An Englishman's travels in America

by John Benwell

The discussion on amalgamation, which is a very vexed one, was again introduced on a subsequent occasion; a planter from the north of the state having (as is sometimes the case) sold off everything he possessed, and removed to the State of Maine, taking with him a young quadroon woman, with the intention of making her his lawful wife, and living there retired. After the expression of a variety of opinions as to what this man deserved, some being of opinion that the subject ought to be mooted in the legislature at Washington—others, that his whole effects ought to be escheated, for the benefit of the public treasury—and by far the greater number that he ought to be summarily dealt with at the hands of the so-considered outraged citizens, which, in other language, meant "lynched,"—it was stated, by a very loquacious Yankee-looking fellow present, who made himself prominent in the discussion, that it was the opinion of the company, that any man marrying a woman with negro blood in her veins, should be hanged, as a traitor to southern interests and a bad citizen. This sentiment was loudly applauded, and, had the unfortunate subject of it been in Charleston or near it, he would, in all probability, have been called to account. To me it appeared remarkable, that men, who are always boasting of the well-ordered institutions of their country (slavery being a very important one, be it remembered), should be ever ready to set aside all law, and, as it were, by ex parte evidence alone, inflict summary vengeance on the offender; I was, however, always of opinion, when amongst them, that four-fifths of the men would rejoice if all law were abrogated, and the passions of the people allowed to govern the country, thus constituting themselves judges in their own case, and trampling under foot every semblance of justice, equity, and common propriety. As it is, in many parts of the Union, the judges and magistrates are notoriously awed by the people, and the most perfidious wretches are suffered to escape the hands of justice. A full confirmation of this is to be found in the frequent outrages against law and order reported in the newspapers, and which there elicit little regard.

Walking for a stroll, a day or two after, in the vicinity of the Marine-promenade, I saw a strange-looking cavalcade approaching. Two armed overseers were escorting five negroes, recently captured, to the city gaol. The poor creatures were so heavily shackled, that they could walk but slowly, and their brutal conductors kept urging them on, chiefly by coarse language and oaths, now and then accompanied by a severe stroke with a slave-whip carried by one of them. The recovered fugitives looked very dejected, and were, no doubt, brooding over the consequences of their conduct. The elder of the party, a stout fellow of about forty-five years old, of very sullen look, had a distinct brand on his forehead of the initials S.T.R. I afterwards inquired what these brand-marks signified, supposing, naturally, that they were the initials of the name of his present or former owner. My informant, who was a by-stander, stated that he was, no doubt, an incorrigibly bad fellow, and that the initials S.T.R. were often used in such cases. I inquired their signification, when, to my astonishment, he replied it might be, "Stop the rascal," and added that private signals were in constant use among the inland planters, as he called them, who, he said, suffered so much by their hands running away, that it was absolutely necessary to adopt a plan of the kind for security. He further stated, that such incorrigibles, when caught, were never allowed to leave the plantations, so that if they ventured abroad, they carried the warrant for their immediate arrest with them. "But," he went on, "people are beginning to dislike such severity, and a new code of regulations, backed by the Legislature, is much talked of by the innovators, as we call them, to prevent such practices." I have no doubt this man owned slaves himself.

I said I thought myself that the policy of kindness would answer better than such severities, and it would be well if slave-holders generally were to try it.

"Ah, stranger," he replied, "I see you don't understand things here, down south. Don't you know that people who are over kind get imposed on? This is specially the case with slaves; treat them well, and you'll soon find them running off, or complaining. The only way to manage niggers is to keep them down, then you can control them, but not else."

It has been urged a thousand times in defence of the upholders of slavery in its various ramifications, that they are in reality, as a body, opposed to the system, and would readily conform to any change that would be sufficiently comprehensive to indemnify them from present and future loss. From conversations heard in South Carolina, and other slave districts, I am quite satisfied that this is a misrepresentation, and that the generality of proprietors regard any change as a dangerous innovation, and that, far from reluctantly following the occupation of traders in flesh and blood, it is quite congenial to the vitiated tastes of the greater portion of southern citizens, whose perverted notions of justice and propriety are clamorously expressed on the most trivial occasions. In whatever sphere of society amongst them you go, you find the subject of "protecting their rights" urged with impetuosity; the same rancorous feeling towards men of abolitionist sentiments, and the same deprecation of the slave race. To decry the negroes in public opinion is one of their constant rules of action, and if an individual attempts to assert their equal rights with mankind at large, he is considered as disaffected towards southern interests, and, if not openly threatened, as I have before observed in this work, is unceremoniously talked down.' It is thus often dangerous to broach the subject, and if an individual, more daring than people generally are when in the plague-infected latitudes of slavery, attempts to repudiate the views so unhesitatingly expressed by the pro-slavery advocates, that the negro race is but the connecting link between man and the brute creation, he is looked upon with disgust, and his society contemned. This overbearing conduct is so ingrained, that it shows itself on the most trifling occasions, in their intercourse with their fellow-citizens.

Argumentative facts might be produced ad infinitum to prove that the legal enactments for the government of the slave states of America have been framed so as to vest in the proprietor as much control over the lives and persons of those they hold in servitude as any animal in the category of plantation stock. This in my tour through that region of moral darkness and despair, the state of Louisiana, I had numberless opportunities of observing, which would not fail to convince the most sceptical; and if I have passed over many of these in the foregoing pages, it is because the incidents themselves (though proving that the slightest approach to independent action, or opposition to the depraved wills of their tyrannical superiors, is at once visited with consequences that make me shudder to reflect upon) were of too trivial a nature to interest the general reader. I will, however, copy here an extract from a paper published in Virginia, the Richmond Times for August, 1852, which must, I think, tend to remove any doubts, if they exist in the mind of the reader, that the conclusions I have come to from personal observation are correct, and sufficient to prove that the despotic Nicholas of Russia himself does not exercise more absolute control over the lives and liberties of the degraded serfs he rules, than the slave-appropriators of America do over their victims.

The newspaper in question is a highly popular one with the aristocratical slave-owners of Virginia, and the editor one of those champions of the unjust and iniquitous system who invariably meet with extensive patronage in every part of the southern states.

"A FIELD-HAND SHOT.—A gentleman named Ball, overseer to Mr. Edward T. Taylor, finding it necessary to chastise a field-hand, attempted to do so in the field. The negro resisted, and made fight, and, being the stronger of the two, gave the overseer a beating, and then betook himself to the woods. Mr. Ball, as soon as he could do so, mounted his horse, and, proceeding to Mr. Taylor's residence, informed him of what had occurred. Taylor, in company with Ball, repaired to the corn-field, to which the negro had returned, and demanded to know the cause of his conduct. The negro replied that Ball attempted to flog him, and he would not submit to it. Taylor said he should, and ordered him to cross his hands, at the same time directing Ball to seize him. Ball did so, but perceiving the negro had attempted to draw a knife, told Mr. Taylor of it, who immediately sprang from his horse, and, drawing a pistol, shot the negro dead at his feet."

The Richmond Reporter, a contemporary of the Times, commented on this impious affair as follows:—"Mr. Taylor did what every man who has the management of negroes ought to do; enforce obedience, or kill them."

It is the practice of the inhabitants of Charleston, in common, I believe, with all owners of slaves in towns or cities in the slave states, who have not employment sufficient for them at home, or when the slave is a cripple, to send them out to seek their own maintenance. In such cases the slave is compelled to give an account of what he has earned during the week, at his owner's house, where he attends on Saturday evenings for the purpose. A fixed sum is generally demanded, in proportion to the average value of such labour at the time. I was informed that it frequently happens, that the master exacts the utmost the slave can earn, so that the miserable pittance left is scarcely sufficient to sustain nature; this, no doubt, accounts for the haggard, care-worn appearance of such labourers, for, with few exceptions, I found hands thus sent out, more miserably clad and less hale than the common run of slaves. On the other hand, if a slave is a good handicraftsman, he is able to earn more than his master demands; such instances are, however, rare. These are the men who, by dint of hard work and thrifty habits, accumulate sufficient eventually to obtain manumission. There is, in most cases, a strict eye kept on such hands, and if the boon is attained, it is in general by stealthy means.