Part 5 (1/2)

CHAPTER VIII

At the tiathered On Monday , after our feast, the overseer took the whole of us to the rice field, to enter upon the harvest of this crop

The field lay in a piece of low ground, near the river, and in such a position that it could be flooded by the water of the stream, in wet seasons The rice is planted in drills, or rows, and grows rain known in the north

The water is soain, several ti and weeding the rice is considered one of the most unhealthy occupations on a southern plantation, as the people are obliged to live for several weeks in the mud and water, subject to all the unwholesonant pools, under the rays of a suht At the time we came to cut this rice, the field was quite dry; and after we had reaped and bound it, we hauled it upon wagons, to a piece of hard ground, where wefloor, and threshed it In some places, they tread out the rice, with mules or horses, as they tread wheat in Maryland; but this renders the grain dusty, and is injurious to its sale

After getting in the rice, ere occupied for so swampy land, preparatory to a more extended culture of rice the next year; and about the first of August, twenty or thirty of the people, principally wo cider, of apples which grew in an orchard of nearly two hundred trees, that stood on a part of the estate After the cider was ht to the field, and distributed aratuity was not repeated The cider that was made by the people was converted into brandy, at a still in the corner of the orchard

I often obtained cider to drink, at the still, which was sheltered from the weather by a shed, of boards and slabs We were not per as the apples continued, ere allowed the privilege of sending five or six persons every evening, for the purpose of bringing apples to the quarter, for our co theet as many as we could consuuarded withan article which is nowhere hly prized than in South Carolina There were on the plantationon poor sandy fields, which were no longer worth the expense of cultivation The best peaches grow upon the poorest sand-hills

We were allowed to take three bushels of peaches every day, for the use of the quarter; but we could, and did eat at least three tiht that which was not given us by day I confess that I took part in these thefts, and I do not feel that I coainst either God or er that we ran, for ell knew the consequences that would have followed detection

After the feast at laying by the corn and cotton, we had no meat for several weeks; and it is my opinion that our master lost money by the economy he practised at this season of the year

I now entered upon a new scene of life My true value had not yet been ascertained by my present owner; and whether I was to hold the rank of a first or second rate hand, could only be determined by an experience of my ability to pick cotton

I had ascertained that at the hoe, the spade, the sickle, or the flail, I was a full match for the best hands on the plantation; but soon discovered e ca I was not equal to a boy of fifteen I worked hard the first day, but when evening caht pounds, and was vexed to see that two young ht, and the other fifty-nine pounds This was our first day's work, and the overseer had not yet settled the a It was necessary for him to ascertain, by the experience of a few days, how much the best hands could pick in a day, before he established the standard of the season I hung down my head, and felt very much ashamed of myself when I found that my cotton was so far behind that of arded

I had exertedof cotton seemed to be so very simple a business, I felt apprehensive that I should never be able to improve myself, so far as to become even a second rate hand In this posture of affairs, I looked forward to so still more painful than the loss of character which I must sustain, both with my fellows and my master; for I knew that the lash of the overseer would soon become familiar with my back, if I did not perfor o hard with s of despondence and terror, whilst the other people were getting their cotton weighed When it was all weighed, the overseer came to me where I stood, and told me to show him my hands When I had done this, and he had looked at theood hands--you will ood picker” This faint praise of the overseer revived hter heart than I had expected to possess, before the teretof the second day, I was rejoiced to find that I had forty-six pounds, although I had not worked harder than I did the first day On the third evening I had fifty-two pounds; and before the end of the week, there were only three hands in the field--twowoman--who could pickof the second week, ent to the field, the overseer told us that he fixed the day's work at fifty pounds; and that all those who picked more than that, would be paid a cent a pound for the overplus Twenty-five pounds was assigned as the daily task of the old people, as well as a nuirls, whilst some of the women, who had children, were required to pick forty pounds, and several children had ten pounds each as their task

Picking of cottonthe arts A e of twenty-five before he sees a cotton field, will never, in the language of the overseer, becoilance, I was able, at the end of aa few pounds over the daily rate, for which I receivedlabor to me, and one to which I never became reconciled, for the reason that in every other kind of work I was called a first rate hand, whilst in cotton picking I was hardly regarded as a _prime hand_

CHAPTER IX

It is impossible to reconcile thein a state of perfect equality, and boundless affection, with the white people Heaven will be no heaven to hied of his enemies I know, from experience, that these are the fundaious creed; because I learned thes of the slaves themselves A favorite and kind master or mistress, may now and then be admitted into heaven, but this rather as a matter of favor, to the intercession of some slave, than as matter of strict justice to the whites, ill, by no means, be of an equal rank with those who shall be raised from the depths of misery, in this world

The idea of a revolution in the conditions of the whites and the blacks, is the corner-stone of the religion of the latter; and indeed, it seems to me, at least, to be quite natural, if not in strict accordance with the precepts of the Bible; for in that book I find it every where laid down, that those who have possessed an inordinate portion of the good things of this world, and have lived in ease and luxury, at the expense of their fellow men will surely have to render an account of their stewardshi+p, and be punished, for having withheld fros, which they themselves enjoyed

There is no subject which presents to the reater contrast between his own condition and that of his master, than the relative station and appearance of his wife and his mistress The one, poorly clad, poorly fed, and exposed to all the hardshi+ps of the cotton field; the other dressed in clothes of gay and various colors, ornamented with jewelry, and carefully protected from the rays of the sun, and the blasts of the wind

As I have before observed, the Africans have feelings peculiar to themselves; but with an American slave, the possession of the spacious house, splendid furniture, and fine horses of his master, are but the secondary objects of his desires To fill the hest a and beautiful mistress must adorn his triumph, and enliven his hopes

I have been drawn into the above reflections, by the recollection of an event of a most melancholy character, which took place when I had been on this plantation about threeman, named Hardy, of a dark yellow complexion--a quadroon, or mulatto--one-fourth of whose blood was transe

Hardy was employed in various kinds of work about the house, and was frequently sent on errands; sometimes on horseback I had become acquainted with the boy, who had often coht with entlest others, he frequently spoke of a young lady, who resided six or seven hters of the family, in company with her brother, a lad about twelve or fourteen years of age He described the great beauty of this girl, whoseon a se; but her son and daughter, when they went abroad, traveled on horseback

One Sunday, these two young people came to visit at the house ofAs I did not go out to work that day, I went over to the great house, and from the house to a place in the woods, about a mile distant, where I had set snares for rabbits This place was near the road, and I saw the young lady and her brother on their way home It was after sundohen they passedwas clear and pleasant, I supposed they would get home soon after dark, and that no accident would befall the, and I heard nothing further of the young people until the next day, about noon, when a black boy ca cotton, and went to the overseer with a piece of paper In a short ti the field with the hands under the orders of Sireat house