets, and promise he would not
steal any more. I think he kept the promise during the remainder of
his stay on the plantation, but am by no means certain.
Every day, when the weather was favorable, our work was pushed. Every
mule that could be found was put at once into service, and by the
15th of April we had upward of five hundred acres plowed and ready for
planting. We had planted about eighty acres of corn during the first
week of April, and arranged to commence planting cotton on Monday,
the 18th of the month. On the Saturday previous, the overseer on each
plantation organized his planting-gangs, and placed every thing in
readiness for active work.
The ground, when plowed for cotton, is thrown into a series of ridges
by a process technically known as "four-furrowing." Two furrows are
turned in one direction and two in another, thus making a ridge
four or five feet wide. Along the top of this ridge a "planter," or
"bull-tongue," is drawn by a single mule, making a channel two or
three inches in depth. A person carrying a bag of cotton seed follows
the planter and scatters the seed into the channel. A small harrow
follows, covering the seed, and the work of planting is complete.
A planting-gang consists of drivers for the planters, drivers for the
harrows, persons who scatter the seed, and attendants to supply
them with seed. The seed is drawn from the gin-house to the field
in ox-wagons, and distributed in convenient piles of ten or twenty
bushels each.
Cotton-seed has never been considered of any appreciable value, and
consequently the negroes are very wasteful in using it. In sowing it
in the field, they scatter at least twenty times as much as necessary,
and all advice to use less is unheeded. It is estimated that there are
forty bushels of seed to every bale of cotton produced. A plantation
that sends a thousand bales of cotton to market will thus have forty
thousand bushels of seed, for which there was formerly no sale.
With the most lavish use of the article, there was generally a surplus
at the end of the year. Cattle and sheep will eat cotton-seed, though
not in large quantities. Boiled cotton-seed is fed to hogs on all
plantations, but it is far behind corn in nutritious and fattening
qualities. Cotton-seed is packed around the roots of small trees,
where it is necessary to give them warmth or furnish a rich soil for
their growth. To some extent it is used as fuel for steam-engines, on
places where the machinery is run by steam. When the war deprived the
Southern cities of a supply of coal for their gasworks, many of them
found cotton seed a very good substitute. Oil can be extracted from it
in large quantities. For several years, the Cotton-Seed Oil Works of
Memphis carried on an extensive business. Notwithstanding the many
uses to which cotton-seed can be applied, its great abundance makes it
of little value.
The planting-gang which we started on that Monday morning, consisted
of five planters and an equal number of harrows, sowers, etc. Each
planter passed over about six acres daily, so that every day gave us
thirty acres of our prospective cotton crop. At the end of the week
we estimated we had about a hundred and seventy acres planted. On the
following week we increased the number of planters, but soon reduced
them, as we found we should overtake the plows earlier than we
desired. By the evening of Monday, May 2d, we had planted upward of
four hundred acres. A portion of it was pushing out of the ground, and
giving promise of rapid growth.
During this period the business was under the direct superintendence
of our overseers, Mr. Owen being responsible for the larger
plantation, and Richmond for the smaller. Every day they were visited
by Colburn or myself--sometimes by both of us--and received directions
for the general management, which they carried out in detail. Knowing
the habits of the guerrillas, we did not think it prudent to sleep in
our house at the plantation. Those individuals were liable to announce
their presence at any hour of the night, by quietly surrounding the
house and requesting its inmates to make their appearance.
When I spent the night at the plantation, I generally slept on a pile
of cotton-seed, in an out-building to which I had secretly conveyed a
pair of blankets and a flour-bag. This bag, filled with seed, served
as my pillow, and though my bed lacked the elasticity of a spring
mattress, it was really quite comfortable. My sleeping-place was at
the foot of a huge pile of seed, containing many hundred bushels. One
night I amused myself by making a tunnel into this pile in much the
same way as a squirrel digs into a hillside. With a minute's warning
I could have "hunted my hole," taking my blankets with me. By filling
the entrance with seed, I could have escaped any ordinary search of
the building. I never had occasion to use my tunnel.
Generally, however, we staid in Waterproof, leaving there early in the
morning, taking breakfast at the upper plantation, inspecting the work
on both plantations, and, after dinner, returning to Waterproof. We
could obtain a better dinner at the plantation than Waterproof was
able to furnish us. Strawberries held out until late in the season,
and we had, at all times, chickens, eggs, and milk in abundance.
Whenever we desired roast lamb, our purveyor caused a good selection
to be made from our flock. Fresh pork was much too abundant for our
tastes, and we astonished the negroes and all other natives of that
region, by our seemingly Jewish propensities. Pork and corn-bread
are the great staples of life in that hot climate, where one would
naturally look for lighter articles of food.
Once I was detained on the plantation till after dark. As I rode
toward Waterproof, expecting the negro sentinel to challenge and halt
me, I was suddenly brought to a stand by the whistling of a bullet
close to my ear, followed by several others at wider range.
"Who comes there?"
"A friend, with the countersign."
"If that's so, come in. We thought you was the Rebels."
As I reached the picket, the corporal of the guard explained that they
were on duty for the first time, and did not well understand their
business. I agreed with him fully on the latter point. To fire upon a
solitary horseman, advancing at a walk, and challenge him afterward,
was something that will appear ridiculous in the eyes of all soldiers.
The corporal and all his men promised to do better next time, and
begged me not to report them at head-quarters. When I reached the
center of the town, I found the garrison had been alarmed at the
picket firing, and was turning out to repel the enemy. On my assurance
that I was the "enemy," the order to fall into line of battle was
countermanded.