CHAP. XIX.J WORK EXACTED. 265 



they can eat, they either return part of it to the overseer, who 

 makes them an allowance of money for it at the end of the week, 

 or they keep it to feed their fowls, which they usually sell, as 

 well as their eggs, for cash, to buy molasses, tobacco, and other 

 luxuries. When disposed to exert themselves, they get through 

 the day s task in five hours, and then amuse themselves in fish 

 ing, and sell the fish they take ; or some of them employ their 

 spare time in making canoes out of large cypress trees, leave 

 being readily granted them to remove such timber, as it aids the 

 landowner to clear the swamps. They sell the canoes for about 

 four dollars, for their own profit. 



If the mistress pays a visit to Savannah, the nearest town, 

 she is overwhelmed with commissions, so many of the slaves 

 wishing to lay out their small gains in various indulgences, espe 

 cially articles of dress, of which they are passionately fond. The 

 stuff must be of the finest quality, and many instructions are 

 given as to the precise color or fashionable shade. White mus 

 lin, with figured patterns, is the rage just now. 



One day, when walking alone, I came upon a &quot; gang&quot; of ne 

 groes, who were digging a trench. They were superintended by 

 a black &quot; driver,&quot; who held a whip in his hand. Some of the 

 laborers were using spades, others cutting away the roots and 

 stumps of trees which they had encountered in the line of the 

 ditch. Their mode of proceeding in their task was somewhat 

 leisurely, and eight hours a day of this work are exacted, though 

 they can accomplish the same in five hours, if they undertake it 

 by the task. The digging of a given number of feet in length, 

 breadth, and depth is, in this case, assigned to each ditcher, and 

 a deduction made when they fall in with a stump or root. The 

 names of gangs and drivers are odious, and the sight of the whip 

 was painful to me as a mark of degradation, reminding me that 

 the lower orders of slaves are kept to their work by mere bodily 

 fear, and that their treatment must depend on the individual 

 character of the owner or overseer. That the whip is rarely 

 used, and often held for weeks over them, merely in terrorem, is, 

 I have no doubt, true on all well governed estates ; and it is not 

 that formidable weapon which I have seen exhibited as formerly 



VOL. I M 



