of the cotton he can make up for the market.
He is not concerned, during his short hiring,
about the future efficiency of slaves, whom the
system encourages him to overwork. It is a
question of property that never will be raised
against him, when he is able to boast of the
famous quantity of cotton made per hand under
his management.

It is only a question of property. A lad who
had been out shooting, and brought nothing
home, being asked by a negro where his pigeons
were, said, "I have shot none, but I can shoot
you." Raising his gun, therefore, he shot him
dead. The local paper having narrated the
incident, adds only this comment. " The negro was
a valuable one; Mr. Mays had refused twelve
thousand dollars for him." A barn having been
burnt, the local paper records how " two negroes
and three horses" perished in the flames.

Now, we will draw upon Mr. Olrnsted's report,
as that of an eye-witness, for some notion of the
habitual relation between employer and employed
in a slave state. He speaks of one of the largest
estates of the Lower Mississippi, belonging to a
gentleman whom he found a genial and delightful
companion, educated, generous, and poetic in
temperament. He dealt very liberally with his
slave herd, according to the liberality of southern
owners; but there was discipline to be kept up.
An overseer found " that girl, Caroline, in bed.
She had been delivered of a dead child six weeks
before, and she shirked work, staying in bed and
shivering, when there was, in the overseer's
opinion, nothing the matter with her, except
that she was sore with the whipping she had
had, at some time between her confinement and
that day." So, somebody was ordered to "go
and tell Caroline she must get up and go to
her work, or the overseer would come and start
her."

"We have to be sharp with them," it was
explained. "If we were not, every negro on
the estate would be abed."

Girls here drove the plough, as well as worked
at the hoe, always themselves followed by their
driver, cracking his whip at them. And it was—
"If you don't work faster—or, if you don't
work better—or, if you don't remember what I
tell you—I will have you flogged." Mr. Olmsted
observed to one of the overseers that it must be
very disagreeable to have to punish so much.

"Yes," he replied, " it would be to those who
are not used to it; but it's my business, and I
think nothing of it. Why, sir, I wouldn't mind
killing a nigger more than I would a dog."

On the same estate an overseer, who rode in
conversation with Mr. Olmsted and others, passing
some brushwood, stopped his horse, crying,

"Hallo! who are you there?"

"Sam's Sall, sir."

"What are you skulking there for?"

She made an excuse, the truth of which might
have been tested by a ride forward of two
minutes; but the overseer had made up his
mind. We quote from Mr. Olmsted.

"That won't do," said he; "get down on
your knees."

The girl knelt on the ground; he got off his
horse, and, holding him with his left hand, struck
her thirty or forty blows across the shoulders
with his tough, flexible, " raw-hide" whip. They
were well laid on, as a boatswain would thrash a
skulking sailor, or as some people flog a balking
horse, but with no appearance of angry
excitement on the part of the overseer. At every
stroke the girl winced, and exclaimed, " Yes,
sir!" or, "Ah, sir!" or, "Please, sir!" not
groaning or screaming. At length he stopped,
and said,

"Now tell me the truth."

The girl repeated the same story.

"You have not got enough yet," said he;
"pull up your clothes—lie down."

The girl, without any hesitation, without a
word or look of remonstrance or entreaty, drew
closely all her garments under her shoulders,
and lay down upon the ground, with her face
towards the overseer, who continued to flog her
with the raw-hide across her naked loins and
thighs, with as much strength as before. She
now shrank away from him, not rising, but
writhing, grovelling, and screaming,

"Oh, don't, sir! oh, please stop, master!
please, sir! please, sir! oh, that's enough,
master! oh, Lord! oh, master, master! oh,
God, master, do stop! oh, God, master! oh,
God, master!"

A young gentleman of fifteen was with us; he
had ridden in front, and now, turning on his horse,
looked back with an expression only of
impatience at the delay. The stranger from the north
endeavoured to fly out of hearing of the blows
and shrieks. " The screaming, yells, and
whipstrokes had ceased," he says, "when I reached
the top of the bank. Choking, sobbing,
spasmodic groans only were heard." I rode on till
my young companion met me, and immediately
afterwards the overseer. He laughed as he
joined us, and said,

"She meant to cheat me out of a day's work,
and she has done it too."

Morality is not expected from slaves. Fidelity
in marriage among negroes was an idea at which
an overseer could but laugh heartily. Such
notions of religion as the negro gets, do not
increase his value to his master; " a religious
negro," said one of the overseers, "generally
makes trouble, and we are glad to get rid of
him." In South Carolina—now so resentful of
a President of the United States who is no
friend to slave institutions that it talks of
separating from the federation—a formal
remonstrance, signed by more than three hundred and
fifty of the leading citizens and planters, was
presented to a Methodist clergyman, who had
been chosen by the conference of that state as
being a cautious and discreet person, to preach
especially to slaves. He was pledged to use
only verbal instructions, but, said the
remonstrance, "Verbal instruction will increase the
desire of the black population to learn. . . . .
Open the missionary sluice, and the current will
swell in its gradual onward advance. We thus
expect a progressive system of improvement will be