ed would go frolicking, as it is called ; it not 

 being the custom to engage, except by the 

 month ; and the days that they absent them- 

 selves, they allow you for the time. There is 

 no power given you, as a master, to confine 

 a hired servant by law : that is one part of 

 their liberty and equality: nor is there any 

 compulsion but the whip ; and the white 

 or hired man, had masters the power to 

 use it, would not submit to that. There is 

 no such a thing as character asked for with 

 a white servant. The slave is your own, 

 like your horse, and you may whip him as 

 you please; but you have no command over 

 a white man or any hireling ; nor would the 

 tobacco pay a profit with white men to 

 work it. Seven white men, at twelve 

 dollars a month each, would be three hun- 

 dred and seventy-eight pounds per year. If 

 you employ another white man, as an over- 

 seer, as is usual with the planters, to do the 

 business of the farm, there will be a great 

 loss on. the crop one hundred pounds 

 more will be four hundred and seventy-eight 



