Among the Pines Part 19

And she did; and such a breakdown! "We w'ite folks," though it was no new thing to the Colonel or Tommy, almost burst with laughter.

In a few minutes nearly every negro on the plantation, attracted by the presence of the Colonel and myself, gathered around the performers; and a shrill voice at my elbow called out, "Look har, ye lazy, good-for-nuffin' n.i.g.g.e.rs, carn't ye fotch a cheer for Ma.s.sa Davy and de strange gemman?"

"Is that you, Aunty?" said the Colonel. "How d'ye do?"

"Sort o' smart, Ma.s.sa Davy; sort o' smart; how is ye?"

"Pretty well, Aunty; pretty well. Have a seat." And the Colonel helped her to one of the chairs that were brought for us, with as much tenderness as he would have shown to an aged white lady.

The "exercises," which had been suspended for a moment, recommenced, and the old negress entered into them as heartily as the youngest present. A song from Cato followed the dance, and then about twenty "gentleman and lady" darkies joined, two at a time, in a half "walk-round" half breakdown, which the Colonel told me was the original of the well-known dance and song of Lucy Long. Other performances succeeded, and the whole formed a scene impossible to describe. Such uproarious jollity, such full and perfect enjoyment, I had never seen in humanity, black or white. The little nigs, only four or five years old, would rush into the ring and shuffle away at the breakdowns till I feared their short legs would come off; while all the darkies joined in the songs, till the branches of the old pines above shook as if they too had caught the spirit of the music. In the midst of it, the Colonel said to me, in an exultant tone:

"Well, my friend, what do you think of slavery _now_?"

"About the same that I thought yesterday. I see nothing to change my views."

"Why, are not these people happy? Is not this perfect enjoyment?"

"Yes; just the same enjoyment that aunty's pigs are having; don't you hear _them_ singing to the music? I'll wager they are the happier of the two."

"No; you are wrong. The higher faculties of the darkies are being brought out here."

"I don't know that," I replied. "Within the sound of their voices, two of their fellows--victims to the inhumanity of slavery--are lying dead, and yet they make _Sunday_ "hideous" with wild jollity, while Sam's fate may be theirs to-morrow."

Spite of his genuine courtesy and high breeding, a shade of displeasure pa.s.sed over the Colonel's face as I made this remark. Rising to go, he said, a little impatiently, "Ah, I see how it is; that d---- Garrison's sentiments have impregnated even you. How can the North and the South hold together when moderate men like you and me are so far apart?"

"But you," I rejoined, good-humoredly, "are not a moderate man. You and Garrison are of the same stripe, both extremists. _You_ have mounted one hobby, _he_ another; that is all the difference."

"I should be sorry," he replied, recovering his good nature, "to think myself like Garrison. I consider him the ---- scoundrel unhung."

"No; I think he means well. But you are both fanatics, both 'bricks' of the same material; we conservatives, like mortar, will hold you together and yet keep you apart."

"I, for one, _won't_ be held. If I can't get out of this cursed Union in any other way, I'll emigrate to Cuba."

I laughed, and just then, looking up, caught a glimpse of Jim, who stood, hat in hand, waiting to speak to the Colonel, but not daring to interrupt a white conversation.

"Hallo, Jim," I said; "have you got back?"

"Yas, sar," replied Jim, grinning all over as if he had some agreeable thing to communicate.

"Where is Moye?" asked the Colonel.

"Kotched, ma.s.sa; I'se got de padlocks on him."

"Kotched," echoed half a dozen darkies, who stood near enough to hear; "Ole Moye is kotched," ran through the crowd, till the music ceased, and a shout went up from two hundred black throats that made the old trees tremble.

"Now gib him de lashes, Ma.s.sa Davy," cried the old nurse. "Gib him what he gabe pore Sam; but mine dat you keeps widin de law."

"Never fear, Aunty," said the Colonel; "I'll give him ----."

How the Colonel kept his word will be told in another chapter.

[Footnote E: Instances are frequent where Southern gentlemen form these left-handed connections, and rear two sets of differently colored children; but it is not often that the two families occupy the same domicil. The only other case within my _personal_ knowledge was that of the well-known President of the Bank of St. M----, at Columbus, Ga. That gentleman, whose note ranked in Wall Street, when the writer was acquainted with that locality, as "A No. 1," lived for fifteen years with two "wives" under one roof. One, an accomplished white woman, and the mother of several children--did the honors of his table, and moved with him in "the best society;" the other--a beautiful quadroon, also the mother of several children--filled the humbler office of nurse to her own and the other's offspring.]

[Footnote F: Among the things of which slavery has deprived the black is a _name_. A slave has no family designation. It may be for that reason that a high-sounding appellation is usually selected for the single one he is allowed to appropriate.]

CHAPTER VII.

PLANTATION DISCIPLINE.

The "Ole Cabin" to which Jim had alluded as the scene of Sam's punishment by the overseer, was a one-story shanty in the vicinity of the stables. Though fast falling to decay, it had more the appearance of a human habitation than the other huts on the plantation. Its thick plank door was ornamented with a mouldy bra.s.s knocker, and its four windows contained sashes, to which here and there clung a broken pane, the surviving relic of its better days. It was built of large unhewn logs, notched at the ends and laid one upon the other, with the bark still on. The thick, rough coat which yet adhered in patches to the timber had opened in the sun, and let the rain and the worm burrow in its sides, till some parts had crumbled entirely away. At one corner the process of decay had gone on till roof, superstructure, and foundation had rotted down and left an opening large enough to admit a coach and four horses. The huge chimneys which had graced the gable ends of the building were fallen in, leaving only a ma.s.s of sticks and clay to tell of their existence, and two wide openings to show how great a figure they had once made in the world. A small s.p.a.ce in front of the cabin would have been a lawn, had the gra.s.s been willing to grow upon it; and a few acres of cleared land in its rear might have pa.s.sed for a garden, had it not been entirely overgrown with young pines and stubble. This primitive structure was once the "mansion" of that broad plantation, and, before the production of turpentine came into fashion in that region, its rude owner drew his support from its few surrounding acres, more truly independent than the present aristocratic proprietor, who, raising only one article, and buying all his provisions, was forced to draw his support from the Yankee or the Englishman.

Only one room, about forty feet square, occupied the interior of the cabin. It once contained several apartments, vestiges of which still remained, but the part.i.tions had been torn away to fit it for its present uses. What those uses were, a moment's observation showed me.

In the middle of the floor, a s.p.a.ce about fifteen feet square was covered with thick pine planking, strongly nailed to the beams. In the centre of this planking, an oaken block was firmly bolted, and to it was fastened a strong iron staple that held a log-chain, to which was attached a pair of shackles. Above this, was a queer frame-work of oak, somewhat resembling the contrivance for drying fruit I have seen in Yankee farmhouses. Attached to the rafters by stout pieces of timber, were two hickory poles, placed horizontally, and about four feet apart, the lower one rather more than eight feet from the floor. This was the whipping-rack, and hanging to it were several stout whips with short hickory handles, and long triple lashes. I took one down for closer inspection, and found burned into the wood, in large letters, the words "Moral Suasion." I questioned the appropriateness of the label, but the Colonel insisted with great gravity, that the whip is the only "moral suasion" a darky is capable of understanding.

When punishment is inflicted on one of the Colonel's negroes, his feet are confined in the shackles, his arms tied above his head, and drawn by a stout cord up to one of the horizontal poles; then, his back bared to the waist, and standing on tip-toe, with every muscle stretched to its utmost tension, he takes "de lashes."

A more severe but more unusual punishment is the "thumb-screw." In this a noose is pa.s.sed around the negro's thumb and fore-finger, while the cord is thrown over the upper cross-pole, and the culprit is drawn up till his toes barely touch the ground. In this position the whole weight of the body rests on the thumb and fore-finger. The torture is excruciating, and strong, able-bodied men can endure it but a few moments. The Colonel naively told me that he had discontinued its practice, as several of his _women_ had nearly lost the use of their hands, and been incapacitated for field labor, by its too frequent repet.i.tion. "My ---- drivers,"[G] he added, "have no discretion, and no humanity; if they have a pique against a n.i.g.g.e.r, they show him no mercy."

The old shanty I have described was now the place of the overseer's confinement. Open as it was at top, bottom, and sides, it seemed an unsafe prison-house; but Jim had secured its present occupant by placing "de padlocks on him."

"Where did you catch him?" asked the Colonel, as, followed by every darky on the plantation, we took our way to the old building.

"In de swamp, ma.s.sa. We got Sandy and de dogs arter him--dey treed him, but he fit like de debble."

"Any one hurt?"

"Yas, Cunnel; he knifed Yaller Jake, and ef I hadn't a gibin him a wiper, you'd a had anudder n.i.g.g.e.r short dis mornin'--sh.o.r.e."

"How was it? tell me," said his master, while we paused, and the darkies gathered around.

"Wal, yer see, ma.s.sa, we got de ole debble's hat dat he drapped wen you had him down; den we went to Sandy's fur de dogs--dey scented him to onst, and off dey put for de swamp. 'Bout twenty on us follored 'em.

He'd a right smart start on us, and run like a deer, but de hounds kotched up wid him 'bout whar he shot pore Sam. He fit 'em and cut up de Lady awful, but ole Caesar got a hole ob him, and sliced a breakfuss out ob his legs. Somehow, dough, he got 'way from de ole dog, and clum a tree. 'Twar more'n an hour afore we kotched up; but dar he war, and de houns baying 'way as ef dey know'd what an ole debble he am. I'd tuk one ob de guns--you warn't in de house, ma.s.sa, so I cudn't ax you."

"Never mind that; go on," said the Colonel.

"Wal, I up wid de gun, and tole him ef he didn't c.u.m down I'd gib him suffin' dat 'ud sot hard on de stummuk. It tuk him a long w'ile, but--he _c.u.m down_." Here the darky showed a row of ivory that would have been a fair capital for a metropolitan dentist.

"When he war down," he resumed, "Jake war gwine to tie him, but de ole 'gator, quicker dan a flash, put a knife enter him."

"Is Jake much hurt?" interrupted the Colonel.

"Not bad, ma.s.sa; de knife went fru his arm, and enter his ribs, but de ma'am hab fix him, and she say he'll be 'round bery sudden."