296 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



of them do, money to their own masters, I will answer^ 

 by raising poultry, making baskets and brooms, gather- 

 ing moss, doing overwork Saturdays and evenings, for 

 which they are paid, and by cultivating a crop for them- 

 selves, land for which is allotted them on almost every 

 plantation. And, although they are often too indolent to 

 cultivate their own crops in their own time, a good over- 

 seer will always see that they do not neglect their own 

 interest, any more than their master's. According to my 

 observation, there are but few overseers to be found, 

 who, like those of the factories of England, are vile ex- 

 tortioners of labor, often ducking children in tubs of cold 

 water kept for the purpose, or deducting the wages of 

 adult laborers for a moment's idleness, or delay of five 

 minutes behind time. On the contrary, I have ever found 

 them to be very quiet personages, and often well bred 

 gentlemen, who would do honor to any society; seldom 

 being personally present with the slaves on large planta- 

 tions, only visiting them occasionally while at their labor, 

 to give directions about the kind of work to be done, and 

 to see that they do it according to orders: and in their 

 necessary intercourse with them, affable, gentle, firm in 

 their demeanor, without familiarity — for that no negro 

 can bear — governing without passion, by fixed rules — 

 seldom punishing them, except when absolutely necessary 

 to preserve order and discipline, or prevent crimes, and 

 never to compel them to do more work, unless they will- 

 fully neglect their duty. All of them know what their 

 duty is upon a plantation, and that they are generally 

 willing to do, and nothing more; and if more than that 

 very moderate and easy duty be required, they will not 

 submit to it, but become turbulent and impatient of con- 

 trol, and all the whips in Christendom cannot drive them 

 to perform more than they think they ought to do, or 

 have been in the long habit of doing. 



If I should be asked the question, whether in all my 

 journeying in Mississippi, I did not meet with any of 

 those instances of the vile manner in which blacks are fed 



