SLAVERY. 



who act improperly, to the rich men who will 

 purchase them. There is an estate in the 

 Mata, of which the owner is known to buy any 

 slave, however ill disposed he may be, provided 

 he can obtain him at a low price. This man 

 manages to keep his estate in the best orde? 

 possible; every thing goes on regularly upon 

 it. He even prefers purchasing Creole slaves to 

 Africans, although the former are invariably 

 more difficult to manage. He is a man of de- 

 termined character; on the arrival of one of 

 these new slaves, he takes him to the prison of 

 the estate, and shows him the stocks, the chains, 

 the whips, &c. saying, " This is what you are to 

 expect if you continue in your evil practices ;" 

 then a hut is given to the slave ; and also 

 clothes and other articles of comfort, all of 

 which are in a state of greater neatness, and 

 are afforded in larger quantities than are usually 

 bestowed upon the slaves of other plantations. 

 On one occasion a negro struck the feitor, for 

 which he was immediately confined, until the mat- 

 ter could be investigated ; the freeman was found 

 to be in fault, and was turned away. The negro 

 suffered a certain degree of punishment for strik- 

 ing a superior, but he was ultimately appointed 

 to the situation of feitor, having before held 

 that of second driver. If this planter did not 

 rule his people with great severity when guilty, 

 his estate would soon become a den of thieves 



t 4 



