Part 10 (1/2)

Seeing that I could no longer render assistance to Paul, as now beyond the reach of his master's tyranny, as well as of oing into the kitchen, related to the household servants that I had found a black ence was soon communicated to my master, who sent for me to come into the house to relate the circumstance to him I was careful not to tell that I had seen Paul before his death; and when I had finished entleman ith hio

The body of Paul was never taken down, but re where I had seen it until the flesh fell from the bones, or was torn off by the birds I saw the bones hanging in the sassafras tree more than two months afterwards, and the last time that I was ever in these swaress, which, though the persons ere actors in it were far rereat influence upon the fortunes of my life I have inforhters, and that the second of the sisters was deereat beauty The eldest of the three was reat wealth, who resided near Coluentleman whom she had frequently seen at the church attended byman, either from want of wealth, or proper persons to introduce hito him the senti the rules of modesty in which she had been educated Before she would atteht be deemed a violation of the decorum of her sex, she deter a husband She coe of the whole affair, with a desire that he would invite the gentleman of her choice to his house This the father resolutely opposed, upon the ground that the young hter had fixed her heart ithout property, and consequently destitute of the hter in a style suitable to the rank she occupied in society A wo mistress, by continual entreaties, so far prevailed over the affections, or more probably the fears of her father, that he introduced the youngst all the parties, as I understood, before the e, that as the son-in-law had no land or slaves of his own, he should ree tract of land that ia

In the , at the time of our return from the field, in coiven hter: and that I, with eight other men and two or three women, must set out on the next Sunday with o, to clear land, build houses, and make other improvements, necessary for the reception of the newly

I was much pleased with the appearance andood figure We were to take with us, in our expedition to Georgia, a wagon, to be drawn by six mules, and I was appointed to drive the tea mistress came in person to the quarter, and told us that all those ere going to the new settlement must come to the house, where she furnished each of us with two full suits of clothes, one of coarse woollen, and the other of heave a hat to each of us, and two pairs of shoes, with a trifle in et things ready for her, and that when she should cootten The conduct of this young lady was so different from that which I had been accustomed to witness since I cahly fortunate in becoratulated myself with the idea that I should, in future, have a mistress ould treat me kindly, and if I behaved well, would not permit ia, with all the tools and implements necessary to the prosecution of a new settle master accompanied us, and traveled slowly for several days to enable me to keep up with him We continued our march in this order until we reached the Savannah river at the town of Augusta, where my master told me that he was so well satisfied with my conduct, that he intended to leave oods and the women and children; but that he would take the men and push on as fast as possible, to the new settleave an county Court House, and said that he would have a person ready there on uide ave me twenty dollars to buy food for the mules and provisions for h road master ofproof of confidence on the part of ret to hi care to lay out as little s as I had to buy On the sixth day, in the , I arrived at our new settlement in the middle of a heavy forest of such timber as is common to that country, with three dollars and twenty-five cents in usta This I offered to return, but ood conduct I now felt assured that all my troubles in this world were ended, and that, in future, I ht look forward to a life of happiness and ease, for I did not consider labor any hardshi+p, if I ell provided with good food and clothes, and arded

My master and the people ith his of two cabins, and were engaged, e ca one of them with clapboards In the course of the next day we colass s, the sash and glass for which I had brought in the wagon We put up two other cabins, and a stable for the an to clear land After a few days o down into the settlements to buy provisions for the winter, and that he should leave me to oversee the hands, and carry on the work in his absence He accordingly left us, taking with hion and two boys, one to drive the teas, which he intended to buy and drive to our settlement I now felt myself almost proprietor of our new establishe did not consider me a very lenient overseer I in truth compelled them to work very hard, as I did myself At the end of a week my master returned with a heavy load of s that we needed, and the day following a white s, the greater part of which were breeders

At this season of the year neither the hogs nor the cattle required any feeding at our hands The woods were full of nuts, and the grass was abundant; but we gave salt to our stock, and kept the hogs in a pen two or three days, to accustom them to the place

We now lived very differently from e did on my old master's plantation We had as ether with bread and sweet potatoes, which we had at will, constituted our fare My master remained with us more than two round, ready for the plough; but, a few days before Christmas, an event took place, which, in its consequences, destroyed all ed the future path of er one day came to our settlement with a letter, which had been forwarded in this manner, by the postmaster at the Court House, where the post-office was kept This letter contained intelligence of the sudden death of my old master, and that difficulties had arisen in the fa one The letter ritten by my mistress My master forthwith took an account of the stock of provisions and other things that he had on hand, and putting the whole under ave me directions to attend to the work, and set off on horseback that evening; pro to return within oneof him until late in the month of January, when the eldest son of e gentleman The son of my lateia, was dead; and that he and the gentleman with hiia for the purpose of letting out on lease, for the period of seven years, our place, with all the people on it, includingpart of this neas the death ofmaster, and I was still more sorry when I learned that he had been killed in a duel My young mistress, whose beauty had drawn around her numerous suitors, many of ere men of base minds and cowardly hearts, had chosen her husband, in the manner I have related, and his forether, for the dastardly purpose of revenging themselves, of both husband and wife, by the murder of the former

In all parts of the cotton country there are nu and ga to abandon all pretensions to the character and standing of gentleain, and are frequented by all classes of planters, though it is not to be understood that all the planters resort to these houses There arethe planters, who equally detest the mean cupidity of the men who keep these houses, and the silly wickedness of those who support thest men of education and fashi+on; but cards, dice and every kind of game, whether of skill or of hazard, are openly played in these sinks of iniquity So far as le district of ten ion, without at least one of these vile ordinaries, as they are frequently and justly ter of these houses is a means of subsistence resorted to by men of desperate reputation, or reckless character, and they invite as guests all the profligate, the drunken, the idle, and the unwary of the surrounding country In a community where the whiteall clainity of a man to oversee the labor of his own plantation, the nuined

My young master, fortunately for his own honor, was of those who kept aloof from the precincts of the tavern, unless coo there; but the band of conspirators, who had resolved on his destruction, invited hih one of their nu his property, to ht with hiht with pistols, over the table around which they sat

My master, who, it appears, was unable to bear the reproach of cowardice, even aht, and as he had no pistols with hi; and accepted their owner, as his friend, or second in the business The result was as ht have been expected My master was killed at the first fire, by a ball which passed through his breast, whilst his antagonist escaped unharmed

A servant was i her of the death of her husband She akened in the night to read the letter, the bearer having informed her maid that it was necessary for her to see it immediately The shock drove her into a feverish delirium, from which she never recovered At periods, her reason resu, she became a mother, and died in child-bed, of puerperal fever I obtained this account fro servant of the eldest son of my old master, and ith his master at the time he came to visit the tenant, to whoia

The estate to which I was now attached, was advertised to be rented for the term of seven years, with all the stock of ether with seventeen slaves, six of ere too young to be able to work at present The price asked, was one thousand dollars for the first year, and two thousand dollars for each of the six succeeding years; the tenant to be bound to clear thirty acres of land annually

Before the day on which the estate was to be let, by the terhborhood of Savannah, and agreed to take the new plantation, on the terms asked He was immediately put into possession of the premises, and from this moment, I became his slave for the term of seven years

Fortune had now thrown me into the power of a new master, of whom, when I considered the part of the country from whence he cauished for the cruelty hich slaves were treated in it, I had no reason to expect ood I had indeed, from the moment I saw this new master, and had learned the place of his former residence, made up my mind to prepare myself for a harsh servitude; but as we are often disappointed for the worse, so it sometimes happens, that we are deceived for the better

This man was by no means so bad as I was prepared to find him; and yet, I experienced all the evils in his service, that I had ever apprehended; but I could never find intowards him, for he was as reater sufferer Perhaps the evils he endured himself, made him more co the injustice that was done me while with him, I could never look upon him as a bad man

At the time he took possession of the estate, he was alone, and did not let us know that he had a wife, until after he had been with us at least teeks One day, however, he called us together, and told us that he was going down the country, to bring up his fao on with the work on the place in thethe rest of the hands that they one full teeks; and when he returned, I had all the cleared land planted in cotton, corn, and sweet potatoes, and had progressed with the business of the plantation so ave ht a pair of nesers-- the new land, and burning logs

My master's family, a wife and one child, caret the death ofmaster, for other reasons than those of affection and esteeh she was hter of a very wealthy planter, who resided near Milledgeville, and had several children besides my mistress My ia several years before this--had acquired some property, and was married to my mistress more than two years, when I became his slave for a term of years, as I have stated I saw many families, and was acquainted with the moral character of many ladies while I lived in the South; but I must, in justice to the country, say that st the southern people Her tee, when she was enraged, was a mere vocabulary of profanity and virulence