"I found the farm everything he had described it--a large plantation
with a good wooden house, and well-enclosed fields. I immediately set
about `stocking' it with my remaining cash. What was my surprise to
find that I must spend the greater part of this in _buying men_! Yes--
there was no alternative. There were no labourers to be had in the
place--except such as were slaves--and these I must either buy for
myself, or hire from their masters, which, in point of morality,
amounted to the same thing.
"Thinking that I might treat them with at least as much humanity, as
they appeared to receive from others, I chose the former course; and
purchasing a number of blacks, both men and women, I began life as a
planter. After such a bargain as that, I did not deserve to prosper;
and I did not prosper, as you shall see.
"My first crop failed; in fact, it scarcely returned me the seed. The
second was still worse; and to my mortification I now ascertained the
cause of the failure. I had come into possession of a `worn-out' farm.
The land looked well, and on sight you would have called it a fertile
tract. When I first saw it myself, I was delighted with my purchase--
which seemed indeed a great bargain for the small sum of money I had
paid. But appearances are often deceptive; and never was there a
greater deception than my beautiful plantation in Virginia. It was
utterly worthless. It had been cropped for many years with maize, and
cotton, and tobacco. These had been regularly carried off the land, and
not a stalk or blade suffered to return to the soil. As a natural fact,
known to almost every one, the vegetable or organic matter will thus in
time become exhausted, and nothing will remain but inorganic or purely
mineral substances, which of themselves cannot nourish vegetation, and
of course can give no crop. This is the reason why manure is spread
upon land--the manure consisting of substances that are for the most
part organic, and contain the principles of life and vegetation. Of
course, gentlemen, these things are known to you; but you will pardon my
digression, as my children are listening to me, and I never lose an
opportunity of instructing them in facts that may hereafter be useful to
them.
"Well, as I have said, I had no crops, or rather very bad ones, for the
first and second years. On the third it was, if possible, still worse;
and on the fourth and fifth no better than ever. I need hardly add that
by this time I was ruined, or very nearly so. The expense of feeding
and clothing my poor negroes had brought me in debt to a considerable
amount. I could not have lived longer on my worthless plantation, even
had I desired it. I was compelled, in order to pay my debts, to sell
out everything--farm, cattle, and negroes. No, I did not sell all.
There was one honest fellow to whom both Mary and I had become attached.
I was resolved not to sell him into slavery. He had served us
faithfully. It was he who first told me how I had been tricked; and,
sympathising in my misfortune, he endeavoured--both by industry on his
own part, and by encouraging his fellow-labourers--to make the
ungrateful soil yield me a return. His efforts had been vain, but I
determined to repay him for his rude but honest friendship. I gave him
his liberty. He would not accept it. He would not part from us. He is
there!"
As the narrator said this, he pointed to Cudjo, who stood hanging by the
door-post; and, delighted at these compliments which were being paid
him, was showing his white teeth in a broad and affectionate smile.