Octavia, the Octoroon

by J. F. Lee

When the call to arms was made Colonel R. resigned his seat in the Federal Congress, hastened home, raised and equipped a company, which rendered valuable service in the Southern army. Colonel R.'s overseer and his white assistants also responded to the call, joining the company which Colonel R. equipped. Thus was Colonel R.'s farm deprived of white men, and as every able-bodied man was needed at the front, it was out of the question to replace them; nor did he make any effort to do so. However, Colonel R. was not wanting for some one to take charge of his business; he had a quadroon named Simon, who had been carefully trained and drilled by the overseer in farm management. He had been a favorite with the overseer, who made no objection to his fourteen-year-old son teaching him to read and write. He also taught Simon's sister, Elsie. They were both bright quadroons, good looking, and exceptionally intelligent for slaves.

Let me say here that if the planters had any inclination to teach their slaves, the latter had no time but at night to learn, and after working from the time they could see in the morning until they could not see at night, they felt like sleeping when reaching their cabins. However, here and there you would find a negro who could read and write, who generally received such instruction from their owner's or overseer's children.

Simon was twenty-five and Elsie eighteen years of age, both having the same mother, Aunt Dinah, and the same white father.

After the overseer and his assistants left for the army Colonel R. installed Simon as his foreman, with the authority of an overseer. Under his administration farm matters moved along as well as they did under the overseer. In slavery times there was always a negro head man, leader and squire among the negroes, who performed their marriage ceremonies (without license), exhorted at their religious meetings and could sing and pray and be heard a mile. Simon could "out-Herod Herod" in doing all this. He was faithful, honest and upright, three virtues rare among negroes. He successfully kept the farm books, in which were to be recorded the number of pounds of cotton picked per day; the number and weight of each bale of cotton—in a word, this book gave the exact production of the farm, whether it was stock, cotton, corn or what not.

He was provided with a horse and whip, two concomitants that every ante-bellum overseer possessed. Simon felt his importance, and probably was too severe in some instances in using the lash on the slaves. This, however, is characteristic of the negro, as they have since freedom been known to almost whip their children to death. The writer has interfered several times where negro parents were unmercifully chastising their children.

Aunt Dinah, Simon's mother, was rather prepossessing in appearance, and was the plantation mammy, nurse and midwife, as well as the keeper of the orphan asylum for all the little pickaninnies on the plantation. Every place of any size had this character. It is often and truly said that it is the ambition of negro men to be preachers and of the women to be midwives.

Simon had interceded with his master and the overseer to exempt Elsie from farm work, and to appoint her seamstress, who had several assistants on the farm. She was very apt with the needle and scissors, cutting and making any garment she wished, and doing it all with the needle, this being before the introduction of sewing machines on plantations.

In the eyes of Simon and his mother Elsie was a piece of perfection, a paragon of virtue and chastity, two possessions rare among negroes of both sexes. Elsie was the belle of the plantation, having a large number of suitors, among them two of Colonel R.'s slaves, Brutus and Cæsar.

They were rivals and had an intense hatred for each other on Elsie's account. While Elsie had no idea of accepting either one or any negro, saying that she did not want a "kinky-headed nigger," she encouraged the attentions of both—a consummate flirt, to say the least. Brutus and Cæsar were good specimens of their race, and fairly good looking. Their rivalry increased in intensity and bitterness until they threatened each other's lives.

At this stage of their would-be courtship Simon interfered and told them that, as Elsie was a prize worth contending for, they had to fight a fair fight in the ring, and that he would bestow Elsie upon the victor. The time was appointed for the contest, referees chosen, and all the negroes on the plantation assembled to witness something à la Corbett and Fitzsimmons. The battle was fierce, a battle royal; they were contending for the heart and hand of the beautiful Elsie. Neither was able to get the mastery over the other. Both could well say, "Lay on, Macduff! and damned be him who first cries hold, enough!" At times it looked as if Brutus would be victorious, at another, Cæsar.