of North Carolina. 275 



happens, when these Women have no Children by the first 

 Husband, after being a Year or two cohabiting together, the 

 Planters oblige them to take a second, third, fourth, fifth, or 

 more Husbands or Bedfellows; a fruitful Woman amongst 

 them being very much valued by the Planters, and a numer- 

 ous Issue esteemed the greatest Riches in this Country. The 

 Children all go with the Mother, and are the Property of the 

 Planter to w^hom she belongs. And though they have no 

 other Ceremony in their Marriages than what I have repre- 

 sented, yet they seem to be Jealously inclined, and fight 

 most desperately amongst themselves when they Rival each 

 other, w^hich they commonly do. 



Their Children are carefully brought up, and provided 

 for by the Planters, 'till they are able to work in the Planta- 

 tions, where they have convenient Houses built for them, 

 and they are allowed to plant a sufficient quantity of Tobacco 

 for their own use, a part of which they sell, and likewise on 

 Sundays, they gather Snake-Root, otherwise it would be ex- 

 cessive dear if the Christians were to gather it ; with this and 

 the Tobacco they buy Hats, and other Necessaries for them- 

 selves, as Linnen, Bracelets, Ribbons, and several other Toys 

 for their Wives and Mistresses. 



There are abundance of them given to Theft, and fre- 

 quently steal from each other, and sometimes from the Chris- 

 tians, especially Rum, with which they entertain their Wives 

 and Mistresses at E'ight, but are often detected and punished 

 for it. 



There are several Blacks born here that can Read and 

 Write, others that are bred to Trades, and prove good Artists 

 in many of them. Others are bred to no Trades, but are 

 very industrious and laborious in improving their Planta- 

 tions, planting abundance of Corn, Rice and Tobacco, and 



Mm 2 making 



