Part 10 (1/2)
[102] GEORGE E. ELAND, _The Purefoy Letters_ (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., 1931), vol. 1, pp. 98, 107, 111, 177, and pl. 11.
LIGHTING DEVICES
Artificial lighting for the manor house receives spa.r.s.e mention. The four candlesticks bought in 1744 for a penny each were probably of iron or tin for kitchen use. Candlesticks purchased earlier probably remained in use, sufficing for most illumination. It is a modern misconception that colonial houses were ablaze at night with lamplight and candlelight. Candles were expensive to buy and time-consuming to make, while lamps rarely were used before the end of the century in the more refined areas of households. The princ.i.p.al use of candles was in guiding one's way to bed or in providing the minimum necessary light to carry on an evening's conversation. During cold weather, fireplaces were a satisfactory supplement. In general, early to bed and early to rise was the rule, as William Byrd has shown us, and artificial light was only a minor necessity.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 13.--TABLE-DESK made in 1749 for Henry Purefoy of Shalstone Manor in Buckinghams.h.i.+re by John Belchier of London. In the following year, John Mercer received 43 13s. worth of ”Cabinet Ware”
from that noted cabinetmaker. (_Reproduced from_ Purefoy Letters, 1735-1753, _G. Bland, ed., Sidgwick and Jackson, Ltd., London, 1931, by courteous permission of the publisher_.)]
Nevertheless, some illumination was needed in the halls and great rooms of colonial plantation houses, especially when guests were present--as they usually were. The three sconce gla.s.ses which Captain Lyndon delivered to Mercer in 1748 were doubtless elegant answers to this requirement. These gla.s.ses were mirrors with one or more candle branches, arranged so that the light would be reflected and multiplied.
On special occasions, these, and perhaps some candelabra and a scattering of candlesticks to supplement them, provided concentrations of light; for such affairs the use of ordinary tallow candles, with their drippings and smoke, was out of the question. A pleasant alternative is indicated by the purchase in April 1749 of ”11-1/2 lib.
Myrtle Wax att 5d ... 14.4-1/2” and ”4 lib Beeswax 6/” from Thomas Jones of the Eastern Sh.o.r.e. Similar purchases also are recorded. Myrtle wax came from what the Virginians called the myrtle bush, better known today as the bayberry bush. Its gray berries yielded a fragrant aromatic wax much favored in the colonies. In making candles it was usually mixed with beeswax, as was evidently the case here. A clean-burning, superior light source, it was nonetheless an expensive one. Burning in the brackets of the sconce gla.s.ses at Marlborough, heightening the shadows of the Palladian woodwork and, when snuffed, emitting its faint but delicious fragrance, it must have been a delight to the eyes and the nostrils alike.
NEGROES
Negroes played an increasingly important part in the life of Marlborough, particularly after the manor house was built. Between 1731 and 1750 Mercer purchased 89 Negroes. Most of these are listed by name in the ledger accounts. Forty-six died in this period, while 25 were born, leaving a total of 66 Negroes on his staff in 1750. In 1746 he bought 6 men and 14 women at 21 10s. from Harmer & King in Williamsburg. The new house and the expanded needs for service were perhaps the reasons for this largest single purchase of slaves.
There is no indication that Mercer treated his slaves other than well, or that they caused him any serious difficulties. On the other hand, his frequent reference to them by name, the recording of their children's names and birth dates in his ledger, and the mention in his journal of new births among his slave population all attest to an essentially paternalistic att.i.tude that was characteristic of most Virginia planters during the 18th century. Good physical care of the Negroes was motivated perhaps as much by self-interest in protecting an investment as by humane considerations, but, nonetheless, we find such items in the ledger as ”To Cash p^d Doctor Lynn for delivering Deborah.”
That discipline served for the Negroes as it usually did for all colonials, whether the lawbreaker were slave, bondsman, or free citizen, is indicated by an entry in the d.i.c.k account: ”2 thongs w^{th} Silk lashes 1/3.” One must bear in mind that corporal punishment was accepted universally in the 18th century. Its application to slaves, however, usually was left to the discretion of the slave owner, so that the restraint with which it was administered depended largely upon the humanity and wisdom of the master.
The use of the lash was more often than not delegated to the overseer, who was hired to run, or help run, the plantation. It was the overseer who had a direct interest in eliciting production from the field hands; a s.a.d.i.s.tic overseer, therefore, might create a h.e.l.l for the slaves under him. It is clear from Mercer's records that some of his overseers caused problems for him and that at least one was a brutal man. For October 1747 a chilling entry appears in the account of William Graham, an overseer at Bull Run Quarters: ”To Negroes for one you made hang himself. 35.” Entered in the ”Negroes” account, it reappears, somewhat differently: ”To William Graham for Frank (Hanged) 35 Sterling. 50.
15.” This is one of several instances on record of Negroes driven to suicide as the only alternative to enduring cruelties.[103] In this case, Graham was fined 50 s.h.i.+llings and 1293 pounds of tobacco.
We do not know, of course, whether other Negroes listed as dead in Mercer's account died of natural causes or whether cruel treatment contributed to their deaths. In the case of a homesick Negro named Joe, who ran away for the third time in 1745, Mercer seems reluctantly to have resorted to an offer of reward and an appeal to the law. Even so, he declined to place all the blame on Joe. Joe had been ”Coachman to Mr. Belfield of Richmond County” and in the reward offer Mercer states that Joe
... was for some time after he first ran away lurking about the Widow Belfield's Plantation.... He is a short, well-set Fellow, about 26 Years of Age, and took with him several cloaths, among the rest a Suit of Blue, lined and faced with Red, with White Metal b.u.t.tons, Whoever will secure and bring home the said Negroe, shall receive Two Pistoles Reward, besides what the Law allows: And as I have a great Reason to believe, that he is privately encouraged to run away, and then harboured and concealed, so that the Person or Persons so harbouring him may be thereof convicted, I will pay to such Discoverer Ten Pistoles upon Conviction. This being the third Trip he has made since I bought him in _January_ last, I desire he may receive such Correction in his Way home as the Law directs, when apprehended.[104]
Whether Joe received the harsh punishment his offense called for is not recorded. However, in 1748 Mercer accounted for cash paid for ”Joe's Lodging & burial 3. 10.,” suggesting that Joe enjoyed death-bed care and a decent burial, even though he may have succ.u.mbed to ”such correction ... as the law directs.”
As has already been suggested, his overseers seem to have given Mercer more trouble than his slaves. One was Booth Jones of Stafford, about whom Mercer confided in his ledger, ”By allowed him as Overseer tho he ran away about 5 weeks before his time was out by w^{ch} I suffered more damage than his whole wages. 3. 11.” Meanwhile, in 1746 William Wheeland, an overseer at Bull Run Quarters, ”imbezilled” 40 barrels of corn.
James Savage was one of the princ.i.p.al overseers and seems to have been in charge first at Sumner's Quarters and then at Bull Run Quarters. John Ferguson succeeded him at the former place. William Torb.u.t.t was also at Bull Run, while Mark Canton and Nicholas Seward were overseers at Marlborough.
The outfitting of slaves with proper clothes, blankets, and coats was an important matter. It called for such purchases as 121 ells of ”ozenbrigs” from Hunter in 1742. ”Ozenbrigs” was a coa.r.s.e cloth of a type made originally in Oznabruck, Germany,[105] and was traditionally the Negro field hand's raiment. Many purchases of indigo point to the dying of ”Virginia” cloth, woven either on the plantation or by the weavers mentioned earlier. Presumably, shoes for the Negroes were made at Marlborough, judging from a purchase from d.i.c.k of 3-1/4 pounds of shoe thread. The domestic servants were liveried, at least after the mansion was occupied. William Thomson, a Fredericksburg tailor, made ”a Coat & Breeches [for] Bob, 11/.” Bob was apparently Mercer's personal manservant, who had served him since 1732. Thomson also was paid 4 16s.
2d. for ”Making Liveries.” The listing of such materials as ”scarlet duffel” and ”scarlet b.u.t.tons” points to colorful outfitting of slaves.
FOOTNOTES:
[103] _Virginia Gazette_, July 10, 1752; BRUCE, op. cit.
(footnote 5), vol. 2, pp. 107-108; ULRICH BONNELL PHILLIPS, _American Negro Slavery_ (New York & London: D. Appleton, 1918), pp. 271, 272, 381.
[104] _Virginia Gazette_, September 12, 1745.
[105] GEORGE FRANCIS DOW, _Everyday Life in the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay Colony_ (Boston: The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1935), p. 78.
SAILING, FIs.h.i.+NG, HUNTING
Water transportation was essential to all the planters, most of whom owned sloops. We have seen that Mercer used a sloop for his earliest trading activities before he settled at Marlborough, and it is apparent that in the 1740's either this same sloop or another which may have replaced it still was operated by him. Hauling tobacco to Cave's warehouse, picking up a barrel of rum in Norfolk or a load of lumber on the Eastern Sh.o.r.e were vital to the success of the plantation. To equip the sloop, 14 yards of topsail, s.h.i.+p's twine, and a barrel of tar were purchased in 1747. Mercer had two Negroes named ”Captain” and ”Boatswain,” and we may suppose that they had charge of the vessel. Such an arrangement would not have been unique, for many years after this, in 1768, Mercer wrote that ”a sloop of M^r Ritchie's that came around from Rapp^a for a load of tobacco stopped at my landing; his negro skipper brought me a letter from M^r Mills....”[106]