Slavery in the United States: a narrative of the life and adventures of Charles Ball, a black man, who lived forty years in Maryland, South Carolina and Georgia, as a slave

CD

vfig S. G. and E. L. ELBERT

©'

AND SUF-

SLAVER

IN THE

UNITED STATES:

A NARRATIVE

OF THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

CHARLES BALL,

A BLACK MAN,

WHO LIVED FORTY YEARS IN MARYLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA AND
GEORGIA, AS A SLAVE, UNDER VARIOUS MASTERS, AND WAS ONE
YEAR IN THE NAVY WITH COMMODORE BARNEY, DURING THE
LATE WAR. CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS AND

USAGES OF THE PLANTERS AND SLAVEHOLDERS OF THE SOUTH

A DESCRIPTION OF THE CONDITION AND TREATMENT OF THE
SLAVES, WITH OBSERVATIONS UPON THE STATE OF MORALS
AMONGST THE COTTON PLANTERS, AND THE PERILS AND SUF-
FERINGS OF A FUGITIVE SLAVE, WHO TWICE ESCAPED FROM
THE COTTON COUNTRY. «

NE w-yo re:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN S. TAYLOR,
Brick Church Chapel.

1837.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837,

By JOHN S. TAYLOR,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern

DISTRICT OF NEW. YORK.

HENRY LUDWIG, PRINTER.

I

INTRODUCTION.

In giving a place in the Cabinet of Freedom
to the ensuing narrative, it is deemed proper to ac-
company it with some remarks. The reader will
be desirous to know how far it is entitled to his be-
lief, and the editors of the Cabinet are equally desi-
rous that he should not be misled. They have been
furnished with the following certificate :

"Lewistown, Pa., July 18th, 1836.

" We, the undersigned, certify that we have read
the book called < Charles Ball' — that we know
the black man whose narra ive is given in this book,
and have heard him relate the principal matters con-
tained in the book concerning himself, long before

the book was published.

" David W. Holings.

«W. P. Elliott."*

This certificate establishes the fact, that the sub-
ject of the narrative is not a fictitious personage.
Mr. Fisher, (the author) intimates in his preface,
what is, indeed, sufficiently obvious from the felicity
of his style, that the language of the book is not

* Mr. Elliott is a justice of the peace, and editor of the Lewis-
town Gazette. Mr. Holings is a lawyer, and formerly a member
of the Pennsylvania Legislature.

1

ii Introduction.

that of the unlettered slave, whose adventures he fe^
cords. A similar intimation might with equal pro-
priety have been given, in reference to the various
profound and interesting reflections interspersed
throughout the work. The author states, in a pri-
vate communication, that many of the anecdotes in
the book illustrative of southern society, were not ob-
tained from Ball, but from other and creditable
sources ; he avers, however, that all the facts which
relate personally to the fugitive, were received from
his own lips. How far this personal narrative is true
is a question which each reader must, of course, de-
cide fov himself.

It is possible, and not improbable, that vanity may
have induced the hero to exaggerate his exploits, and
that ignorance and forgetfulness may in some in-
stances, have rendered his tale discordant. The
hardships he encountered in his various attempts to
escape from bondage, are indeed extreme, but are
not for that reason incredible, since it is difficult to
estimate the amount of human suffering that can be
voluntarily endured for an adequate object. The
account of his voyage from Savannah to Philadel-
phia, strange as it is, derives strong confirmation
from the following still more extraordinary account
taken from a New- York journal.

11 The captain of a vessel from North Carolina,
called on the police for advisement respecting a
slave he had unconsciously brought away in his
vessel, under the following curious circumstances.
Three or four days after he had got to sea, he be-

INTRODUCTION. HI

gan to be haunted every hour with tones of distress,
seemingly proceeding from a human voice in the
very lowest part of the vessel. A particular scrutiny
was finally instituted, and it was concluded, that the
creature, whatever and whoever it might be, must
be confined down in the run, under the cabin floor,
and on boring a hole with an auger, and demanding
1 Who's there V a feeble voice responded, f Poor ne-
gro, massa !' It was clear enough then, that some
run-away negro had hid himself there, before they
sailed, trusting to Providence for his ultimate escape.
Having discovered him, however, it was impossible
to give him relief, for the captain had stowed even
the cabin so completely full with cotton as but just
to leave room for a small table for himself and the
mate to eat on, and as for unloading at sea, that was
pretty much out of the question. Accordingly
there he had to lie, stretched at full length, for a te-
dious interval of thirteen days, till the vessel arrived
in port and unloaded, receiving his food and drink
through the auger hole.

" The fellow's story is, now he is released, that
being determined to get away from slavery, he sup-
plied himself with eggs, and biscuit, and some jugs
of water, which latter he was just on the point of
depositing in his lurking place, when he discovered
the captain at a distance coming on board, and had
to hurry down as fast as possible and leave them.
That he lived on nothing but his eggs and biscuit
till discovered by the captain ; not even getting a
drop of water, except what he had the good fortune

IV INTRODUCTION.

to catch in his hand one day, when a vessel of water
in the cabin was upset during a squall, and some of
it ran down through the cracks of the floor over
him." — Commercial Advertiser ', 1822.

With regard to the pictures given in this work of
the internal Slave-trade, and of the economy of a
cotton plantation, it may be observed, that they are
perfectly consistent, not only with the various other
representations which have from time to time been
made by unimpeachable witnesses, but also with the
irresponsible despotism which is vested by law and
custom in southern masters. That despotism with-
in the confines of a plantation, is more absolute and
irresistible than any that was ever wielded by a Ro-
man emperor. The power of the latter, when no
longer supportable, was terminated by revolt or per-
sonal violence, and often with impunity. But to
the despotism of the master, there is scarcely any
conceivable limit, and from its cruelty there is no ref-
uge. His plantation is his empire, his labourers are
his subjects, and revolt and violence, instead of ab-
ridging his power, are followed by inevitable and
horrible punishment. The laws of the land do not,
indeed, authorize the master to take life, but they do
not forbid him to wear it out by excessive toil.

Public opinion sometimes exercises a more control-
ling influence than law, and it may perhaps be sup-
posed, that it throws its shield before the helpless
slave. But it should be recollected, that public opin-
ion at the south is the opinion of the masters them-
selves, and that they are individually amenable to it,

INTRODUCTION. V

chiefly in regard to their intercourse with each other
as citizens, and not in regard to the authority they
exercise over their u property." In his negro quar-
ters, or his cotton field, the planter is withdrawn from
the gaze of his neighbours who have neither the
right, nor the disposition, to scrutinize his conduct.
He is there an unquestioned despot, and his vassals
have no press to proclaim their wrongs, no tribunal
to petition for a redress of grievances, and are prohib-
ited from entering a Court of Justice as suitors, or
even as witnesses against any individual whose
complexion is not coloured like their own. Hence
it follows, that the master is virtually the arbiter of
life and death. All history and all our knowledge of
human nature unite in bearing testimony to the
hardening and corrupting influence of irresponsible
power on its possessor. Some, indeed, are shielded
against this influence by natural benevolence, or re-
ligious principle ; and it is creditable to Ball's can-
dour, that he mentions instances of kindness on the
part of the masters ; but such instances must neces-
sarily, from the very constitution of our nature, be
exceptions to the general rule. The cruelty and de-
testable injustice of the slave code in all ages, and in
all countries, conclusively establishes the general ef-
fect of slavery in paralyzing the moral sense.

Some readers may be disposed to doubt Ball's vera^
city on account of the atrocious cruelties he relates.
Such a doubt evinces a very imperfect acquaintance
with southern feelings and manners. The cruelties
recorded in the narrative, were practised by a few in-

1*

Vi INTRODUCTION.

dividuals, but if assembled multitudes in the slave -
states can publicly unite in perpetrating still greater
atrocities, then surely the story told by Ball is not in-
credible.

The following deeds of horror recounted by the
public journals, render tame and insignificant the
acts of cruelty detailed in the work before us.

" Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

" Horrid occurrence. — Some ime during the
last week, one of those outrageous transactions, and
we really thiuk disgraceful to the character of civil-
ized man, took place near the north-east boundary
line of Perry, adjoining Bibb and Autauga counties.
The circumstances, we are informed by a gentleman
from that county, are — that a Mr. McNeilly having
lost some clothing, or other property of no great
value, the slave of a neighbouring planter was
charged with the theft. McNeilly, in company with
his brother, found the negro driving his master's
wagon — they seized him, and either did, or were
about to chastise him, when the negro stabbed
McNeilly so that he died in an hour afterwards.
The negro was taken before a justice of the peace,
who, after serious deliberation, waived his authority,
perhaps through fear, as the crowd of persons from
the above counties had collected to the number of
seventy or eighty men, near Mr. People's (the jus-
tice) house. He acted as president of the mob, and
put the vote, when it was decided he should be im-
mediately executed by beinginuRNT to death.

INTRODUCTION. Vll

The sable culprit was led to a tree and tied to it, and a
large quantity of pine knots collected and placed
round him, and the fatal torch applied to the pile,
even against the remonstrances of several gentlemen
who were present, and the miserable being was, in
a short time, burnt to ashes.

" This is the second negro who has been thus
put to death without judge or jury in that county."

On the 28th of April, 1836, a negro was burnt
alive at St. Louis, by a numerous mob. The
Alton Telegraph gives the following particulars.

" All was silent as death, while the executioners
were piling wood around the victim. He said not a
word, probably feeling that the flames had seized
upon him. He then uttered an awful howl, attempt-
ing to sing and pray, then hung his head and suffer-
ed in silence, excepting in the following instance : —
After the flames had surrounded their prey, and
when his clothes were in a blaze all over him, his
eyes burnt out of his head, and his mouth seemingly
parched to a cinder, some one in the crowd, more
compassionate than the rest, proposed to put an end
to his misery by shooting him, when it was replied,
' that would be of no use since he was already out
of pain.' c No, no,' said the wretch, l I am not, — I
am suffering as much as ever — shoot me, shoot
me ! ' ' No, no,3 said one of the fiends who was
standing about the sacrifice they were roasting,
' he shall not be shot, I would sooner slacken the
fire, if that would increase his misery ! ' and the

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

man who said this, was, we understand, an officer of
justice ! "

" We understand," says the New Orleans Post of
June 7th, 1836, " that a negro man was lately con-
demned by the mob, to be burned over a slow
fire, which was put into execution at Grand
Gulf, for murdering a black woman and her mas-
ter, Mr. Green, a respectable citizen of that place,
who attempted to save her from the clutches of this
monster."

"We have been informed," says the Arkansas
Gazette of the 29th October, 1836, "that the slave
William^ who murdered his master (Huskey)
some weeks since, and several negroes, was taken
by a party, a few days since, from the Sheriff of
Hot Spring, and burned alive ! yes, tied up to
the limb of a tree, a fire built under him, and con-
sumed in slow and lingering torture !"

It has been already observed, that the master is
virtually the arbiter of life and death. How far the
state of public opinion at the south confirms or con-
tradicts this assertion, may be seen from the annexed
report of a suit brought to recover the value of a mur-
dered slave. If he who takes the life of another's
slave is permitted to go at large without molestation,
after making compensation for the property destroyed,
who shall presume to punish the owner for doing
what he will with his own ?

From the Nashville (Tennessee) Banner, June, 1834.

"Interesting trial. — During the session of

INTRODUCTION. IX

the circuit-court for Davison county, which ad-
journed a few days since, a case was tried of more
than usual interest to the public. It was that of
Meeks against Philips, for the value of a slave who
had been killed by Philips, whilst in the employ-
ment of Meeks as his overseer. The following
abstract of the evidence was furnished us by a disin-
terested member of the bar, who was not engaged as
counsel on either side of the cause.

" < It appeared in evidence that the negro had diso-
beyed Philips' orders, in going away one night with-
out his permission, for which, in accordance with his
duty, he undertook to chastise him. The boy proved
somewhat refractory, and probably offered resistance,
though there was no direct evidence of the fact.
From Philips' admissions, which must be taken for,
as well as against him, it seems he had a scuffle with
the boy, during which, the boy inflicted a blow upon
him, which produced great pain. Philips, with
assistance, finally subdued him. While endeavour-
ing to swing him to the limb of a tree, he resisted by
pulling back ; whereupon Philips, who is a large and
strong man, gave him several blows upon his head
with the butt of a loaded horsewhip. Having
tied him to the limb the rope gave way, and the boy
fell to the ground, when Philips gave him several
violent kicks in the side, and again swung him to
the tree. He then called for a cow-hide, which was
accordingly brought, and the chastisement was com-
menced anew. The suffering wretch implored for

X INTRODUCTION.

mercy in vain. Phili s would whip him awhile,
and then rest only to renew his strokes and wreak
his vengeance, for he repeatedly avowed his inten-
tion of whipping him to death ! — saying, he had as
good a negro to put in his room, or remunerate his
master for the loss of him. The sufferer, writhing
under the stinging tortures of the lash, continued to
implore for mercy, while those who were present in-
terposed, and pleaded, too, in his behalf ; but there
was no relenting arm, until life was nearly extinct,
and feeling had taken its departure. He was cut
loose bleeding and weak, overcome with extreme
exhaustion and debility, and died in a few minutes
after.' The jury, of course, found for the plaintiff,"

PREFACE.

In the following pages, the reader will find em-
bodied the principal incidents that have occurred in
the life of a slave, in the United States of America.
The narrative is taken from the mouth of the adven-
turer himself; and if the copy does not retain the
identical words of the original, the sense and import,
at least, are faithfully preserved.

Many of his opinions have been cautiously omit-
ted, or carefully suppressed, as being of no value to
the reader ; and his sentiments upon the subject of
slavery, have not been embodied in this work. The
design of the writer, who is no more than the record-
er of the facts detailed to him by another, has been
to render the narrative as simple, and the style of
the story as plain, as the laws of the language would
permit. To introduce the reader, as it were, to a
view of the cotton fields, and exhibit, not to his ima-
gination, but to his very eyes, the mode of life to
which the slaves on the southern plantations must
conform, has been the primary object of the compiler.

The book has been written without fear or preju-
dice, and no opinions have been consulted in its com-
position. The sole view of the writer has been to
make the citizens of the United States acquainted
with each other, and to give a faithful portrait of the
manners, usages, and customs of the southern peo-
ple, so far as those manners, usages, and customs

Xii PREFACE.

have fallen under the observations of a common
negro slave, endued by nature with a tolerable por-
tion of intellectual capacity. The more reliance is
to be placed upon his relations of those things that
he saw in the southern country, when it is recollect-
ed that he had been born and brought up in a part of
the state of Maryland, in which, of all others, the spirit
of the " old aristocracy," as it has not unaptly been
called, retained much of its pristine vigour in his
youth ; and where he had an early opportunity of see-
ing many of the most respectable, best educated, and
most highly enlightened families of both Maryland
and Virginia, a constant succession of kind offices,
friendly visits, and family alliances, having at that
day united the most distinguished inhabitants of the
two sides of the Potomac, in the social relations of
one people.

It might naturally be expected, that a man who
had passed through so many scenes of adversity,
and had suffered so many wrongs at the hands of
his fellow-man, would feel much of the bitterness of
heart that is engendered by a remembrance of una-
toned injuries ; but every sentiment of this kind has
been carefully excluded from the following pages, in
which the reader will find nothing but an unadorn-
ed detail of acts, and the impressions those acts produ-
ced on the mind of him upon whom they operated.

NARRATIVE.

CHAPTER I.

The system of slavery, as practised in the United
States, has been, and is now, but little understood by
the people who live north of the Potomac and the
Ohio ; for, although individual cases of extreme cru-
elty and oppression occasionally occur in Maryland,
yet the general treatment of the black people, is far
more lenient and mild in that state, than it is farther
south. This, I presume, is mainly to be attributed
to the vicinity of the free state of Pennsylvania ; but,
in no small degree, to the influence of the population
of the cities of Baltimore and Washington, over the
families of the planters of the surrounding counties.
For experience has taught me, that both masters and
mistresses, who, if not observed by strangers, would
treat their slaves with the utmost rigour, are so far
operated upon, by a sense of shame or pride, as to
provide them tolerably with both food and clothing,
when they know their conduct is subject to the ob-
servation of persons, whose good opinion they wish
to preserve. A large number of the most respectable
and wealthy people in both Washington and Balti-
more, being altogether opposed to the practice of sla-

2

14 NARRATIVE OF THE

very, hold a constant control over the actions of their
friends, the farmers, and thus prevent much misery ;
but in the south, the case is widely different. There,
every man, and every woman too, except prevented
by poverty, is a slave-holder ; and the entire white
population is leagued together by a common bond of
the most sordid interest, in the torture and oppression
of the poor descendants of Africa. If the negro is
wronged, there is no one to whom he can complain
— if suffering for want of the coarsest food, he dare
not steal— if flogged till the flesh falls from his
bones, he must not murmur — and if compell H to
perform his daily toil in an iron collar, no expression
of resentment must escape his lips.

People of the northern states, who make excur-
sions to the south, visit the principal cities and towns,
travel the most frequented highways, or even sojourn
for a time at the residences of the large planters, and
partake of their hospitality and amusements, know
nothing of the condition of the southern slaves. To
acquire this knowledge, the traveller must take up
his abode for a season, in the lodge of the overseer,
pass a summer in the remote cotton fields, or spend
a year within view of the rice swamps. By attend-
ing for one month, the court which the overseer of a
large estate holds every evening in the cotton-gin
yard, and witnessing the execution of his decrees, a
Turk or a Russian would find the tribunals of his
country far outdone.

It seems to be a law of nature, that slavery is
equally destructive to the master and the slave ; for,

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 15

whilst it stupifies the latter with fear, and reduces
him below the condition of man, it brutalizes the for-
mer, by the practice of continual tyranny ; and
makes him the prey of all the vices which render
human nature loathsome.

In the following simple narrative of an unlearned
man, I have endeavoured, faithfully and truly, to
present to the reader, some of the most material ac-
cidents which occurred to myself, in a period of thirty
years of slavery in the free Republic of the United
States ; as well as many circumstances, which I ob-
served in the condition and conduct of other persons
during that period.

It has been supposed, by many, that the state of
the southern slaves is constantly becoming better ;
and that the treatment which they receive at the
hands of their masters, is progressively milder and
more humane ; but the contrary of all this is un-
questionably the truth ; for, under the bad culture
which is practised in the south, the land is constant-
ly becoming poorer, and the means of getting food,
more and more difficult. So long as the land is new
and rich, and produces corn and sweet potatoes
abundantly, the black people seldom suffer greatly
for food ; but, when the ground is all cleared, and
planted in rice or cotton, corn and potatoes become
scarce ; and when corn has to be bought on a cot-
ton plantation, the people must expect to make
acquaintance with hunger.

My grandfather was brought from Africa, and
sold as a slave in Calvert county, in Maryland, about

16 NARRATIVE OF THE

the year 1730. 1 never understood the name of the
ship in which he was imported, nor the name of the
planter who bought him on his arrival, but at the
time I knew him, he was a slave in a family called
Mauel, who resided near Leonardtown. My father
was a slave in a family named Hantz, living near
the same place. My mother was the slave of a to-
bacco planter, an old man, who died, according to
the best of my recollection, when I was about four
years old, leaving his property in such a situation
that it became necessary, as I suppose, to sell a part
of it to pay his debts. Soon after his death, several
of his slaves, and with others myself, were sold at
public vendue. My mother had several children,
my brothers and sisters, and we were all sold on the
same day to different purchasers. Our new master
took us away, and I never saw my mother, nor any
of my brothers and sisters afterwards. This was, I
presume, about the year 1785. I learned subse-
quently, from my father, that my mother was sold to
a Georgia trader, who soon after that carried her
away from Maryland. Her other children were sold
to slave-dealers from Carolina, and were also taken
away, so that I was left alone in Calvert county, with
my father, whose owner lived only a few miles from
my new master's residence. At the time I was sold
I was quite naked, having never had any clothes in
my life ; but my new master had brought with him
a child's frock or wrapper, belonging to one of his
own children ; and after he had purchased me, he
dressed me in this garment, took me before him on

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL, 17

his horse, and started home ; but my poor mother,
when she saw me leaving her for the last time, ran
after me, took me down from the horse, clasped me
in her arms, and wept loudly and bitterly over me.
My master seemed to pity her, and endeavoured to
soothe her distress by telling her that he would be a
good master to me, and that I should not want any
thing. She then, still holding me in her arms,
walked along the road beside the horse as he moved
slowly, and earnestly and imploringly besought my
master to buy her and the rest of her children, and
not permit them to be carried away by the negro
buyers ; but whilst thus entreating him to save her
and her family, the slave-driver, who had first bought
her, came running in pursuit of her with a raw hide
in his hand. When he overtook us he told her he
was her master now, and ordered her to give that
little negro to its owner, and come back with him.

My mother then turned to him and cried, " Oh,
master, do not take me from my child ! " Without
making any reply, he gave her two or three heavy
blows on the shoulders with his raw hide, snatched
me from her arms, handed me to my master, and
seizing her by one arm, dragged her back towards
the place of sale. My master then quickened the
pace of his horse ; and as we advanced, the cries of
my poor parent became more and more indistinct — -
at length they died away in the distance, and I never
again heard the voice of my poor mother. Young
as I was, the horrors of that day sank deeply into
my heart, and even at this time, though half a cen^

3*

18 NARRATIVE OF THE

tury has elapsed, the terrors of the scene return
with painful vividness upon my memory. Fright-
ened at the sight of the cruelties inflicted upon my
poor mother, I forgot my own sorrows at parting
from her and clung to my new master, as an angel
and a saviour, when compared with the hardened
fiend into whose power she had fallen. She had
been a kind and good mother to me ; had warmed me
in her bosom in the cold nights of winter ; and had
often divided the scanty pittance of food allowed her
by her mistress, between my brothers, and sisters, and
me, and gone supperless to bed herself. Whatever
victuals she could obtain beyond the coarse food, salt
fish, and corn-bread, allowed to slaves on the Patux-
ent and Potomac rivers, she carefully distributed
among her children, and treated us with all the ten-
derness which her own miserable condition would
permit. I have no doubt that she was chained and
driven to Carolina, and toiled out the residue of a for-
lorn and famished existence in the rice swamps, or
indigo fields of the south.

My father never recovered from the effects of the
shock, which this sudden and overwhelming ruin
of his family gave him. He had formerly been of a
gay social temper, and when he came to see us on a
Saturday night, he always brought us some little
present, such as the means of a poor slave would
allow — apples, melons, sweet potatoes, or, if he could
procure nothing else, a little parched corn, which
tasted better in our cabin, because he had brought it.

He spent the greater part of the time, which his

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 19

master permitted him to pass with us, in relating
such stories as he had learned from his companions,
or in singing the rude songs common amongst the
slaves of Maryland and Virginia. After this time I
never heard him laugh heartily, or sing a song. He
became gloomy and morose in his temper, to all but
me; and spent nearly all his leisure time with my
grandfather, who claimed kindred with some royal
family in Africa, and had been a great warrior in
his native country. The master of my father was
a hard penurious man, and so exceedingly avari-
cious, that he scarcely allowed himself the common
conveniences of life. A stranger to sensibility, he
was incapable of tracing the change in the temper
and deportment of my father, to its true cause ; but
attributed it to a sullen discontent with his condition
as a slave, and a desire to abandon his service, and
seek his liberty by escaping to some of the free states.
To prevent the perpetration of this suspected crime
of running away from slavery, the old man
resolved to sell my father to a southern slave-dealer,
and accordingly applied to one of those men, who
was at that time in Calvert, to become the pur-
chaser. The price was agreed on, but, as my father
was a very strong, active, and resolute man, it was
deemed unsafe for the Georgian to attempt to seize
him, even with the aid of others, in the day-time,
when he was at work, as it was known he carried
upon his person a large knife. It was therefore
determined to secure him by stratagem, and for this
purpose, a farmer in the neighbourhood, who was

20 NARRATIVE OF THE

made privy to the plan, alleged that he had lost a
pig, which must have been stolen by some one, and
that he suspected my father to be the thief. A con-
stable was employed to arrest him, but as he was
afraid to undertake the business alone, he called on
his way, at the house of the master of my grand-
father, to procure assistance from the overseer of the
plantation. When he arrived at the house, the
overseer was at the barn, and thither he repaired to
make his application. At the end of the barn was
the coach-house, and as the day was cool, to avoid
the wind which was high, the two walked to the
side of the coach-house to talk over the matter, and
settle their plan of operations. It so happened, that
my grandfather, whose business it was to keep the
coach in good condition, was at work at this time,
rubbing the plated handles of the doors, and bright-
ening the other metallic parts of the vehicle. Hear-
ing the voice of the overseer without, he suspended
his work, and listening attentively, became a party
to their councils. They agreed that they would
delay the execution of their project until the next
day, as it was then late. They supposed they would
have no difficulty in apprehending their intended
victim, as, knowing himself innocent of the theft, he
would readily consent to go with the constable to a
justice of the peace, to have the charge examined.
That night, however, about midnight, my grand-
father silently repaired to the cabin of my father, a
distance of about three miles, aroused him from his
sleep, made him acquainted with the extent of his

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 21

danger, gave him a bottle of cider and a small bag
of parched corn, and then praying to the God of his
native country to protect his son, enjoined him to fly
from the destruction which awaited him. In the
morning, the Georgian could not find his newly
purchased slave, who was never seen or heard of in
Maryland from that day. He probably had pru-
dence enough to conceal himself in the day, and
travel only at night ; by this means making his way
slowly up the country, between the Patapsco and
Patuxent, until he was able to strike across to the
north, and reach Pennsylvania.

After the flight of my father, my grandfather was
the only person left in Maryland, with whom I could
claim kindred. He was at that time an old man,
as he himself said, nearly eighty years of age, and
he manifested towards me all the fondness which a
person so far advanced in life could be expected to
feel for a child. As he was too feeble to perform
much hard labour, his master did not require him
either to live or to work with the common field
hands, who were employed the greater part of the
year in cultivating tobacco, and preparing it for mar-
ket, that being the staple crop of all the lower part
of the western shore of Maryland at that time.
Indeed, old Ben, as my grandfather was called, had
always expressed great contempt for his fellow slaves,
they being, as he said, a mean and vulgar race, quite
beneath his rank, and the dignity of his former sta-
tion. He had, during all the time that I knew him,
a small cabin of his own, with about half an acre of

22 NARRATIVE OF THE

ground attached to it, which he cultivated o His
own account, and from which he drew a large por-
tion of his subsistence. He entertained strange and
peculiar notions of rei r>o , and prayed every night,
though he said he ought to pray oftener ; but t
his God would excuse him for the non-performance
of this duty in consideration of his being a slave,
and compelled to devote his whole time to the service
of his master. He never went to church or meeting,
and held, that the religion of this country was alto-
gether false, and indeed, no religion at all ; being the
mere invention of priests and crafty men, who hoped
thereby to profit through the ignorance and credulity
of the multitude. In support of this opinion, he main*
tained that there could only be one true s andard of
faith, which was the case in his country, where all
the people worshipped together in the same assem-
bly, and believed in the same doctrines which had
been of old time delivered by the true God to a holy
man, who was taken up into heaven for that pur-
pose, and after he had received the divine communi-
cation, had returned to earth, and spent a hundred
years in preaching and imparting the truth which
had been revealed to him, lo n ankind. This in-
spired man resided in some country, at a great dis-
tance from that of my grandfather, but had come
there; across a part of the sea, in company with an
angel ; and instructed the people in the mysteries of
the true faith, which had ever since been preserved
in its utmost purity, by the descendants of those
who received it, through a period of more than ten

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 23

thousand years. My grandfather said, that the tenets
of this religion were so plain and self-evident, that any
one could understand them, without any other in-
struction, than the reading of a small book, a copy
of which was kept in every family, and which con-
tained all the rules both of faith and practice, neces-
sary for any one to know or exercise. No one was per-
mitted to expound or explain this book, as it was
known to be the oracle of the true God, and it
was held impious for any person to give a con-
struction to his words, different from that which
was so palpably and manifestly expressed on the
face of the book.

This book was likewise written in such plain and
intelligible language, that only one meaning could
possibly be given to any one part of it ; and was
withal so compendious and brief, that people could,
with very little labour, commit the whole of its pre-
cepts to memory. The priests had, at several times,
attempted to publish commentaries and glossaries
upon this book ; but as often as this had been at-
tempted, the perpetrators had been tried, found
guilty of conspiring to corrupt the public morals, and
then banished from the country. People who were
disposed to worship publicly, convened together in
summer, under the boughs of a large tree, and the
eldest person present read the inspired book from be-
ginning to end, which could be done in two hours,
at most. Sometimes a priest was employed to read
the hook, but he was never, by any means, allowed
to add any observations of his own, as it would

24 NARRATIVE OF THE

have been considered absurd as well as very wicked,
for a mere man to attempt to add to, alter, amend)
or in any manner give a colouring to the revealed
word of God. In winter, when it rained constant-
ly, the worshippers met under the roof of a house
covered with the leaves of a certain tree, which
grew in great abundance on the margins of all the
streams.

The law imposed no penalties on those who did
not profess to believe the contents of the sacred book ;
but those who did not live according to its rules were
deemed bad subjects, and were compelled to become
soldiers, as being fit only for a life of bloodshed and
cruelty.

The book inculcated no particular form of belief,
and left men free to profess what faith they pleased ;
but its principles of morality were extremely rigid
and uncompromising. Love of country, charity, and
social affection, were the chief points of duty enjoin-
ed by it. Lying and drunkenness were strictly pro-
hibited, and those guilty of these vices were severely
punished. Cruelty was placed in the same rank of
crimes ; but the mode of punishment was left en-
tirely to the civil law-giver. The book required nei-
ther fastings, penances, nor pilgrimages ; but tender-
ness to wives and children, was one of its most positive
injunctions.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 25

CHAPTER II.

The name of the man who purchased me at the
vendue, and became my master, was John Cox ;
but he was generally called Jack Cox. He was a
man of kindly feelings towards his family, and
treated his slaves, of whom he had several besides
me, with humanity. He permitted my grandfather
to visit me as often as he pleased, and allowed him
sometimes to carry me to his own cabin, which stood
in a lonely place, at the head of a deep hollow, al-
most surrounded by a thicket of cedar trees, which
had grown up in a worn out and abandoned tobacco
field. My master gave me better clothes than the
little slaves of my age generally received in Calvert,
and often told me that he intended to make me his
waiter, and that if I behaved well I should become
his overseer in time. These stations of waiter and
overseer appeared to me to be the highest points of
honour and greatness in the whole world, and had
not circumstances frustrated my master's plans, as
well as my own views, I should probably have been
living at this time in a cabin on the corner of some
tobacco plantation.

Fortune had decreed otherwise. When I was
about twelve years old, my master, Jack Cox, died
of a disease which had long confined him to the
house. I was sorry for the death of my master,
who had always been kind to me ; and I soon disco-
vered that I had good cause to regret his departure

3

26 NARRATIVE OF THE

from this world. He had several children at the
time of his death, who were all young ; the oldest
being about my own age. The father of my late
master, who was still living, became administrator
of his estate, and took possession of his property,
and amongst the rest, of myself. This old gentle-
man treated me with the greatest severity, and com-
pelled me to work very hard on his plantation for
several years, until I suppose 1 must have been near
or quite twenty years of age. As I was always very
obedient, and ready to execute all his orders, I did
not receive much whipping, but suffered greatly for
want of sufficient and proper food. My master al-
lowed his slaves a peck of corn, each, per week,
throughout the year ; and this we had to grind into
meal in a hand mill for ourselves. We had a tolera-
ble supply of meat for a short time, about the month
of December, when he killed his hogs. After that
season we had meat once a week, unless bacon be-
came scarce, which very often happened, in which
case we had no meat at all. However, as we fortu-
nately lived near both the Patuxent river and the
Chesapeake Bay. wTe had abundance of fish in the
spring, and as long as the fishing season continued.
After that period, each slave received, in addition to
his allowance of corn, one salt herring every day.
My master gave me one pair of shoes, one pair of
stockings, one hat, one jacket of coarse cloth, two
coarse shirts, and two pair of trousers yearly. He
allowed me no other clothes. In the winter time I
often suffered very much from the cold ; as I had to

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 27

drive the team of oxen which hauled the tobacco to
market, and frequently did not get home until late
at night, the distance being considerable, and my
cattle travelling very slow.

One Saturday evening, when I came home from
the corn field, my master told me that he had hired
me out for a year at the city of Washington, and
that I would have to live at the navy-yard.

On the new-year's-day following, which happen-
ed about two weeks afterwards, my master set for-
ward for Washington, on horseback, and ordered
me to accompany him on foot. It was night when
we arrived at the navy-yard, and every thing appear-
ed very strange to me.

I was told by a gentleman who had epaulets on
his shoulders, that I must go on board a large ship,
which lay in the river. He at the same time told a
boy to show me the way. This ship proved to be
the Congress frigate, and I was told that I had been
brought there to cook for the people belonging to her.
In the course of a few days the duties of my station
became quite familiar to me ; and in the enjoyment
of a profusion of excellent provisions, I felt very
happy. I strove by all means to please the officers
and gentlemen who came on board, and in this I
soon found my account. One gave me a half- worn
coat, another an old shirt, and a third, a cast off
waistcoat and pantaloons. Some presented me with
small sums of money, and in this way I soon found
myself well clothed, and with more than a dollar in
my pocket. My duties, though constant, were not

28 NARRATIVE OF THE

burthensome, and I was permitted to spend Sunday-
afternoon in my own way. I generally went up
into the city to see the new and splendid buildings ;
often walked as far as Georgetown, and made many
new acquaintances amongst the slaves, and frequent-
ly saw large numbers of people of my colour chained
together in long trains, and driven off towards the
south. At that time the Slave-trade was not re-
garded with so much indignation and disgust, as it
is now. It was a rare thing to hear of a person of
colour running away, and escaping altogether from
his master : my father being the only one within
my knowledge, who had, before this time, obtained
his liberty in this manner, in Calvert county ; and,
as before stated, I never heard what became of him
after his flight.

I remained on board the Congress, and about the
navy-yard, two years, and was quite satisfied with
my lot, until about three months before the expira-
tion of this period, when it so happened that a
schooner, loaded with iron and other materials for
the use of the yard, arrived from Philadelphia. She
came and lay close by the Congress, to discharge her
cargo, and amongst her crew I observed a black
man, with whom, in the course of a day or two, I
became acquainted. He told me he was free, and
lived in Philadelphia, where he kept a house of en-
tertainment for sailors, which he said was attended
to in his absence by his wife.

His description of Philadelphia, and of the liberty
enjoyed there by the black people, so charmed my

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 29

imagination that I determined to devise some plan
of escaping from the Congress, and making my
way to the north. I communicated my designs to
my new friend, who promised to give me his aid.
We agreed that the night before the schooner should
sail, I was to be concealed in the hold, amongst
a parcel of loose tobacco, which he said the captain
had undertaken to carry to Philadelphia. The sail-
ing of the schooner was delayed longer than we ex-
pected ; and, finally, her captain purchased a cargo
of flour in Georgetown, and sailed for the West In-
dies. Whilst I was anxiously awaiting some other
opportunity of making my way to Philadelphia, (the
idea of crossing the country to the western part of
Pennsylvania never entered my mind,) new-year's-
day came, and with it came my old master from
Calvert, accompanied by a gentleman named Gib-
son, to whom he said he had sold me, and to whom
he delivered me over in the navy-yard. We all
three set out that same evening for Calvert, and
reached the residence of my new master the next
day. Here I was informed that I had become the
subject of a law-suit. My new master claimed me
under his purchase from old Mr. Cox ; and another
gentleman of the neighbourhood, named Levin Bal-
lard, had bought me of the children of my former
master, Jack Cox. This suit continued in the
eourts of Calvert county more than two years ; but
was finally decided in favour of him who had bought
me of the children.

I went home with my master, Mr. Gibson, who

3*

30 NARRATIVE OF THE

was a farmer, and with whom I lived three years.
Soon after I came to live with Mr. Gibson, I married
a girl of colour named Judah, the slave of a gentle-
man by the name of Symmes, who resided in the
same neighbourhood. I was at the house of Mr.
Symmes every week; and became as well acquaint-
ed with him and his family, as I was with my
master.

Mr. Symmes also married a wife about the time I
did. The lady whom he married lived near Phila-
delphia, and when she first came to Maryland, she
refused to be served by a black chambermaid, but
employed a white girl, the daughter of a poor man,
who lived near. The lady was reported to be very
wealthy, and brought a large trunk full of plate,
and other valuable articles. This trunk was so
heavy that I could scarcely carry it, and it impress-
ed my mind with the idea of great riches in the
owner, at that time. After some time Mrs. Symmes
dismissed her white chambermaid, and placed my
wife in that situation, which I regarded as a fortu-
nate circumstance, as it insured her good food, and
at least one good suit of clothes.

The Symmes' family was one of the most ancient
in Maryland, and had been a long time resident in
Calvert county. The grounds had been laid out,
and all the improvements projected about the family
abode, in a style of much magnificence, according to
the custom of the old aristocracy of Maryland and
Virginia.

Appendant to the domicile, and at no great dis-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 3l

tance from the house, was a family vault, built of
brick, in which reposed the occupants of the estate,
who had lived there for many previous generations.
This vault had not been opened or entered for fifteen
years previous to the time of which I speak ; but it
so happened, that at this period, a young man, a dis-
tant relation of the family, died, having requested on
his death-bed, that he might be buried in this family
resting place. When I came on Saturday evening
to see my wife and child, Mr. Symmes desired me,
as I was older than any of his black men, to take an
iron pick and go and open the vault, which I ac-
cordingly did, by cutting away the mortar, and re-
moving a few bricks from one side of the building ;
but I could not remove more than three or four bricks
before I was obliged, by the horrid effluvia which
issued at the aperture, to retire. It was the most
deadly and sickening scent that I have ever smelled,
and I could not return to complete the work until
after the sun had risen the next day, when I pulled
down so much of one of the side walls, as to permit
persons to walk in upright. I then went in alone,
and examined this house of the dead, and surely no
picture could more strongly and vividly depict the
emptiness of all earthly vanity, and the nothingness
of human pride. Dispersed over the floor lay the
fragments of more than twenty human skeletons,
each in the place where it had been deposited by the
idle tenderness of surviving friends. In some cases
nothing remained but the hair and the larger bones,
whilst in several the form of the coffin was yet visi-

32 NARRATIVE OP THE

ble, with all the bones resting in their proper places.
One coffin, the sides of which were yet standing, the
lid only having decayed and partly fallen in, so as to
disclose the contents of this narrow cell, presented a
peculiarly moving spectacle. Upon the centre of
the lid was a large silver plate, and the head and
foot were adorned with silver stars. The nails which
had united the parts of the coffin had also silver
heads. Within lay the skeletons of a mother and
her infant child, in slumbers only to be broken by
the peal of the last trumpet. The bones of the in-
fant lay upon the breast of the mother, where the
hands of affection had shrouded them. The ribs of
the parent had fallen down, and rested on the back
bone. Many gold rings were about the bones of
the fingers Brilliant ear-rings lay beneath where
the ears had been ; and a glittering gold chain en-
circled the ghastly and haggard vertebrae of a once
beautiful neck. The shroud and flesh had disap-
peared, but the hair of the mother appeared strong
and fresh. Even the silken locks of the infant were
still preserved. Behold the end of youth and beau-
ty, and of all that is lovely in life ! The coffin was
so much decayed that it could not be removed. A
thick and dismal vapour hung embodied from the
roof and walls of this charnal house, in appearance
somewhat like a mass of dark cobwebs; but which
was impalpable to the touch, and when stirred by
the hand vanished away. On the second day we
deposited with his kindred, the corpse of the young
man, and at night I again carefully closed up the

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 33

breach which I had made in the walls of this dwel-
ling-place of the dead.

CHAPTER III.

Some short time after my wife became chamber-
maid to her mistress, it was my misfortune to
change masters once more. Levin Ballard, who,
as before stated, had purchased me of the children
of my former master, Jack Cox, was successful in
his law suit with Mr. Gibson, the object of which
was to determine the right of property in me ; and
one day, whilst I was at work in the corn-field, Mr.
Ballard came and told me I was his property ; ask-
ing me at the same time if I was willing to go with
him. I told him I was not willing to go ; but that if
I belonged to him I knew I must. We then went
to the house, and Mr. Gibson not being at home,
Mrs. Gibson told me I must go with Mr. Ballard.

I accordingly went with him, determining to serve
him obediently and faithfully. I remained in his
service almost three years, and as he lived near the
residence of my wife's master, my former mode of
life was not materially changed, by this change of

home.

Mrs. Symmes spent much of her time in ex-
changing visits with the families of the other large
planters, both in Calvert, and the neighbouring
counties ; and through my wife, I became acquaint-

34 NARRATIVE OF THE

ed with the private family history of many of the
principal persons in Maryland.

There was a great proprietor, who resided in an-
other county, who owned several hundred slaves ;
and who permitted them to beg of travellers on the
high-way. This same gentleman had several daugh-
ters, and according to the custom of the time, kept
what they called open house : that is, his house was
free to all persons of genteel appearance, who chose
to visit it. The young ladies were supposed to be
the greatest fortunes in the country, were reputed
beautiful, and consequently were greatly admired.

Two gentlemen, who were lovers of these girls,
desirous of amusing their mistresses, invited a young
man, whose standing in society they supposed to be
beneath theirs, to go with them to the manor, as it
was called. When there, they endeavoured to make
him an object of ridicule, in presence of the ladies ;
but he so well acquitted himself, and manifested such
superior wit and talents, that one of the young la-
dies fell in love with him, and soon after, wrote him
a letter, which led to their marriage. His two pre-
tended friends were never afterwards countenanced
by the family, as gentlemen of honour ; but the for-
tunate husband avenged himself of his heartless
companions, by inviting them to his wedding, and
exposing them to the observation of the vast assem-
blage of fashionable people, who always attended a
marriage, in the family of a great planter.

The two gentlemen, who had been thus made to
fall into the pit that they had dug for another, were

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 35

so much chagrined at the issue of the adventure, that
one, soon left Maryland ; and the other became a
common drunkard, and died a few years afterwards.

My change of masters, realised all the evil appre-
hensions which I had entertained. I found Mr. Bal-
lard sullen and crabbed in his temper, and always
prone to find fault with my conduct — no matter how
hard I had laboured, or how careful I was to fulfil
all his orders, and obey his most unreasonable com-
mands. Yet, it so happened, that he never beat
me, for which, I was altogether indebted to the good
character, for in ustry, sobriety, and humility,
which I had established in the neighbourhood. I
think he was ashamed to abuse me, lest he should
suffer in the good opinion of the public ; for he often
fell into the most violent fits of anger against me,
and overwhelmed me with coarse and abusive lan-
guage. He did not give me clothes enough to keep
me warm in winter, and compelled me to work in
the woods, when there was deep snow on the ground,
by which I suffered very much. I had determined
at last to speak to him to sell me to some person in
the neighbourhood, so that I might still be near my
wife and children — but a different fate awaited me.

My master kept a store at a small village on the
bank of the Patuxent river, called B , al-
though he resided at some distance on a farm. One
morning he rose early, and ordered me to take a
yoke of oxen and go to the village, to bring home a
cart which was there, saying he would follow me.
He arrived at the village soon after I did, and took

36 NARRATIVE OF THE

his breakfast with his store-keeper. He then told
me to come into the house and get my breakfast.
Whilst I was eating in the kitchen, I observed him
talking earnestly but lowly, to a stranger near the
kitchen door. I soon after went out, and hitched
my oxen to the cart, and was about to drive off,
when several men came round about me, and
amongst them the stranger whom I had seen speak-
ing with my master. This man came up to me,
and, seizing me by the collar, shook me violently,
saying I was his property, and must go with him to
Georgia. At the sound of these words, the thoughts
of my wife and children rushed across my mind, and
my heart died away within me. I saw and knew
that my case was hopeless, and that resistance was
vain, as there were near twenty persons present, all
of whom were ready to assist the man by whom 1
was kidnapped. I felt incapable of weeping or
speaking, and in my despair I laughed loudly. My
purchaser ordered me to cross my hands behind,
which were quickly bound with a strong cord ; and
he then told me that we must set out that very day
for the south. I asked if I could not be allowed to
go to see my wife and children, or if this could not
be permitted, if they might not have leave to come
to see me ; but was told that 1 would be able to get
another wife in Georgia.

My new master, whose name I did not hear, took
me that same day across the Patuxent, where I
joined fifty-one other slaves, whom he had bought
in Maryland. Thirty-two of these were men, and

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 37

nineteen were women. The women were merely
tied together with a rope, about the size of a bed
cord, which was tied like a halter round the neck of
each ; but the men, of whom 1 was the stoutest
and strongest, were very differently caparisoned. A
strong iron collar was closely fitted by means of a
padlock round each of our necks. A chain of iron,
about a hundred feet in length, was passed through
the hasp of each padlock, except at the two ends,
where the hasps of the padlocks passed through a
link of the chain. In addition to this, we were
handcuffed in pairs, with iron staples and bolts, with
a short chain, about a foot long, uniting the handcuffs
and their wearers in pairs. In this manner we were
chained alternately by the right and left hand ; and
the poor man, to whom I was thus ironed, wept like
an infant when the blacksmith, with his heavy ham-
mer, fastened the ends of the bolts that kept the sta-
ples from slipping from our arms. For my own
part, I felt indifferent to my fate. It appeared to me
that the worst had come, that could come, and that
no change of fortune could harm me.

After we were all chained and handcuffed togeth-
er, we sat down upon the ground ; and here reflect-
ing upon the sad reverse of fortune that had so sud-
denly overtaken me, and the dreadful suffering
which awaited me, I became weary of life, and bit-
terly execrated the day I was born. It seemed that
I was destined by fate to drink the cup of sorrow to
the very dregs, and that I should find no respite from
misery but in the grave. 1 longed to die, and escape

4

38 NARRATIVE OF THE

from the hands of my tormentors ; but even the
wretched privilege of destroying myself was denied
me ; for I could not shake off my chains, nor move
a yard without the consent of my master. Reflecting
in silence upon my forlorn condition, I at length con-
cluded that as things could not become worse — and
as the life of man is but a continued round of chan-
ges, they must, of necessity, take a turn in my fa-
vour at some future day. I found relief in this vague
and indefinite hope, and when we received orders to
go on board the scow, which was to transport us over
the Patuxent, I marched down to the water with a
firmness of purpose of which I did not believe my-
self capable, a few minutes before.

We were soon on the south side of the river, and
taking up our line of march, we travelled about five
miles that evening, and stopped for the night at one
of those miserable public houses, so frequent in the
lower parts of Maryland and Virginia, called " ordi-
nariesP

Our master ordered a pot of mush to be made for
our supper ; after despatching which, we all lay down
on the naked floor to sleep in our handcuffs and
chains. The women, my fellow-slaves, lay on one
side of the room ; and the men who were chained
with me, occupied the other. I slept but little this
night, which I passed in thinking of my wife and
little children, whom I could not hope ever to see
again. I also thought of my grandfather, and of the
long nights I had passed with him, listening to his
narratives of the scenes through which he had passed

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 39

in Africa. I at length fell asleep, but was distressed
by painful dreams. My wife and children appeared
to be weeping and lamenting my calamity ; and be-
seeching and imploring my master on their knees,
not to carry me away from them. My little boy
came and begged me not to go and leave him, and
endeavoured, as I thought, with his little hands to
break the fetters that bound me. I awoke in agony
and cursed my existence. I could not pray, for the
measure of my woes seemed to be full, and I felt as
if there was no mercy in heaven, nor compassion on
earth, for a man who was born a slave. Day at
length came, and with the dawn, we resumed our
journey towards the Potomac. As we passed along
the road, I saw the slaves at work in the corn and
tobacco-fields. I knew they toiled hard and lacked
food ; but they were not, like me, dragged in chains
from their wives, children, and friends. Compared
with me, they were the happiest of mortals. I al-
most envied them their blessed lot.

Before night we crossed the Potomac, at Hoe's
Ferry, and bade farewell to Maryland. At night we
stopped at the house of a poor gentleman, at least he
appeared to wish my master to consider him a gen-
tleman ; and he had no difficulty in establishing his
claim to poverty. He lived at the side of the road, in
a framed house, which had never been plastered
within — the weather-boards being the only wall.
He had about fifty acres of land enclosed by a fence,
the remains of a farm which had once covered two
or three hundred acres ; but the cedar bushes had

40 NARRATIVE OF THE

encroached upon all sides, until the cultivation had
been confined to its present limits. The land was
the very picture of sterility, and there was neither
barn nor stable on the place. The owner was rag-
ged, and his wife and children were in a similar
plight. It was with difficulty that we obtained a
bushel of corn, which our master ordered us to
parch at a fire made in the yard, and to eat for our
supper. Even this miserable family possessed two
slaves, half-starved, half- naked wretches, whose ap-
pearance bespoke them familiar with hunger, and

victims of the lash ; but yet there wTas one pang
which they had not known, — they had not been

chained and driven from their parents, or children,
into hopeless exile.

We left this place early in the morning, and di-
rected our course toward the south-west ; our master
riding beside us, and hastening our march, some-
times by words of encouragement, and sometimes by
threats of punishment. The women took their
place in the rear of our line. We halted about nine
o'clock for breakfast, and received as much corn-
bread as we could eat, together with a plate of
broiled herrings, and about three pounds of pork
amongst us. Before we left this place, I was removed
from near the middle of the chain, and placed at the
front end of it ; so that I now became the leader of
the file, and held this post of honour until our irons
were taken from us, near the town of Columbia in
South Carolina, We continued our route this day
along the high road between the Potomac and

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 41

Rappahannock : and I several times saw each of
those rivers before night. Our master gave us no
dinner to day, but we halted a short time before sun-
down, and got as much corn mush, and sour milk,
as we could eat for supper. It was now the begin-
ning of the month of May, and the weather, in the
fine climate of Virginia, was very mild and pleasant ;
so that our master was not obliged to provide us with
fire at night.

From this time, to the end of our journey south-
ward, we all slept, promiscuously, men and women,
on the floors of such houses as we chanced to stop
at. We had no clothes except those we wore, and
a few blankets ; the larger portion of our gang be-
ing in rags at the time we crossed the Potomac.
Two of the women were pregnant ; the one far ad-
vanced— and she already complained of inability to
keep pace with our march ; but her complaints were
disregarded. We crossed the Rappahannock at
Port Royal, and afterwards passed through the vil-
lage of Bowling Green ; a place with which 1 be-
came better acquainted in after times ; but which
now presented the quiet so common to all the small
towns in Virginia, and indeed in all the southern
states. Time did not reconcile me to my chains,
but it made me familiar with them ; and in a few
days the horrible sensations attendant upon my cruel
separation from my wife and children, in some mea-
sure subsided ; and I began to reflect upon my
present hopeless and desperate situation, with some
degree of calmness ; hoping that I might be able to

4*

42 NARRATIVE OF THE

devise some means of escaping from the hands of
my new master, who seemed to place particular va-
lue on me, as I could perceive from his conversation
with such persons as we happened to meet at our
resting places. I heard him tell a tavern-keeper where
we halted, that if he had me in Georgia, he could get
five hundred dollars for me ; but he had bought me
for his brother, and he believed he would not sell
me ; but in this he afterwards changed his opinion.
I examined every part of our long chain, to see if
there might not be some place in it at which it
could be severed ; but foun I it so completely se-
cured, that with any means in my power, its sepa-
ration was impossible. From this time I endea-
voured to beguile my sorrows, by examining the
state of the country through which we were travel-
ling, and observing the condition of my fellow- slaves,
on the plantations along the high-road upon which
we sojourned.

We all had as much corn bread as we could eat.
This was procured by our owner at the small dram
shops, or ordinaries, at which we usually tarried all
night. In addition to this, we generally received a
salt herring, though not every day. On Sunday,
our master bought as much bacon, as, when divided
amongst us, gave about a quarter of a pound to each
person in our gang.

In Calvert county, where I was born, the practice
amongst slave-holders, was to allow each slave one
peck of corn weekly, which was measured out every
Monday morning ; at the same time each one re-

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 43

ceiving seven salt herrings. This formed the week's
provision, and the master who did not give it, was
called a hard master ', whilst those who allowed their
people any thing more, were deemed kind and in-
dulgent. It often happened, that the stock of salt
herrings laid up by a master in the spring, was not
sufficient to enable him to continue this rate of
distribution through the year ; and when the fish
failed, nothing more than the corn was dealt out.
On the other hand, some planters, who had large
stocks of cattle, and many cows, kept the sour milk,
after all the cream had been skimmed from it, and
made a daily distribution of this amongst the work-
ing slaves. Some who had large apple orchards,
gave their slaves a pint of cider each per day,
through the autumn. It sometimes happened, too,
in the lower counties of Maryland, that there was
an allowance of pork, made to the slaves one day in
each week ; though on some estates this did not
take place more than once in a month. This al-
lowance of meat was disposed of in such a manner
as to permit each slave to get a slice ; very often
amounting to half a pound. The slaves were also
permitted to work for themselves at night, and on
Sunday. If they chose to fish, they had the privi-
lege of selling whatever they caught. Some expert
fishermen caught and sold as many fish and oysters,
as enabled them to buy coffee, sugar, and other
luxuries for their wives, besides keeping themselves
and their families in Sunday clothes ; for, the mas-
ters in Maryland only allowed the men one wool

Mfi

44 NARRATIVE OF THE

hat, one pair of shoes, two shirts, two pair of trou-
sers— one pair of tow cloth, and one of woollen — and
one woollen jacket in the year. The women were
furnished in proportion. All other clothes they had
to provide for themselves. Children not able to work
in the field, were not provided with clothes at all, by
their masters. It is, however, honourable to the
Maryland slave-holders, that they never permit wo-
men to go naked in the fields, or about the house ;
and if the men are industrious and employ them-
selves loell on Sundays and holy days, they can
always keep themselves in comfortable clothes.

In Yirginia, it appeared to me that the slaves
were more rigorously treated than they were in my
native place. It is easy to tell a man of colour who
is poorly fed, from one who is well supplied with
food, by his personal appearance. A half-staived
negro is a miserable looking creature. His skin be-
comes dry, and appears to be sprinkled over with
whitish husks, or scales; the glossiness of his face
vanishes, his hair loses its colour, becomes dry, and
when stricken with a rod, the dust flies from it.
These signs of bad treatment I perceived to be very
common in Yirginia ; many young girls who would
have been beautiful, if they had been allowed enough
to eat, had lost all their prettiness through mere
starvation ; their fine glossy hair had become of a
reddish colour, and stood out round their heads like
Ions: brown wool.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 45

CHAPTER IV.

Our master at first expressed a determination to
pass through the city of Richmond ; but for some
reason, which he did not make known to us, he
changed his mind, and drove us up the country,
crossing the Matepony, North Anna and South Anna
rivers. For several days we traversed a region,
which had been deserted by the occupants — being
no longer worth culture — and immense thickets of
young red cedars, now occupied the fields, in dig-
ing of which, thousands of wretched slaves had
worn out their lives in the service of merciless
masters.

In some places these cedar thickets, as they are
called, continued for ihree or four miles together,
without a house to enliven the scene, and with
scarcely an original forest tree to give variety to the
landscape. One day, in the midst of a wilderness
of cedars, we came in view of a stately and venera-
ble looking brick edifice, which, on nearer inspection,
I discovered to be a church. On approaching it,
our driver ordered us to halt, and dismounting from
his horse, tied him to a young cedar tree, and 'sat
himself down upon a flat tomb-stone, near the west
end of the church, ordering us, at the same time, to
sit down among the grass and rest ourselves. The
grave yard in which we were now encamped, occu-
pied about two acres of ground, which was sur-
rounded by a square brick wall, much dilapidated,

46 NARRATIVE OF THE

and in many places broken down nearly to the
ground. The gates were decayed and gone, but
the gate-ways were yet distinct. The whole enclo-
sure was thickly strewed with graves, many of
which were surmounted by beautiful marble slabs ;
others were designated by plain head and foot stones ;
whilst far the larger number only betrayed the rest-
ing places of their sleeping tenants, by the simple
mounds of clay, which still maintained their eleva-
tion above the level of the surrounding earth. From
the appearance of this burial place, I suppose no one
had been interred there for thirty years. Several
hollies, planted by the hands of friendship, grew
amongst the hillocks, and numerous flowering shrubs
and bushes, now in bloom, gave fragrance to the
air of the place. The cedars which covered the
surrounding plain, with a forest impervious to the
eye, had respected this lonely dwelling of the dead,
and not one was to be seen within the walls.

Though it was now the meridian of day in spring,
the stillness of midnight pervaded the environs of
this deserted and forsaken temple ; the pulpit, pews,
and gallery of which were still standing, as I
could perceive through the broken door- way, and
maintained a freshness and newness of appearance,
little according with the time-worn aspect of the ex-
terior scenery.

It was manifest that this earthly dwelling of the
Most High, now so desolate and ruinous, was once
the resort of a congregation of people, gay, fashion-
able, and proud ; who had disappeared from the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 47

land, leaving only this fallen edifice, and these
grassy tombs, as the mementos of their existence.
They had passed away, even as did the wandering
red men, who roamed through the lofty oak forests
which once shaded the ground where we now lay.
As I sat musing upon the desolation that surrounded
me, my mind turned to the cause which had con-
verted a former rich and populous country, into the
solitude of a deserted wilderness.

The ground over which we had travelled, since
we crossed the Potomac, had generally been a strong
reddish clay, with an admixture of sand, and was of
the same quality with the soil of the counties of
Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks, in Pennsylvania.
It had originally been highly fertile and productive,
and had it been properly treated, would doubtlessly
have continued to yield abundant and prolific crops ;
but the gentlemen who became the early proprietors
of this fine region, supplied themselves with slaves
from Africa, cleared large plantations of many thou-
sands of acres— cultivated tobacco — and became
suddenly wealthy ; built spacious houses and nu-
merous churches, such as this ; but, regardless of
their true interest, they valued their lands less than
their slaves, exhausted the kindly soil by unremitting
crops of tobacco, declined in their circumstances, and
finally grew poor, upon the very fields that had
formerly made their possessors rich ; abandoned one
portion after another, as not worth planting any
longer, and, pinched by necessity, at last sold their
slaves to Georgian planters, to procure a subsistence ;

48 NARRATIVE OF THE

and when all was gone, took refuge in the wilds of
Kentucky, again to act the same melancholy drama,
leaving their native land to desolation and poverty.
The churches then followed the fate of their builders.
The revolutionary war deprived the parsons of their
legal support, and they fled from the altar which
no longer maintained them. Virginia has become
poor by the folly and wickedness of slavery, and
dearly has she paid for the anguish and sufferings
she has inflicted upon our injured, degraded, and
fallen race.

After remaining about two hours in this place, we
again resumed our march ; and wretched as I was,
I felt relieved when we departed from this abode of
the spirit of ruin.

We continued our course up the country west-
ward, for two or three days, moving at a slow pace,
and at length turning south, crossed James river, at
a place about thirty miles above Richmond, as I
understood at the time. We continued our journey
from day to day, in a course and by roads which
appeared to me to bear generally about south-west,
for more than four weeks, in which time we entered
South Carolina, and in this state, near Camden, I
first saw a field of cotton in bloom.

I had endeavoured through the whole journey,
from the time we crossed the Rappahannock river,
to make such observations upon the country, the
roads we travelled, and the towns we passed through,
as would enable me, at some future period, to find
my way back to Maryland. I was particularly

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 49

eareful to note the names of the towns and villages
through winch we passed, and to fix on my memory,
not only the names of all the rivers, but also the po-
sition and bearing of the ferries over those streams.

After leaving James river, I assumed an air of
cheerfulness and even gaiety — 1 often told stories to
my master of the manners and customs of the Mary-
land planters, and asked him if the same usages pre-
vailed in Georgia, whither we were destined. By
repeatedly naming the rivers that we came to, and
in the order which we had reached them, I was able
at my arrival in Georgia, to repeat the name of every
considerable stream from the Potomac to the Savan-
nah, and to tell at what ferries we had crossed them.
I afterwards found this knowledge of great service
to me ; indeed, without it I should never have been
able to extricate myself from slavery.

After leaving James river, our road led us south-
west, through that region of country, which, in Vir-
ginia and the Carolinas, they call the upper country.
It lies between the head of the tides, in the great riv-
ers, and the lower ranges of the Alleghany Moun-
tains. I had, at that time, never seen a country
cultivated by the labour of freemen, and consequent-
ly, was not able to institute any comparison between
the southern plantations, and the farms in Pennsyl-
vania, the fields of which are ploughed and reaped
by the hands of their owners ; but my recollection
of the general aspect of upper Virginia and Carolina
is still vivid. When contrasted with the exhausted
and depopulated portion of Virginia, lying below the

5

50 NARRATIVE OF THE

head of the tide, much of which I had seen, the
lands traversed by us in the month of May and
early part of June, were indeed fertile and beautiful ;
but when compared with what the same plantations
would have been, in the hands of such farmers as I
have seen in Pennsylvania, divided into farms of the
proper size, the cause of the general poverty and
weakness of the slave-holding states is at once seen.
The plantations are large in the south, often in-
cluding a thousand acres or more ; the population is
consequently thin, as only one white family, beside
the overseer, ever resides on one plantation.

As I advanced southward, even in Virginia, I per-
ceived that the state of cultivation became progres-
sively worse. Here, as in Maryland, the practice of
the best farmers who cultivate grain, of planting the
land every alternate year in corn, and sowing it in
wheat or rye in the autumn of the same year in
which the corn is planted, and whilst the corn is yet
standing in the field, so as to get a crop from the
same ground every year, without allowing it time to
rest or recover, exhausts the finest soil in a few years,
and in one or two generations reduces the proprie-
tors to poverty. Some, who are supposed to be very
superior farmers, only plant the land in corn once
in three years ; sowing it in wheat or rye as in the
former case ; however, without any covering of clo-
ver or other grass to protect it from the rays of the sun.
The culture of tobacco prevails over a large portion
of Virginia, especially south of James river, to the
exclusion of almost every other crop, except corn.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 51

This destructive crop ruins the best land in a short
time ; and in all the lower parts of Maryland and
Virginia the traveller will see large old family man-
sions, of weather-beaten and neglected appearance,
standing in the middle of vast fields of many hun-
dred acres, the fences of which have rotted away,
and have been replaced by a wattled work in place
of a fence, composed of short cedar stakes driven into
the ground, about two feet apart, and standing about
three feet above the earth, the intervals being filled
up by branches cut from the cedar trees, and work-
ed into the stakes horizontally, after the manner of
splits in a basket.

Many of these fields have been abandoned alto-
gether, and are overgrown by cedars, which spring
up in infinite numbers almost as soon as a field
ceases to be ploughed, and furnish materials for
fencing such parts of the ancient plantation as are
still kept enclosed. In many places the enclosed
fields are only partially cultivated, all the hills and
poorest parts being given up to the cedars and chin-
quopin bushes. These estates, the seats of families
that were once powerful, wealthy, and proud, are
universally destitute of the appearance of a barn,
such as is know^n among the farmers of Pennsylva-
nia. The out houses, stables, gardens, and offices,
have fallen to decay, and the dwelling-house is occu-
pied by the descendants of those who erected it, still
pertinaciously adhering to the halls of their ancestry,
with a half dozen or ten slaves, the remains of the
two or three hundred who toiled upon these grounds

52 NARRATIVE OF THE

in former days. The residue of the stock has been
distributed in marriage portions to the daughters of
the family gone to a distance — have been removed
to the west by emigrating sons, or have been sold to
the southern traders, from time to time, to procure
money to support the dignity of the house, as the
land grew poorer, and the tobacco crop shorter, from
year to year.

Industry, enterprise, and ambition, have fled from
these abodes, and sought refuge from sterility and
barrenness in the vales of Kentucky, or the plains of
Alabama ; whilst the present occupants, vain of
their ancestral monuments, and proud of an obscure
name, contend with all the ills that poverty brings
upon fallen greatness, and pass their lives in a con-
test between mimic state and actual penury — too
ignorant of agriculture to know how to restore
fertility to a once prolific and still substantial soil,
and too spiritless to sell their effects and search a new
home under other skies. The sedge grass every
where takes possession of the worn out fields, until it
is supplanted by the chinquopin and the cedar.
This grass grows in thick set bunches or stools, and
no land is too poor for it. It rises to the height of
two or three feet, and grows, in many places, in great
profusion — is utterly worthless, either for hay or
pasturage, but affords shelter to numerous rabbits,
and countless flocks of partridges, and, at a short
distance, has a beautiful appearance, as its elastic
blue tops wave in the breeze.

In Maryland and Virginia, although the slaves

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 53

are treated with so much rigour, and oftentimes with
so much cruelty, I have seen instances of the great-
est tenderness of feeling on the part of their owners.
I myself had three masters in Maryland, and I can-
not say now, even after having resided so many
years in a state where slavery is not tolerated, that
either of them (except the last, who sold me to the
Georgians, and was an unfeeling man,) used me
worse than they had a moral right to do, regarding
me merely as an article of property, and not entitled
to any rights as a man, political or civil. My mis-
tresses, in Maryland, were all good women ; and the
mistress of my wife, in whose kitchen I spent my
Sundays and many of my nights, for several years,
was a lady of most benevolent and kindly feelings.
She was a true friend to me, and I shall always
venerate her memory.

It is now my opinion, after all I have seen, that
there are no better-hearted women in the world, than
the ladies of the ancient families, as they are called,
in old Virginia, or the country below the mountains,
and the same observations will apply to the ladies
of Maryland. The stock of slaves has belonged to
the family for several generations, and there is a
kind of family pride, in being the proprietors of so
many human beings, which, in many instances,
borders on affection for people of colour.

If the proprietors of the soil in Maryland and Vir-
ginia, were skilful cultivators — had their lands in
good condition — and kept no more slaves on each
estate than would be sufficient to work the soil in a

5*

54 NARRATIVE OF THE

proper manner, and keep up the repairs of the
place — the condition of the coloured people would
not be, by any means, a comparatively unhappy
one. I am convinced, that in nine cases in ten, the
hardships and sufferings of the coloured population of
lower Virginia, is attributable to the poverty and dis-
tress of its owners. In many instances, an estate
scarcely yields enough to feed and clothe the slaves
in a comfortable manner, without allowing any
thing for the support of the master and family ; but
it is obvious, that the family must first be supported,
and the slaves must be content with the surplus —
and this, on a poor, old, worn out tobacco planta-
tion, is often very small, and wholly inadequate to
the comfortable sustenance of the hands, as they
are called. There, in many places, nothing is allow-
ed to the poor negro, but his peck of corn per week,
without the sauce of a salt herring, or even a little salt
itself.

Wretched as may be the state of the negroes, in
the quarter, that of the master and his wife and
daughters, is, in many instances, not much more
enviable in the old apartments of the great house.
The sons and daughters of the family are gentle-
men and ladies by birthright — and were the former
to be seen at the plough, or the latter at the churn,
or the wash tub, the honour of the family would be
stained, and the dignity of the house degraded.
People must and will be employed about something,
and if they cannot be usefully occupied, they will most
surely engage in some pursuit wholly unprofitable.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 55

So it happens in Virginia — the young men spend
their time in riding about the country, whilst they
ought to be ploughing or harrowing in the corn-
field ; and the young women are engaged in read-
ing silly books, or visiting their neighbours' houses,
instead of attending to the dairy, or manufacturing
cloth for themselves and their brothers. During all
this, the father is too often defending himself against
attorneys, or making such terms as he can with the
sheriff, for debts, in which he has been involved by
the vicious idleness of his children, and his own
want of virtue and courage, to break through the
evil tyranny of old customs, and compel his offspring
to learn, in early life, to procure their subsistence by
honest and honourable industry. In this state of
things there is not enough for all. Pride forbids the
sale of the slaves, as long as it is possible to avoid it,
and their meagre allowance of corn is stinted ra-
ther than it shall be said, the master was obliged to
sell them. Somebody must suffer, and " self-preser-
vation is the first law of nature," says the proverb —
hunger must invade either the great house or the
quarter, and it is but reasonable to suppose, that so
unwelcome an intruder would be expelled, to the
last moment, from the former. In this conflict of
pride and folly, against industry and wisdom, the
slave-holders have been unhappily engaged for more
than fifty years.

They are attempting to perform impossibilities —
to draw the means of supporting a life of idleness,
luxury, and splendour, from a once generous, but

56 NARRATIVE OF THE

long since worn out and exhausted soil — a soil,
which, carefully used, would at this day have richly
repaid the toils of the husbandman, by a noble abun-
dance of all the comforts of life ; but which, tortured
into barrenness by the double curse of slavery and
tobacco, stands — and until its proprietors are regener-
ated, and learn the difference between a land of
slaves and a nation of freemen — must continue to
stand, a monument of the 'poverty and 'punish-
ment which Providence has decreed as the re-
ward of idleness and tyranny. The general fea-
tures of slavery are the same everywhere ; but the
utmost rigour of the system is only to be met with
on the cotton plantations of Carolina and Georgia,
or in the rice fields which skirt the deep swamps and
morasses of the southern rivers. In the tobacco fields
of Maryland and Virginia, great cruelties are prac-
tised— not so frequently by the owners, as by the
overseers of the slaves ; but yet, the tasks are not so
excessive as in the cotton region, nor is the press of
labour so incessant throughout the year. It is true,
that from the period when the tobacco plants are set
in the field, there is no resting time until it is housed ;
but it is planted out about the first of May, and must
be cut and taken out of the field before the frost
comes. After it is hung and dried, the labour of
stripping and preparing it for the hogshead in leaf,
or of manufacturing it into twist, is comparatively a
work of leisure and ease. Besides, on almost every
plantation the hands are able to complete the work
of preparing the tobacco by January, and sometimes

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 57

earlier; so that the winter months form some sort
of respite from the toils of the year. The people are
obliged, it is true, to occupy themselves in cutting
wood for the house, making rails and repairing fen-
ces, and in clearing new land, to raise the tobacco
plants for the next year ; but as there is usually time
enough, and to spare, for the completion of all this
work, before the season arrives for setting the plants
in the field, the men are seldom flogged much, un-
less they are very lazy or negligent, and the women
are allowed to remain in the house, in very cold,
snowy, or rainy weather. I who am intimately ac-
quainted with the slavery, both of Maryland and
Virginia, and know that there is no material dif-
ference between the two, aver, that a description of
one is a description of both ; and that the coloured
people here have many advantages over those of the
cotton region. There are seldom more than one
hundred, of all ages and conditions, kept on one to-
bacco plantation ; though there are sometimes many
more ; but this is not frequent ; whilst on the cotton
estates, I have seen four or five hundred, working
together in the same vast field. In Maryland, the
owners of the estates, generally, reside at home
throughout the year ; and the mistress of the man-
sion is seldom absent more than a few weeks in the
winter, when she visits Baltimore or Washington, —
the same is the case in Virginia. Her constant resi-
dence on the estate makes her acquainted, person-
ally, with all the slaves, and she frequently interests
herself in their welfare, often interceding with the

58 NARRATIVE OF THE

master, her husband, to prevent the overseer from
beating them unmercifully.

The young ladies of the family also, if there be
any, after they have left school, are generally at
home until they are married. Each of them univer-
sally claims a young black girl as her own, and takes
her under her protection. This enables the girl to
extend the protection and friendship of her young
mistress to her father, mother, brothers and sisters.
The sons of the family likewise have their favourites
among the black boys, and have many disputes with
the overseer if he abuses them. All these advanta-
ges accrue to the black people, from the circumstance
of the master and his family living at home. In
Maryland I never knew a mistress, or a young mis-
tress, who would not listen to the complaints of the
slaves. It is true, we were always obliged to ap-
proach the door of the mansion, in the most humble
and supplicating manner, with our hats in our hands,
and the most subdued and beseeching language in
our mouths — but, in return, we generally received
words of kindness, and very often a redress of our
grievances ; though I have known very great ladies,
who would never grant any request from the plan-
tation hands, but always referred them and their
petitions to their master, under a pretence that they
could not meddle with things that did not belong to
the house. The mistresses of the great families, gen-
erally gave mild language to the slaves ; though
they sometimes sent for the overseer and had them
severely flogged ; but I have never heard any mis-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 59

tress, in either Maryland or Virginia, indulge in the
low, vulgar and profane vituperations, of which I
was myself the object in Georgia, for several years,
whenever I came into the presence of my mistress.
Flogging — though often severe and excruciating in
Maryland, is not practised with the order, regularity,
and system, to which it is reduced in the south. On
the Potomac, if a slave gives offence, he is generally
chastised on the spot, in the field where he is at
work, as the overseer always carries a whip — some-
times a twisted cow-hide, sometimes a kind of horse-
whip, and very often a simple hickory switch or
gad, cut in the adjoining woods. For stealing meat,
or other provisions, or for any of the higher offences,
the slaves are stripped, tied up by the hands — some-
times by the thumbs — and whipped at the quarter —
but, many times, on a large tobacco plantation, there
is not more than one of these regular whippings in a
week — though on others, where the master happens
to be a bad man, or a drunkard, the back of the un-
happy Maryland slave, is seamed with scars from
his neck to his hips.

It was my fortune, whilst I was a slave in Mary-
land, always to have comparatively mild masters ;
and as I uniformly endeavoured to do whatever was
held to be the duty of a good slave, according to the
customs of the country, 1 was never tied up to be
flogged there, and never received a blow from my
master, after I was fifteen years old. I was never
under the control of an overseer in Maryland ; or,

60 NARRATIVE OP THE

it is very likely that I should not have been able to
give this account of myself.

It is the custom of all the tobacco planters, in
Maryland and Virginia, to plant a certain portion of
their land in corn every year ; so much as they sup-
pose will be sufficient to produce bread, as they term
it, for the negroes. By bread, is understood, a peck
of corn per week, for each of their slaves.

After my return from the navy-yard, at Washing-
ton, I was generally employed in the culture of to-
bacco ; but my attention was necessarily divided be-
tween the tobacco and the corn. The corn crop is,
however, only a matter of secondary consideration,
as no grain, of any kind, is grown for sale, by the
planters ; and if they raised as much, in my time, as
supplied the wants of the people, and the horses of
the stable, it was considered good farming. The
sale of the tobacco was regarded as the only means
of obtaining money, or any commodity which did
not grow on the plantation.

It is unfortunate for the slaves, that in a tobacco
or cotton growing country, no attention whatever is
paid to the rearing of sheep — consequently, there is
no wool to make winter clothes for the people, and
oftentimes they suffer, excessively, from the cold ;
whereas, if their masters kept a good flock of sheep
to supply them with wool, they could easily spin and
weave in their cabins, a sufficiency of cloth to clothe
them comfortably.

As many persons may be unacquainted with the
process of cultivating tobacco, a short account of the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 61

growth of this plant, may not be uninteresting. The
operation is to be commenced in the month of Febru-
ary, by clearing a piece of new land, and binning
the timber cut from it, on the ground, so as to form
a coat of ashes over the whole space, if possible.
This ground is then to be dug up with a hoe, and
the sticks and roots are to be carefully removed from
it. In this bed, the tobacco seeds are sown about the
beginning of March, not in hills, or in rows, but by
broad cast, as in sowing turnips. The seeds do not
spring soon, but generally the young plant appears
early in April. If the weather, at the time the tobac-
co comes up, as it is called, is yet frosty, a covering of
pine tops, or red cedar branches, is thickly spread
over the whole patch, which consists of from one to
four or five acres, according to the dimensions of the
plantation to be provided wTith plants. As soon as
the weather becomes fine, and the young tobacco be-
gins to grow, the covering of the branches is remo-
ved, and the bed is exposed to the rays of the sun.
From this time, the patch must be carefully attend-
ed, and kept clear of all grass and weeds. In the
months of March and April the people are busily
employed in ploughing the fields in which the to-
bacco is to be planted in May. Immediately after
the corn is planted, every one, man, woman, and
child, able to work with a hoe, or carry a tobacco
plant, is engaged in working up the whole planta-
tion, already ploughed a second time, into hills about
four feet apart, laid out in regular rows across the
field, by the course of the furrows. These hills are

6

62 NARRATIVE OF THE

formed into squares or diamonds, at equal distances,
both ways, and into these are transplanted the to-
bacco plants from the beds in which the seeds were
sown. This transplantation must be done when the
earth is wet wTith rain, and it is best to do it, if pos-
sible, just before, or at the time the rain falls, as cab-
bages are transplanted in a kitchen garden ; but as
the planting a field of one or two hundred acres,
with tobacco, is not the work of an hour, as soon as
it is deemed certain that there will be a sufficient fall
of rain, to answer the purpose of planting out tobac-
co, all hands are called to the tobacco field, and no
matter how fast it may rain, or how violent the storm
may be, the removal of the plants from the bed, and
fixing them in the hills where they are to grow in
the field, goes on, until the crop is planted out, or the
rain ceases, and the sun begins to shine. Nothing
but the darkness of night, and the short respite, re-
quired by the scanty meal of the slaves, produces
any cessation in the labour of tobacco planting, until
the work is done, or the rain ceases, and the clouds
disappear. Some plants die under the operation of
removal, and their places are to be supplied from
those left in the bed, at the fall of the next rain.

Sometimes the tobacco worm appears amongst the
plants, before their removal from the bed, and from
the moment this loathsome reptile is seen, the plants
are to be carefully examined every day, for the pur-
pose of destroying any worms that may be found.
It is, however, not until the plants have been set in
the field, and have begun to grow and flourish, that

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. , 63

the worms come forth in their full strength. If un-
molested, they would totally destroy the largest field
of tobacco in the months of June and July. At this
season of the year, every slave that is able to kill a
tobacco worm, is kept in the field, from morning un-
til night. Those who are able to work with hoes,
are engaged in weeding the tobacco, and at the same
time destroying all the worms they find. The chil-
dren do nothing but search for, and destroy the
worms. All this labour and vigilance, however,
would not suffice to keep the worms under, were it
not for the aid of turkeys and ducks. On some large
estates, they raise from one to two hundred turkeys,
and as many ducks — not for the purpose of sale ;
but for the destruction of tobacco worms. The
ducks, live in the tobacco field, day and night, ex-
cept when they go to water ; and as they are great
gormandizers, they take from the plants and destroy
an infinite number of worms. They are fond of
them as an article of food, and require no watching
to keep them in their place ; but it is otherwise with
the turkeys. These require very peculiar treatment.
They must be kept all night in a large coop, spacious
enough to contain the whole flock, with poles for
them to roost on. As soon as it is light in the morn-
ing, the coop is opened, the flock turned out, and
driven to the tobacco field.

Two hundred turkeys should be followed by four
or five active lads, or young men, to keep them to-
gether, and at their duty. One turkey will destroy
as many worms, as five men could do in the sam$

64 NARRATIVE OF THE

period of time ; but it seems that tobacco worms are
not the natural food of turkeys ; and they are prone
to break out of the field, and escape to the woods or
pastures in search of grasshoppers, which they great-
ly prefer to tobacco worms, for breakfast. However,
if kept amongst the tobacco, they commit terrible
ravages amongst the worms, and will eat until they
are filled up to the throat. When they cease eating
worms, they are to be driven back to the coop, and
shut up, where they must have plenty of water, and
a peck of corn to a hundred turkeys. If they get no
corn, and are forced to live on tobacco worms only,
they droop, become sickly, and would doubtlessly
die. In the evening, they are again driven to the
field, and treated again in the same manner as in
the morning.

The tobacco worm, is of a bright green colour,
with a series of rings or circles round its body. I
have seen them as large as a man's longest finger.
I was never able to discover in what manner they
originate. They certainly do not change into a but-
terfly as some other worms do ; and I could never
perceive that they deposite eggs anywhere. I am of
opinion that there is something in the very nature of
the tobacco plant, which produces these nauseous
reptiles, for they are too large, when at full growth,
to be ranked with insects.

In the month of August, the tobacco crop is laid
by, as it is termed ; which means that they cease
working in the fields, for the purpose of destroying
the weeds and grass ; the plants having now become

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 65

so large, as not to be injured by the under vegetation.
Still, however, the worms continue their ravages,
and it is necessary to employ all hands in destroying
thern. In this month, also, the tobacco is to be top-
ped, if it has not been done before. When the
plants have reached the height of two or three feet,
according to the goodness of the soil, and the vigour
of the growth, the top is to be cut off, to prevent it
from going to seed. This topping, causes all the
powers of the plant, which would be exhausted in
the formation of flowers and seeds, to expand in
leaves fit for use. After the tobacco is fully grown,
which in some plants happens early in August, it is
to be carefully watched, to see when it is ripe, or fit
for cutting. The state of the plant is known by its
colour, and by certain pale spots which appear on
the leaves. It does not all arrive at maturity at the
same time ; and although some plants ripen early
in August, others are not ripe before the middle of
September. When the plants are cut down, they
are laid on the ground for a short time, then taken
up, and the stalks split open to facilitate the drying
of the leaves. In this condition it is removed to the
drying house, and there hung up under sheds, until
it is fully dry. From thence it is removed into the
tobacco house, and laid up in bulk, ready for strip-
ping and manufacturing.

6*

06 NARRATIVE OP THE

CHAPTER V.

It is time to resume the narrative of my journey
southward. At the period of which I now write, to-
bacco was universally cultivated in those parts of
Virginia through which I travelled ; and that, with
the corn crops, constituted nearly the whole objects
of agricultural labour.

The quantity of wheat and rye, which I saw on my
journey, was very small. A little oats was growing
on the estates of some gentlemen, who were fond of
breeding fine horses. 1 did not perceive any mate-
rial difference in the condition of the country, as I
passed south, until after crossing the Roanoke river.
Near this stream we passed a very large estate, on
which, there appeared to me, to be nearly a thousand
acres of tobacco growing. Our master was inform-
ed, by a gentleman whom we met here, that this
property belonged to Mr. Randolph, a member of
Congress, and one of the largest planters in Virginia.
The land appeared to me not to be any better than
the tobacco lands in Maryland, though a little more
sandy. The mansion house was low, and of ordi-
nary appearance. The fields were badly fenced and
the whole place was in poor condition. We passed
close by a gang of near a hundred hands — men and
women, at work with hoes, in a tobacco field. I had
not, in all Virginia, seen any slaves more destitute of
clothes. Many of the men. and some of the young
women, were without shirts ; and several young lads

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 67

had only a few rags about their loins. Their skins
looked dry and husky, which proved that they were
not well fed. They were followed by an overseer
who carried in his hand a kind of whip which I had
never before seen ; though I afterward became fami-
liar with this terrible weapon. South of the Roan-
oke, the land became more sandy, and pine timber
generally prevailed — in many places, to the exclu-
sion of all other trees. In North Carolina, the same
course of culture is pursued, as that which I have
noted in Virginia ; and the same disastrous conse-
quences result from it ; though, as the country has
not been settled so long as the northern part of Vir-
ginia and Maryland; so great a portion of the land
has not been worn out and abandoned in the for-
mer, as in the latter. Here, also, the red cedar is
seldom seen ; as the pitch-pine takes possession of
all waste and deserted fields. In this state the
houses are not so well built as they are further
north ; there are fewer carriages, and the number
of good horses, judging from those I saw on the road,
must be much less. The inhabitants of the country
are plainer in their dress, and they have fewer peo-
ple of fashion, than are to be met in Virginia. The
plantations here were not so large as those I saw on
the north of the Roanoke ; but larger tracts of coun-
try are covered with wood, than any I had hereto-
fore seen. The condition of the slaves is not worse
here, than it is in Virginia ; nor is there any wheat
in Carolina, worth speaking of.

As we approached the Yadkin river, the tobacco

68

NARRATIVE OF THE

disappeared from the fields, an<J the cotton plant took
its place, as an article of general culture. We pass-
ed the Yadkin by a ferry, on Sunday morning ; and
on the Wednesday following, in the evening, our
master told us we were in the state of South Caro-
lina. We staid this night in a small town called
Lancaster ; and I shall never forget the sensations
which I experienced this evening, on finding my-
self in chains, in the state of South Carolina. From
my earliest recollections, the name of South Carolina
had been little less terrible to me than that of the
bottomless pit. In Maryland, it had always been
the practice of masters and mistresses, who wished
to terrify their slaves, to threaten to sell them to
South Carolina ; where, it was represented, that
their condition would be a hundred fold worse than
it was in Maryland. 1 had regarded such a sale of
myself, as the greatest of evils that could befall me,
and had striven to demean myself in such manner,
to my owners, as to preclude them from all excuse
for transporting me to so horrid a place. At length
I found myself, without having committed any
crime, or even the slightest transgression, in the
place and condition, of which I had, through life,
entertained the greatest dread. I slept but little this
night, and for the first time felt weary of life. It
appeared to me that the cup of my misery was full —
that there was no hope of release from my present
chains, unless it might be to exchange them for the
long lash of the ov rseers of the cotton plantations ;
in each of whose hands I observed such a whip as

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 69

I saw in possession of Mr. Randolph's slave driver
in Virginia. I seriously meditated on self-destruc-
tion, and had I been at liberty to get a rope, I believe
I should have hanged myself at Lancaster. It ap-
peared to me that such an act, done by a man in my
situation, could not be a violation of the precepts of
religion, nor of the laws of God.

I had now no hope of ever again seeing my wife
and children, or of revisiting the scenes of my youth.
I apprehended that I should, if I lived, suffer the
most excruciating pangs that extreme and long con-
tinued hunger could inflict ; for I had often heard,
that in South Carolina, the slaves were compelled in
times of scarcity, to live on cotton seeds.

From the dreadful apprehensions of future evil,
which harrassed and harrowed my mind that night,
I do not marvel, that the slaves who are driven to
the • south often destroy themselves. Self-destruc-
tion is much more frequent among the slaves in the
cotton region than is generally supposed. When a
negro kills himself, the master is unwilling to let it
be known, lest the deed should be attributed to his
own cruelty. A certain degree of disgrace falls upon
the master whose slave has committed suicide — and
the same man, who would stand by, and see his
overseer give his slave a hundred lashes, with the
long whip, on his bare back, without manifesting
the least pity for the sufferings of the poor tortured
wretch, will express very profound regret if the same
slave terminates his own life, to avoid a repetition of
the horrid flogging. Suicide amongst the slaves i3

70 NARRATIVE OF THE

regarded as a matter of dangerous example, and one
which it is the business and the interest of all pro-
prietors to discountenance and prevent. All the ar-
guments which can be devised against it are used to
deter the negroes from the perpetration of it ; and
such as take this dreadful means of freeing them-
selves from their miseries, are always branded in
reputation after death, as the worst of criminals;
and their bodies are not allowed the small portion
of Christian rites which are awarded to the corpses
of other slaves.

Surely if any thing can justify a man in taking
his life into his own hands, and terminating his ex-
istence, no one can attach blame to the slaves on
many of the cotton plantations of the south, when
they cut short their breath, and the agonies of the
present being, by a single stroke. What is life worth;
am st ha. ger, nakedness and excessive toil, un-
der the continually uplifted lash?

It was long after midnight before I fell asleep ; but
the most pleasant dreams succeeded to these sorrow-
ful forebodings. I thought I had, by some means,
escaped from my master, and through infinite and
unparalleled dangers and sufferings, had made my
way back to Maryland ; and was again in the cabin
of my wife, with two of my little children on my lap ;
whilst their mother was busy in preparing for me a
supper of fried fish, such as she often dressed, when
I was at home, and had taken to her the fish I had
caught in the Patuxent river. Every object was so
vividly impressed upon my imagination in this

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 71

dream, that when I awoke, a firm conviction settled
upon my mind, that by some means, at present in-
comprehensible to me, I should yet again embrace
my wife, and caress my children in their humble
dwelling. Early in the morning, our master called
us up ; and distributed to each of the party; a cake
made of corn meal, and a small piece of bacon.
On our journey, we had only eaten twice a day,
and had not received breakfast until about nine
o'clock ; but he said this morning meal was given
to welcome us to South Carolina. He then addres-
sed us all, and told us we might now give up all
hope of ever returning to the places of our nativity ;
as it would be impossible for us to pass through the
states of North Carolina and Virginia, without being
taken up and sent back. He further advised us to
make ourselves contented, as he would take us to
Georgia, a far better country than any we had seen ;
and where we would be able to live in the greatest
abundance. About sunrise we took up our march
on the road to Columbia, as we were told. Hitherto
our master had not offered to sell any of us, and
had even refused to stop to talk to any one on the
subject of our sale, although he had several times
been addressed on this point, before we reached Lan-
caster ; but soon after we departed from this village,
we were overtaken on the road by a man on horse-
back, who accosted our driver by asking him if his
niggers were for sale. The latter replied, that he
believed he would not sell any yet, as he was on his
way to Georgia, and cotton being now much in de-

72 NARRATIVE OF THE

mand, he expected to obtain high prices for us from
persons who were going to settle in the new pur-
chase. He, however, contrary to his custom, order-
ed us to stop, and told the stranger he might look at
us, and that he would find us as fine a lot of hands,
as were ever imported into the country — that we
were all prime property, and he had no doubt would
command his own prices in Georgia.

The stranger, who was a thin, weather-beaten,
sun-burned figure, then said, he wanted a couple of
breeding-wenches, and would give as much for them
as they would bring in Georgia — that he had lately
heard from Augusta, and that niggers were nothigh-
er there than in Columbia, and, as he had been in
Columbia the week before, he knew what niggers
were worth. He then walked along our line, as
we stood chained together, and looked at the whole
of us — then turning to the women, asked the prices
of the two pregnant ones. Our master replied, that
these were two of the best breeding-wenches in all
Maryland — that one was twenty-two. and the other
only nineteen — that the first was already the mother
of seven children, and the other of four— that he had
himself seen rhe children at the time he bought their
mothers — and that such wenches would be cheap at
a thousand dollars each ; but as they were not able
to keep up with the gang, he would take twelve
hundred dollars for the two. The purchaser said
this was too much, but that he would give nine
hundred dollars for the pair. This price was
promptly refused ; but our master, after some con-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 73

sideration, said he was willing to sell a bargain in
these wenches, and would take eleven hundred
dollars for them, which was objected to on the other
side ; and many faults and failings were pointed
out in the merchandise. After much bargaining,
and many gross jests on the part of the stranger,
he offered a thousand dollars for the two ; and said
he would give no more. He then mounted his
horse, and moved off; but after he had gone about
one hundred yards, he was called back ; and our
master said, if he would go with him to the next
blacksmith's shop on the road to Columbia, and pay
for taking the irons off the rest of us, he might have
the two women.

This proposal was agreed to, and as it was now
about nine o'clock, we were ordered to hasten on to
the next house, where, we were told, we must stop
for breakfast. At this place we were informed that
it was ten miles to the next smith's shop, and our
new acquaintance was obliged by the terms of his
contract, to accompany us thither. We received,
for breakfast, about a pint of boiled rice to each per-
son, and after this was despatched, we again took to
the road, eager to reach the blaksmith's shop, at
which we expected to be relieved of the iron rings
and chains, which had so long galled and worried
us. About two o'clock, we arrived at the longed-for
residence of the smith ; but, on inquiry, our master
was informed that he was not at home, and would
not return before evening. Here a controversy
arose, whether we should all remain here until the

j#

74 NARRATIVE OP THE

smith returned, or the stranger should go on with us
to the next smithery, which was said to be only five
miles distant. This was a point not easily settled,
between two such spirits as our master and the stran-
ger ; both of whom had been overseers in their time,
and both of whom had risen to the rank of proprietors
of slaves.

The matter had already produced angry words,
and much vaunting on the part of the stranger ; —
" that a freeman of South Carolina was not to be
imposed upon ; that by the constitution of the state,
his rights were sacred, and he was not to be deprived
of his liberty, at the arbitrary will of a man just from
amongst the Yankees, and who had brought with
him to the south, as many Yankee tricks as he had
niggers, and he believed many more." He then
swore, that "all the niggers in the drove were
Yankee niggersP

v " When I overseed for Colonel Polk," said he,
" on his rice plantation, he had two Yankee niggers
that he brought from Maryland, and they were run-
ning away every day. I gave them a hundred
lashes more than a dozen times ; but they never quit
running away, till I chained them together, with iron
collars round their necks, and chained them to spades,
and made them do nothing but dig ditches to drain
the rice swamps. They could not run away then,
unless they went together, and carried their chains
and spades with them. 1 kept them in this way two
years, and better niggers 1 never had./ One of
them died one night, and the other was never good

» I

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 75

for any thing after he lost his mate. He never ran
away afterwards, but he died too, after a while." He
then addressed himself to the two women, whose
master he had become, and told them that if ever
they ran away, he would treat them in the same
way. Wretched as I was myself, my heart bled
for these poor creatures, who had fallen into the
hands of a tiger in human form. The dispute be-
tween the two masters was still raging, when, unex-
pectedly, the blacksmith rode up to his house, on a
thin, bony-looking horse, and, dismounting, asked
his wife what these gentlemen were making ^uch a
frolick about. I did not hear her answer, but both
the disputants turned and addressed themselves to
the smith— the one to know what price he would
demand, to take the irons off all these niggers,
and the other to know how long it would take him
to perform the work. It is here proper for me to
observe, that there are many phrases of language in
common use in Carolina and Georgia, which are
applied in a way that would not be understood by'
persons from one of the northern states. For in-
stance, when several persons are quarrelling, brawl-
ing, making a great noise, or even fighting, they
say, " the gentlemen are frolicking ! " I heard
many other terms equally strange, whilst I resided
in the southern country, amongst such white people
as I became acquainted with ; though my acquaint-
ance was confined, in a great measure, to overseers,
and such people as did not associate with the rich
planters and great families,

76 NARRATIVE OF THE

The smith at length agreed to take the irons
from the whole of us for two dollars and fifty cents,
and immediately set about it, with the air of indif-
ference that he would have manifested in tearing a
pair of old shoes from the hoofs of a wagon-horse.
It was four weeks and five days, from the time my
irons had been riveted upon me, until they were
removed, and great as had been my sufferings
whilst chained to my fellow-slaves, I cannot say that
I felt any pleasure in being released from my long
confinement; for I knew that my liberation was
only preparatory to my final, and, as I feared, per-
petual subjugation to the power of some such mon-
ster, as the one then before me, who was preparing
to drive away the two unfortunate women whom he
had purchased, and whose life's-blood he had ac-
quired the power of shedding at pleasure, for the
sum of a thousand dollars. After we were released
from our chains, our master sold the whole lot of
irons, which we had borne, from Maryland, to the
blacksmith, for seven dollars.

The smith then procured a bottle of rum, and
treated his two new acquaintances to a part of its
contents — wishing them both good luck with their
niggers. After these civilities were over, the two
women were ordered to follow their new master,
who shaped his course across the country, by a road
leading westward. At parting from us, they both
wept aloud, and wrung their hands in despair.
We all went to them, and bade them a last fare-
well. Their road led into a wood, which they soon

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 77

entered, and 1 never saw them, nor heard of them
again.

These women had both been driven from Calvert
county, as well as myself, and the fate of the young-
er of the two, was peculiarly severe.

She had been brought up as the waiting-maid of
a young lady, the daughter of a gentleman, whose
wife and family often visited the mistress of my own
wife. I had frequently seen this woman when she
was a young girl, in attendance upon her young
mistress, and riding in the same carriage with her.
The father of the young lady died, and soon after,
she married a gentleman who resided a few miles
off. The husband received a considerable fortune
with his bride, and amongst other things, her wait-
ing-maid, who was reputed a great beauty among
people of colour. He had been addicted to the
fashionable sports of the country, before marriage,
such as horse-racing, fox-hunting, &c. and I had
heard the black people say he drank too freely ; but
it was supposed that he would correct all these irreg-
ularities after marriage, more especially as his wife
was a great belle, and withal very handsome. The
reverse, however, turned out to be the fact. Instead
of growing better, he became worse; and in the
course of a few years, was known all over the coun-
try, as a drunkard and a gambler. His wife, it was
said, died of grief, and soon after her death, his ef-
fects were seized by his creditors, and sold by the
sheriff. The former waiting- maid, now the mother
of several children, was purchased by our present

78 NARRATIVE OF THE

master, for three hundred dollars, at the sheriff's sale,
and this poor wretch, whose employment in early
life had been to take care of her young mistress, and
attend her in her chamber, and at her toilet, after
being torn from her husband and her children, had
now gone to toil out a horrible existence beneath
the scorching sun of a South Carolina cotton field,
under the dominion of a master, as void of the
manners of a gentleman, as he was of the language
of humanity.

It was now late in the afternoon ; but, as we had
made little progress to-day, and were now divested
of the burden of our chains, as well as freed from
the two women, who had hitherto much retarded
our march, our master ordered us to hasten on our
way, as we had ten miles to go that evening. I
had been so long oppressed by the weight of my
chains, and the iron collar about my neck, that for
some time after I commenced walking at my natu-
ral liberty, I felt a kind of giddiness, or lightness of
the head. Most of my companions complained of
the same sensation, and we did not recover our pro-
per feelings, until after we had slept one night. It
was after dark when we arrived at our lodging-place,
which proved to be the house of a small cotton-
planter, who, it appeared, kept a sort of a house of
entertainment for travellers, contrary to what I after-
wards discovered to be the usual custom of cotton-
planters This man and my master had known
each other before, and seemed to be well acquaint-
ed. He was the first person that we had met since

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 79

leaving Maryland, who was known to my master,
and as they kept up a very free conversation, through
the course of the evening, and the house in which
they were, was only separated from the kitchen, in
which we were lodged, by a space of a few feet, I
had an opportunity of hearing much that was
highly interesting to me. The landlord, after sup-
per, came with our master to look at us, and to see
us receive our allowance of boiled rice from the hands
of a couple of black women, who had prepared it in
a large iron kettle. Whilst viewing us, the former
asked the latter, what he intended to do with his
drove; but no reply was made to this inquiry — and
as our master had, through our whole journey,
maintained a studied silence on this subject, I .felt a
great curiosity to know what disposition he intended
to make of the whole gang, and of myself in parti-
cular. On their return to the house, I advanced to
a small window in the kitchen, which brought me
within a few yards of the place where they sat, and
from which I was able to hear all they said, although
they spoke in a low tone of voice. I here learned,
that so many of us as could be sold for a good price,
were to be disposed of in Columbia, on our arrival
at that place, and that the residue would be driven
to Augusta and sold there.

The landlord assured my master that at this time
slaves were much in demand, both in Columbia and
Augusta ; that purchasers were numerous and pri-
ces good ; and that the best plan of effecting good
sales would be to put up each nigger, separately, at

80

NARRATIVE OF THE

auction, after giving a few days' notice, by an ad-
vertisement, in the neighbouring country. Cotton,
he said, had not been higher for many years, and as
a great many persons, especially young men, were
moving off to the new purchase in Georgia, prime
hands were in high demand, for the purpose of
clearing the land in the new country — that the
boys and girls, under twenty, would bring almost
any price at present, in Columbia, for the purpose of
picking the growing crop of cotton, which promised
to be very heavy ; and as most persons had planted
more than their hands would be able to pick, young
niggers, who would soon learn to pick cotton, were
prime articles in the market. As to those more ad-
vanced in life, he seemed to think the prospect of
selling them at an unusual price, not so good, as
they could not so readily become expert cotton-
pickers — he said further, that from some cause,
which he could not comprehend, the price of rice
had not been so good this year as usual ; and
that he had found it cheaper to purchase rice to feed
his own niggers than to provide them with corn,
which had to be brought from the upper country.
He therefore, advised my master, not to drive us
towards the rice plantation of the low country.
My master said he would follow his advice, at
least so far as to sell a portion of us in Carolina,
but seemed to be of opinion that his prime hands
would bring him more money in Georgia, and
named me, in particular, as one who would be
worth, at least, a thousand dollars, to a man who

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL.

81

was about making a settlement, and clearing a
plantation in the new purchase. I therefore con-
cluded, that in the course of events, I was like-
ly to become the property of a Georgian, which
turned out in the end, to be the case, though not
so soon as I at this time apprehended. I slept but
little this night, feeling a restlessness when no long-
er in chains ; and pondering over the future lot of
my life, which appeared fraught only with evil and
misfortune. Day at length dawned, and with its
first light we were ordered to betake ourselves to the
road, which, we were told, would lead us to Colum-
bia, the place of intended sale of some, if not all of
us. For several clays past, I had observed that in
the country through which we travelled, little atten-
tion was paid to the cultivation of any thing but
cotton. Now this plant was almost the sole possessor
of the fields. It covered the plantations adjacent to
the road, as far as I could see, both before and be-
hind me, and looked not unlike buckwheat before it
blossoms. I saw some small fields of corn, and lots
of sweet potatoes, amongst which the young vines
of the water-melon were frequently visible. The
improvements on the plantations were not good.
There were no barns, but only stables and sheds, to
put the cotton under, as it was brought from the
field. Hay seemed to be unknown in the country,
for I saw neither hay-stacks nor meadows ; and the
few fields that were lying fallow, had but small num-
bers of cattle in them, and these were thin and
meagre. We had met with no flocks of sheep

82 NARRATIVE OF THE

of late, and the hogs that we saw on the road-side,
were in bad condition. The horses and mules that
I saw at work in the cotton-fields, were poor and
badly harnessed, and the half-naked condition of the
negroes, who drove them, or followed with the hoe,
together with their wan complexions, proved to me
that they had too much work, or not enough food.
We passed a cotton-gin this morning, the first that
I ever saw ; but they were not at work with it. We
also met a party of ladies and gentlemen on a jour-
ney of pleasure, riding in two very handsome car-
riages, drawn by sleek and spirited horses, very differ-
ent in appearance from the moving skeletons that
I had noticed drawing the ploughs in the fields.
The black drivers of the coaches were neatly clad
in gay-coloured clothes, and contrasted well with
their half-naked brethren, a gang of whom were
hoeing cotton by the road-side, near them, attend-
ed by an overseer in a white linen shirt and pan-
taloons, with one of the long negro whips in his
hand.

I observed that these poor people did not raise
their heads, to look either at the fine coaches and
horses then passing, or at us ; but kept their faces
steadily bent towards the cotton-plants, from among
which they were removing the weeds. I almost
shuddered at the sight, knowing, that I myself was
doomed to a state of servitude, equally cruel and
debasing, unless, by some unforeseen occurrence, I
might fall into the hands of a master of less inhu-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 83

manity of temper than the one who had possession
of the miserable creatures before me.

CHAPTER VI.

It was manifest, that I was now in a country,
where the life of a black man was no more regard-
ed than that of an ox, except as far as the man
was worth the more money in the market. On all
the plantations that we passed, there was a want of
live stock of every description, except slaves, and
they were deplorably abundant.

The fields were destitute of every thing that de-
served the name of grass, and not a spear of clover
was anywhere visible. The few cattle that existed,
were browsing on the boughs of the trees, in the
woods. Every thing betrayed a scarcity of the
means of supplying the slaves, who cultivated the
vast cotton-fields, with a sufficiency of food. We
travelled this day more than thirty miles, and crossed
the Catawba river in the afternoon, on the bottoms
of which I saw, for the first time, fields of rice, grow-
ing in swamps, covered with water. Causeways
were raised through the low-lands in which the rice
grew, and on these, the road was formed on which
we travelled. These rice-fields, or rather swamps,
had, in my eyes, a beautiful appearance. The
rice was nearly two feet in height above the water,
and of a vivid green colour, covering a large space,

84 NARRATIVE OF THE

of at least a hundred acres. Had it not been for the
water, which appeared stagnant and sickly, and
swarmed with frogs and thousands of snakes, it
would have been as fine a sight as one need wish
to look upon. After leaving the low grounds along
the river, we again entered plantations of cotton,
which lined the roads on both sides, relieved, here
and there, by corn-fields, and potato-patches. We
stopped for the night at a small tavern, and our
master said we were within a day's journey of Co-
lumbia.

We here, again, received boiled rice for supper,
without salt, or any kind of seasoning ; a pint was
allotted to each person, which we greedily devoured,
having had no dinner to-day, save an allowance of
corn-cakes, with the fat of about five pounds of ba-
con, extracted by frying, in which we dipped our
bread. I slept soundly after this day's march, the
fatigues of the body having, for once, overcome the
agitations of the mind. The next day, which was,
if my recollection is accurate, the ninth of June, was
the last of our journey before our company separa-
ted ; and we were on the road before the stars had
disappeared from the sky. Our breakfast, this
morning, consisted of bacon soup, a dish composed
of corn meal, boiled in water, with a small piece of
bacon to give the soup a taste of meat. For dinner
we had boiled Indian peas, with a small allowance
of bacon. This was the first time that we had re-
ceived two rations of meat in the same day, on the
whole journey, and some of our party were much

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 85

surprised at the kindness of our master ; but I had
no doubt that his object was to make us look fat and
hearty, to enable him to obtain better prices for us at
Columbia.

At supper this night, we had corn mush, in large
wooden trays, with melted lard to dip the mush in
before eating it. We might have reached Colum-
bia this day if we had continued our march, but
we stopped, at least an hour before sun-set, about
three miles from town, at the house of a man who
supported the double character of planter, and keeper
of a house of entertainment ; for I learned from his
slaves that their master considered it disreputable to
be called a tavern-keeper, and would not put up a
sign, although he received pay of such persons as
lodged with him. His house was a frame building,
weather-boarded with pine boards, but had no plas-
tering within. The furniture corresponded with
the house which contained it, and was both scanty
and mean, consisting of pine tables and wooden
chairs, with bottoms made of corn husks. The
house was only one story high, and all the rooms,
six or seven in number, parlour, bed-rooms, and
kitchen, were on the first floor. As the weather
was warm and the windows open, I had an oppor-
tunity of looking into the sleeping rooms of the fa-
mily, as I walked round the house, wbich I was
permitted freely to do. The beds and their furniture
answered well to the chairs and tables ; yet in the
large front room I observed on an old fashioned side-
board, a great quantity of glass ware, of various de-

8

86 NARRATIVE OF THE

scriptions, with two or three dozen silver spoons, a
silver tea urn, and several knives and forks with
silver handles. In the corner of this room stood a
bed with gaudy red curtains, with figures of lions,
elephant-, naked negroes, and other representations
of African scenery.

The master of the house was not at home when
we arrived, but came in from the field shortly after-
wards. He met my master with the cordiality of an
old friend, though he had never seen him before,
said he was happy to see him at his house, and that
the greatest pleasure he enjoyed was derived from
the entertainment of such gentlemen as thought
proper to visit his house ; that he was always glad
to see strangers, and more especially gentlemen who
were adding so much to the wealth and population
of Carolina, as those merchants who imported ser-
vants from the north. He then observed that he
had never seen a finer lot of property pass his house
than we were, and that any gentleman who brought
such a stock of hands into the country was a public
benefactor, and entitled to the respect and gratitude
of every friend of the south. He assured my master
that he was happy to see him at his house, and that
if he thought proper to remain a few days with him,
it would be his chief business to introduce him to the
gentlemen of the neighbourhood, who would all be
glad to become acquainted with a merchant of his
respectability. In the state of Maryland, my mas-
ter had been called a negro buyer, or Georgia
trader, sometimes a negro driver ; but here, I

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 87

found that he was elevated to the rank of merchant,
and a merchant of the first order too ; for it was
very clear that in the opinion of the landlord, no
branch of trade was more honourable than the traffic
in us poor slaves. Our master observed that he
had a mind to remain here a short time, and try
what kind of market Columbia would present, for the
sale of his lot of servants ; and that he would make
this house his home, until he had ascertained what
could be done in town, and what demand there was
in the neighbourhood for servants. We were not
called slaves by these men, who talked of selling
us, and of the price we would bring, with as little
compunction of conscience as they would have
talked of the sale of so many mules.

It is the custom throughout all the slave-holding
states, amongst people of fashion, never to speak of
their negroes as slaves, but always as servants ; but
I had never before met with the keeper of a public
house, in the country, who had arrived at this degree
of refinement. I had been accustomed to hear this
order of men, and indeed the greater number of
white people, speak of the people of colour as nig-
gers. We remained at this place more than two
weeks ; I presume because my master found it
cheaper to keep us here than in town, or perhaps,
because he supposed we might recover from the hard-
ships of our journey more speedily in the country.

As it was here that my real acquaintance with
South Carolina commenced, I have noted, with more
particularity the incidents that occurred, than I other-

88 NARRATIVE OF THE

wise should have done. This family was composed
of the husband, wife, three daughters, all young
women, and two sons, one of whom appeared to be
about twenty, and the other, perhaps seventeen years
old. They had nine slaves in all. one very old man,
quite crooked with years and labour — two men of
middle age— one lad, perhaps sixteen — one woman,
with three children, the oldest about seven, — and
a young girl of twelve or fourteen. The farm,
or plantation, they lived on, contained about one
hundred and fifty acres of cleared land, sandy, and
the greater part of it poor, as was proved by the
stinted growth of the cotton.

At the time of our arrival at this house. I saw no
persons about it, except the four ladies — the mother
and her three daughters — the husband being in the
field, as noticed above. According to the orders of
my master, I had taken the saddle from his horse
and put him in a stable ; and it was not until after
the first salutations of the new landlord to my mas-
ter were over, that he seemed to think of asking him
whether he had come on foot, on horse-back, or in a
coach. He at length, however, turned suddenly and
asked him, with an air of surprise, where he had left
his horses and carriage. My master said he had no
carriage, that he travelled on horseback, and that his
horse was in the stable. The landlord then apolo-
gized for the trouble he must have had, in having
his horse put away himself; and said that at this
season of the year, the planters were so hurried by
their crops, and found so much difficulty in keeping

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 89

down the grass, that they were generally obliged to
keep all their servants in the field ; that for his part,
he had been compelled to put his coachman, and
even the waiting-maids of his daughters into the
cotton fields, and that at this time, his family were
without servants, a circumstance that had never
happened before ! " For my part," said he, "I have
always prided myself on bringing up my family
well, and can say, that although I do not live in so
fine a house as some of the other planters of Caroli-
na, yet my children are as great ladies and gentle-
men as any in the state. Not one of them has ever
had to do a day's work yet, and as long as I live,
never shall. I sent two of my daughters to Charles-
ton last summer, and they were there three months ;
and I intend to send the youngest there this sum-
mor. They have all learned to dance here in Co-
lumbia, where I sent them two quarters to a French-
man, and he made me pay pretty well for it. They
went to the same dancing school with the daughters
of Wade Hampton and Colonel Fitzhugh. I am
determined that they shall never marry any but gen-
tlemen of the first character, and I know they will
always follow my advice in matters of this kind.
They are prudent and sensible girls, and are not go-
ing to do as Major Pollack's daughter did this spring,
who ran away with a Georgia cracker who brought
a drove of cattle for sale from the Indian country,
and who had not a nigger in the world. He staid
with me sometime, and wished to have something to

8*

90

NARRATIVE OF THE

say to my second daughter, but the thing would
not do."

Here he stopped short in his narrative, and seem-
ing to muse a moment, said to his guest, " I pre-
sume, as you travel alone, you have no family."
" No," replied my master, u I am a single man." "I
thought so by your appearance," said the loquacious
landlord, " and I shall be glad to introduce you to
my family this evening. My sons are two as fine
fellows as there are in all Carolina. My oldest boy
is lieutenant in the militia, and in the same com-
pany that marched with Gen. Marion in the war.
He was on the point of fighting a duel last winter,
with young M'Corkle in Columbia ; but the matter
was settled between them. You will see him this
evening, when he returns from the coit-party. A
coit-party of young bucks meets once every week
about two miles from this, and as I wish my sons to
keep the best company, they both attend it. There
is to be a cock-fight there this afternoon, and my
youngest son, Edmund, has the finest cock in this
country. He is of the true game blood, — the real
Dominica game breed ; and I sent to Charleston for
his gaffs. There is a bet of ten dollars a side be-
tween my son's cock, and one belonging to young
Blainey, the son of Major Blainey. Young Blainey
is a hot-headed young blood, and has been concern-
ed in three duels, though I believe he never fought
but one ; but I know Edmund will not take a word
from him, and it will be well if he and his cock do
not both get well licked-"

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 91

Here the conversation was arrested by the sound
of horses' feet on the road, and in the next instant,
two young men rode up at a gallop, mounted on
lean looking horses ; one of the riders carrying a
pole on his shoulder, with a game cock in a net bag.
tied to one end of it. On perceiving them the land-
lord exclaimed with an oath, " There's two lads of
spirit ! stranger, — and if you will allow me the lib-
erty of asking you your name, I will introduce you
to them." At the suggestion of his name, my mas-
ter seemed to hesitate a little, but after a moment's
pause, said, " They call me M'Giffin, sir." " My
name is Hulig, sir," replied the landlord, " and I am
very happy to be acquainted with you, Mr. M'Gif-
fin,1' at the same time shaking him by the hand,
and introducing his two sons, who were by this time
at the door.

This was the first time 1 had ever heard the name
of my master, although I had been with him five
weeks. I had never seen him before the day on
which he seized and bound me in Maryland, and
as he took me away immediately, I did not hear his
name at the time. The people who assisted to fetter
me, either from accident or design, omitted to name
him, and after we commenced our journey, he had
maintained so much distant reserve and austerity of
manner towards us all, that no one ventured to ask
him his name. We had called him nothing but
'• master," and the various persons at whose houses
we had stopped on our way, knew as little of his
name as we did. We had frequently been asked

92 NARRATIVE OF THE

the name of our master, and perhaps had not al-
ways obtained credence, when we said we did not
know it.

Throughout the whole journey, until after we
were released from our irons, he had forbidden us to
converse together beyond a few words in relation to
our temporary condition and wants ; and as he was
with us all day, and never slept out of hearing of us
at night, he rigidly enforced his edict of silence. 1
presume that the reason of this prohibition of all con-
versation, was to prevent us from devising plans of
escape ; but he had imposed as rigid a silence on
himself as was enforced upon us ; and after having
passed from Maryland to South Carolina, in his com-
pany, I knew no more of my master, than, that he
knew how to keep his secrets, guard his slaves, and
make a close bargain. I had never heard him
speak of his home or family ; and therefore had con-
cluded that he was an unmarried man, and an ad-
venturer, who felt no more attachment for one place
than another, and whose residence was not very
well -settled ; but, from the large sums of money
which he must have been able to command and
carry with him to the north, to enable him to pur-
chase so large a number of slaves, I had no doubt
that he was a man of consequence and consideration
in the place from whence he came.

In Maryland, I had always observed that men,
who were the owners of large stocks of negroes,
were not averse to having publicity given to their
names ; and that the possession of this species of

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 93

property even there, gave its owner more vanity and
egotism, than fell to the lot of the holders of any
other kind of estate; and in truth, my subsequent
experience proved, that without the possession of
slaves, no man could ever arrive at, or hope to rise
to any honourable station in society ; — yet, my mas-
ter seemed to take no pride in having at his disposal
the lives of so many human beings. He never spoke
to us in words of either pity or hatred ; and never
spoke of us, except to order us to be fed or watered ,
as he would have directed the same offices to be per-
formed for so many horses, or to inquire where the
best prices could be obtained for us. He regarded us
only as objects of traffic and the materials of his
commerce ; and although he had lived several years
in Carolina and Georgia, and had there exercised
the profession of an overseer, he regarded the south-
ern planters as no less the subjects of trade and spec-
ulation, than the slaves he sold to them ; as will ap-
pear in the sequel. It was to this man that the
landlord introduced his two sons, and upon whom
he was endeavouring to impose a belief, that he was
the head of a family which took rank with those of
the first planters of the district. The ladies of the
household, though I had seen them in the kitchen
when I walked round the house, had not yet pre-
sented themselves to my master, nor indeed were
they in a condition to be seen anywhere but in the
apartment they occupied at the time. The young
gentlemen gave a very gasconading account of the
coit-party and cock-fight, from which they had just

94 NARRATIVE OP THE

returned, and according to their version of the affair,
it might have been an assemblage of at least half
the military officers of the state ; for all the persons
of whom they spoke, were captains, majors, and col-
onels. The eldest said, he had won two bowls of
punch at coits ; and the youngest. wrhose cock had
been victor in the battle, on which ten dollars were
staked, vaunted much of the qualities of his bird ;
and supported his veracity by numerous oaths; and
reiterated appeals to his brother for the truth of his
assertions. Both these young men were so much
intoxicated, that they with difficulty maintained an
erect posture in walking.

By this time the sun was going down, and I ob-
served two female slaves, a woman and girl, ap-
proaching the house on the side of the kitchen from
the cotton field. They were coming home to pre-
pare supper for the family ; the ladies whom I had
seen in the kitchen not having been there for the
purpose of performing the duties appropriate to that
station, but having sought it as a place of refuge
from the sight of my master, who had approached
the front of their dwelling silently, and so suddenly
as not to permit them to gain the foot of the stairway
in the large front room, without being seen by him,
to whose view they by no means wished to expose
themselves, before they had visited their toilets.
About dark the supper was ready in the large room,
and, as it had two fronts, one of which looked into
the yard where my companions and I had been per-
mitted to seat ourselves, and had an opportunity of

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 95

seeing, by the light of the candle, all that was done
within, and of hearing all that was said. The la-
dies, four in number, had entered the room before the
gentlemen ; and when the latter came in my master
was introduced, by the landlord to his wife and
daughters, by the name and title of Colonel Ml Gif-
Jin, which, at that time, impressed me with a belief
that he was really an officer, and that he had dis-
closed this circumstance without my knowledge ;
but I afterwards perceived that in the south it is
deemed respectful to address a stranger by the title
of Colonel, or Major, or General, if his appearance
will warrant the association of so high a rank with
his name. My master had declared his intention of
becoming the inmate of this family for some time,
and no pains seemed to be spared on their part to
impress upon his mind the high opinion that they
entertained of the dignity of the owner of fifty slaves;
the possession of so large a number of human crea-
tures being, in Carolina, a certificate of character,
which entitles its bearer to enter whatever society he
may choose to select, without any thing more being
known of his birth, his life, or reputation. The
man who owns fifty servants must needs be a gen-
tleman amongst the higher ranks, and the owner of
half a hundred niggers is a sort of nobleman
amongst the low, the ignorant, and the vulgar.
The mother and three daughters, whose appearance,
when I saw them in the kitchen, would have war-
ranted the conclusion that they had just risen from
bed, without having time to adjust their dress, were

96 NARRATIVE OF THE

now gaily, if not neatly attired ; and the two female
slaves, who had come from the field at sundown to
cook the supper, now waited at the table. The land-
lord talked much of his crops, his plantation and
slaves, and of the distinguished families who ex-
changed visits with his own ; but my master took
very little part in the conversation of the evening,
and appeared disposed to maintain the air of mys-
tery which had hitherto invested his character.

After it was quite dark, the slaves came in from
the cotton- field, and taking little notice of us. went
into the kitchen, and each taking thence a pint of
corn, proceeded to a little mill, which was nailed to
a post in the yard, and there commenced the opera-
tion of grinding meal for their suppers, which were
afterwards to be prepared by baking the meal into
cakes at the fire. The woman who was the mother
of the three small children, was permitted to grind
her allowance of corn first, and after her came the
old man, and the others in succession. After the
corn was converted into meal, each one kneaded it
up with cold water into a thick dough, and raking
away the ashes from a small space on the kitchen
hearth, placed the dough, rolled up in green leaves,
in the hollow, and covering it with hot embers, left
it to be baked into bread, which was done in about
half an hour. These loaves constituted the only
supper of the slaves belonging to this family ; for I
observed that the two women who had waited at the
table, after the supper of the white people was dis-
posed of, also came with their corn to the mill on the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 97

post, and ground their allowance like the others.
They had not been permitted to taste even the frag-
ments of the meal that they had cooked for their
masters and mistresses. It was eleven o'clock be-
fore these people had finished their supper of cakes,
and several of them, especially the younger of the
two lads, were so overpowered with toil and sleep,
that they had to be roused from their slumbers when
their cakes were done, to devour them.

We had for our supper to-night, a pint of boiled
rice to each person, and a small quantity of stale and
very rancid butter, from the bottom of an old keg,
or firkin, which contained about two pounds, the
remnant of that which once filled it. We boiled
the rice ourselves, in a large iron kettle ; and, as our
master now informed us that we were to remain
here some time, many of us determined to avail our-
selves of this season of respite from our toils, to wash
our clothes, and free our persons from the vermin
which had appeared amongst our party several
weeks before, and now begun to be extremely tor-
menting. As we were not allowed any soap, we
were obliged to resort to the use of a very fine and
unctuous kind of clay, resembling fullers' earth, but
of a yellow colour, which was found on the margin
of a small swamp near the house. This was the
first time that I had ever heard of clay being used
for the purpose of washing clothes ; but I often avail-
ed myself of this resource afterwards, whilst I was a
slave in the south. We wet our clothes, then rub-
bed this clay all over the garments, and by scouring

9

98 NARRATIVE OF THE

it out in warm water with our hands, the cloth,
whether of woollen, cotton, or linen texture, was left
entirely clean. We subjected our persons to the
same process, and in this way freed our camp from
the host of enemies that had been generated in the
course of our journey.

This washing consumed the whole of the first
day of our residence on the plantation of Mr. Hulig.
We all lay the first night in a shed, or summer kit-
chen, standing behind the house, and a few yards
from it, a place in which the slaves of the plantation
washed their clothes, and passed their Sundays in
warm weather, when they did not work ; but as this
place was quite too small to accommodate our party,
or indeed to contain us, without crowding us|together
in such a manner as to endanger our health, we
were removed, the morning after our arrival, to an
old decayed frame building, about one hundred
yards from the house, which had been erected, as I
learned, for a cotton-gin, but into which its possessor,
for want of means I presume, had never introduced
the machinery of the gin. This building was near
forty feet square ; was without any other floor than
the earth, and had neither doors nor windows, to
close the openings which had been left for the ad-
mission of those who entered it. We were told that
in this place the cotton of the plantation was depos-
ited in the picking season, as it was brought from
the field , until it could be removed to a neighbouring
plantation, where there was a gin to divest it of its
seeds.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES

Here we took our temporary abode-
women promiscuously. Our provisions, whi]
remained here, were regularly distributed to us; and
the daily allowance to each person, consisted of a
pint of corn, a pint of rice, and about three or four
pounds of butter, such as we had received on the
night of our arrival, divided amongst us, in small
pieces from the point of a table knife. The rice we
boiled in the iron kettle, — we ground our corn at the
little mill on the post in the kitchen, and converted
the meal into bread, in the manner we had been ac-
customed to at home — sometimes on the hearth,
and sometimes before the fire, on a hoe. The but-
ter was given us as an extraordinary ration, to
strengthen and recruit us after our long march, and
give us a healthy and expert appearance at the
time of our future sale.

We had no beds of any kind to sleep on, but each
one was provided with a blanket, which had been
the companion of our travels. We were left entire-
ly at liberty to go out or in when we pleased, and
no watch was kept over us either by night or day.

Our master had removed us so far from our native
country, that he supposed it impossible for any of us
ever to escape from him, and surmount all the ob-
stacles that lay between us and our former homes.
He went away immediately after we were establish-
ed in our new lodgings, and remained absent until
the second evening about sundown, when he return-
ed, came into our shed, sat down on a block of wood
in the midst of us, and asked if any one had been

100

NARRATIVE OF THE

sick ; if we had got our clothes clean ; and if we
had been supplied with an allowance of rice, corn,
and butter. After satisfying himself upon these
points, he told us that we were now at liberty to run
away if we chose to do so ; but if we made the at-
tempt we should most certainly be re-taken, and sub-
jected to the most terrible punishment. " 1 never
flog," said he, " my practice is to cat-haul ; and if
you run away, and I catch you again — as I surely
shall do — and give you one cat-hauling, you will
never run away again, nor attempt it." I did not
then understand the import of cat-hauling, but in
after times, became well acquainted with its signifi-
cation.

We remained in this place nearly two weeks,
during which time our allowance of food was not
varied, and was regularly given to us. We were
not required to do any work ; and I had liberty and
leisure to walk about the plantation, and make such
observations as I could upon the new state of things
around me. Gentlemen and ladies came every day
to look at us, with a view of becoming our purchas-
ers ; and we were examined with minute care as to
our ages, former occupations, and capacity of per-
forming labour. Our persons were inspected, and
more especially the hands were scrutinized, to see if
all the fingers were perfect, and capable of the quick
motions necessary in picking cotton. Our master
only visited us once a day, and sometimes he re-
mained absent two days ; so that he seldom met any
of those who came to see us ; but, whenever it so

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 101

happened that he did meet them, he laid aside his
silence and became very talkative, and even anima-
ted in his conversation, extolling our good qualities,
and averring that he had purchased some of us of
one colonel, and others of another general in Virgi-
nia ; that he could by no means have procured us,
had it not been that, in some instances, our masters
had ruined themselves, and were obliged to sell us
to save their families from ruin ; and in others, that
our owners were dead, their estates deeply in debt,
and we had been sold at public sale ; by which
means he had become possessed of us. He said our
habits were unexceptionable, our characters good,
and that there was not one amongst us all who had
ever been known to run away, or steal any thing
from our former masters. I observed that running
away, and stealing from his master, were regarded
as the highest crimes of which a slave could be
guilty ; but I heard no questions asked concerning
our propensity to steal from other people besides our
masters, and I afterwards learned, that this was not
always regarded as a very high crime by the owner
of a slave, provided he would perpetrate the theft so
adroitly as not to be detected in it.

We were severally asked by our visiters, if we
would be willing to live with them, if they would
purchase us, to which we generally replied in the
affirmative ; but our owner declined all the offers that
were made for us, upon the ground that we were
too poor — looked too bad to be sold at present — and

9*

102 NARRATIVE OF THE

that in our condition he could not expect to get a
fair value for us.

One evening, when our master was with us, a thin,
sallow-looking man rode up to the house, and alight-
ing from his horse, came to us, and told him that he
had come to buy a boy ; that he wished to get a
good field hand, and would pay a good price for him.
I never saw a human countenance that expressed
more of the evil passions of the h< art than did that
of this man, and his conversation corresponded with
his physiognomy. Every sentence of his language
was accompanied with an oath of the most vulgar
profanity, and his eyes appeared to me to be the in-
dex of a soul as cruel as his visage was disgusting
and repulsive.

After looking at us for some time, this wretch sin-
gled me out as the object of his choice., and coming
up to me, asked me how I would like him for a mas-
ter. In my heart I detested him ; but a slave is
often afraid to speak the truth, and divulge all he
feels ; so with myself in this instance, as it was
doubtful whether 1 might not fall into his hands,
and be subject to the violence of his temper, I told
him that if he was a good master, as every gentle-
man ought to be, I should be willing to live with
him. He appeared satisfied with my answer, and
turning to my master, said he would give a high price
for me. lt I can," said he, " by going to Charleston,
buy as many Guinea negroes as I please for two
hundred dollars each, but as I like this fellow, I will
give you four hundred for him." This offer struck

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 103

terror into my very heart, for I knew it was aa
much as was generally given for the best and ablest
slaves, and I expected that it would immediately be
accepted as my price, and that I should be at once
consigned to the hands of this man, of whom I had
formed so abhorrent an opinion. To my surprise
and satisfaction, however, my master made no reply
to the proposition ; but stood for a moment, with one
hand raised to his face and his fore-finger on his
nose, and then turning suddenly to me said, "Charles,
go into the house ; 1 shall not sell you to-day." It
was my business to obey the order of departure, and
as I went beyond the sound of their voices, I could
not understand the purport of the conversation which
followed between these two traffickers in human
blood ; but after a parley of about a quarter of an
hour, the hated stranger started abruptly away, and
going to the road, mounted his horse, and rode off at
a gallop, banishing himself and my fears together.

I did not see my master again this evening, and
when I came out of our barracks in the morning, al-
though it was scarcely daylight, I saw him standing
near ons corner of the building, with his head incli-
ned towards the wall, evidently listening to catch
any sounds within. He ordered me to go and feed
his horse, and have him saddled for him by sunrise.
About an hour afterwards he came to the stable in
his riding dress; and told me that he should remove
us all to Columbia in a few days. He then rode
away, and did not return until the third day after-
wards.

104 NARRATIVE OF THE

CHAPTER VII.

It was now about the middle of June, the weath-
er excessively warm, and from eleven o'clock, A. M.
until late in the afternoon, the sand about our resi-
dence was so hot, that we could not stand on it with
our bare feet in one posture, more than one or two
minutes. The whole country, so far as I could see,
appeared to be a dead plain, without the least vari-
ety of either hill or dale. The pine was so far the
predominating timber of the forest, that at a little
distance the entire woods appeared to be composed
of this tree.

I had become weary of being confined to the im-
mediate vicinity of our lodgings, and determined to
venture out into the fields of the plantation, and see
the manner of cultivating cotton. Accordingly, after
I had made my morning meal upon corn cakes, I
sallied out in the direction which I had seen the
slaves of the plantation take at the time they left the
house at daylight, and following a path through a
small field of corn, which was so tall as to prevent
me from seeing beyond it, I soon arrived at the field
in which the people were at work with hoes amongst
the cotton, which was about two feet and a half
high, and had formed such long branches, that they
could no longer plough in it without breaking it.
Expecting to pass the remainder of my life in this
kind of labour, I felt anxious to know the evils, if
any, attending it, and more especially the manner

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 105

in which the slaves were treated on the cotton
estates.

The people now before me, were all diligently and
laboriously weeding and hilling the cotton with hoes7
and when I approached them, they scarcely took
time to speak to me, but continued their labour as if
I had not been present. As there did not appear to
be any overseer with them, I thought I would go
amongst them, and enter into conversation with
them; but upon addressing myself to one of the
men, and telling him, if it was not. disagreeable to
him, I should be glad to become acquainted with
him, he said he should be glad to be acquainted
with me, but master Tom did not allow him to talk
much to people when he was at work. I asked
him where his master Tom was ; but before he had
time to reply, some one called — "Mind your work
there, you rascals." Looking in the direction of the
sound, I saw master Tom, sitting under the shade
of a sassafras tree, at the distance of about a hundred
yards from us. Deeming it unsafe to continue in
the field without the permission of its lord, I ap-
proached the sassafras tree, with my hat in my
hand, and in a very humble manner, asked leave
to help the people work awhile, as I was tired of
staying about the house and doing nothing. He
said he did not care ; I might go and work with
th m awh le, but I must take care not to talk too
much, and keep his hands from their work.

Now, having authority on my side, I returned,,
and taking a hoe from the hands of a small girl,

106 NARRATIVE OF THE

told her to pull up weeds, and I would take her row
for her. When we arrived at the end of the rows
which we were then hilling, master Tom, who still
held his post under the sassafras tree, called his peo-
ple to come to hie kfast. Although I had already
broken my fast, I went with the rest for the purpose
of seeing what their breakfast was composed of. At
the tree I saw a keg which contained about five gal-
lons, with water in it ; and a gourd lying by it ;
near this was a basket made of splits, large enough
to hold more than a peck. It contained the break-
fast of the people, covered by some green leaves of
the magnolia, or great bay tree of the south. When
the leaves were removed, I found that the supply of
provisions consisted of one cake of corn meal, weigh-
ing about half a pound, for each person. This bread
had no sort of seasoning, not even salt, and consti-
tuted the only breakfast of these poor people, who
had been toiling from early dawn until about eight
o'clock. There was no cake for me, and master
Tom did not say any thing to me on the state of
my stomach ; but the young girl, whose hoe I had
taken in the field, offered me a part of her cake,
which I refused. After the breakfast was despatch-
ed, we again returned to our work ; but the master
ordered the girl, whose hoe I had, to go and get an-
other hoe which lay at some distance in the field,
and take her row again. I continued in the field
until dinner, which took place about one o'clock,
and was the same, in all respects, as the breakfast
had been.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 107

Master Tom was the younger of the two brothers
who returned from the cock-fight on the evening of
our arrival at this place, — he left the field about ten
o'clock, and was succeeded by his elder brother, as
overseer for the remainder of the day. After this
change of superintendents, my companions became
more loquacious, and in the course of an hour or
two, I had become familiar with the condition of my
fellow- labourers who told me that the elder of their
young masters was much less tyrannical than his
younger brother ; and that whilst the former remain-
ed in the field they would be at liberty to talk as much
as they pleased, provided they did not neglect their
work. One of the men who appeared to be about
forty years of age, and who was the foreman of the
field, told me that he had been born in South Caro-
lina, and had always lived there, though he had only
belonged to his present master about ten years. I
asked him if his master allowed him no meat, nor
any kind of provisions except bread ; to which he
replied that they never had any meat except at
Christmas, when each hand on the place received
about three pounds of pork ; that from September,
when the sweet potatoes were at the maturity of
their growth, they had an allowance of potatoes as
long as the crop held out, which was generally until
about March ; but that for the rest of the year, they
had nothing but a peck of corn a week, with such
weeds and other vegetables as they could gather
from the fields for greens — that their master did not
allow them any salt, and that the only means they

108 NARRATIVE OF THE

had of procuring this luxury, was, by work i> on
Sundays for the neigbouring planters, who paid
them in money at the rate of fifty cents per day,
with which they purchased salt and some other ar-
ticles of convenience.

This man told me that his master furnished him
with two shirts of tow linen, and two pair of trousers,
one of woollen and the other of linen cloth, one wool-
len jacket, and one blanket every year. That he
received the woollen clothes at Christmas, and the
linen at Easter ; and all the other clothes, if he had
any, he was obliged to provide for himself by work-
ing on Sunday. He said, that for several years past,
he had not been able to provide any clothes for him-
self; as he had a wife with several small children,
on an adjoining plantation, whose master gave only
one suit of clothes in the year to the mother, and none
of any kind to the children, which had compelled
him to lay out all his savings in providing clothes for
his family, and such little necessaries as were called
for by his wife, from time to time. He had not had
a shoe on his foot for several years, but in winter
made a kind of moccasin for himself of the bark of a
tree, which he said was abundant in the swamps,
and could be so manufactured as to make good ropes,
and tolerable moccasins, sufficient at least, to defend
the feet from the frost though not to keep them dry.

The old man whom I have alluded to before, was
in the field with the others, though he was not able
to keep up his row. He had no clothes on him ex-
cept the remains of an old shirt, which hung in tat-

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 109

iers from his neck and arms ; the two young girls
had nothing on them but petticoats, made of coarse
tow cloth, and the woman who was the mother of the
children, wore the remains of a tow linen shift, the
front part of which was entirely gone ; but a piece
of old cotton bagging tied round her loins, served the
purposes of an apron. The younger of the two
boys was entirely naked.

The man who was foreman of the field, was a
person of good sense for the condition of life in
which fortune had placed him, and spoke to me
freely of his hard lot. 1 observed that under his
shirt, which was very ragged, he wore a piece of fine
linen cloth, apparently part of an old shirt, wrapped
closely round his back, and confined in front by
strings, tied down his breast. I asked him why he
wore that piece of gentleman's linen under his shirt,
and shall give his reply in his own words as well as
I can recollect them, at a distance of near thirty
years.

li I have always been a hard working man, and
have suffered a great deal from hunger in my time.
It is not possible for a man to work hard every day
for several months, and get nothing but a peck of
corn a week to eat, and not feel hungry. When a
man is hungry, you know, (if you have ever been
hungry,) he must eat whatever he can get. I have
not tasted meat since last Christmas, and we have
had to work uncommonly hard this summer. Mas-
ter has a flock of sheep, that run in the woods, and
they come every night to sleep in the lane near the

10

110 NARRATIVE OP THE

house. Two weeks ago last Saturday, when we
quit work at night, I was very hungry, and as we
went to the house we passed along the lane where
the sheep lay. There were nearly fifty of them,
and some were very fat. The temptation was more
than I could bear. I caught one of them, cut its
head off with the hoe that 1 carried on my shoulder,
and threw it under the fence. About midnight,
when all was still about the house, I wTent out with
a knife, took the sheep into the woods, and dressed
it by the light of the moon. The carcass 1. took
home, and after cutting it up, placed it in the great
kettle over a good fire, intending to boil it and divide
it, when cooked, between my fellow-slaves (whom I
knew to be as hungry as I was) and myself. Un-
fortunately for me. master Tom, who had been out
amongst his friends that day, had not returned at
bed-time ; and about one o'clock in the morning, at
the time when I had a blazing fire under the kettle,
I heard the sound of the feet of a horse coming along
the lane. The kitchen walls were open so that the
light of my fire could not be concealed, and in a
moment I heard the horse blowing at the front of
the house. Conscious of my danger, I stripped my
shirt from my back, and pushed it into the boiling
kettle, so as wholly to conceal the flesh of the sheep.
I had scarcely completed this act of precaution, when
master Tom burst into the kitchen, and with a ter-
rible oath, asked me what 1 was doing so late at
night, with a great fire in the kitchen. I replied, ' I
am going to wash my shirt, master, and am boiling

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. Ill

it to get it clean.' ' Washing your shirt at this
time of night ! ' said he, ' I will let you know that
you are not to sit up all night and be lazy and good
for nothing all day. There shall be no boiling of
shirts here on Sunday morning,' and thrusting his
cane into the kettle, he raised my shirt out and threw
it on the kitchen floor.

"He did not at first observe the mutton, which
rose to the surface of the water as soon as the shirt
was removed ; but, after giving the shirt a kick
towards the door, he again turned his face to the fire,
and seeing a leg standing several inches out of the
pot, he demanded of me what I had in there and
where I had got this meat ? Finding that I was
detected, and that the whole matter must be dis-
covered, I said, — 'Master, I am hungry, and am
cooking my supper.' l What is it you have in
here ? ' 'A sheep,' said I, and as the words were
uttered, he knocked me down with his cane, and af-
ter beating me severely, ordered me to cross my
hands until he bound me fast with a rope that hung
in the kitchen, and answered the double purpose of
a clothes' line, and a cord to tie us with when we
were to be whipped. He put out the fire under the
kettle, drew me into the yard, tied me fast to the
mill-post, and leaving me there for the night, went
and called one of the negro boys to put his horse
in the stable, and went to his bed. The cord was
bound so tightly round my wrists, that before morn-
ing, the blood had burst out under my finger nails ;
but I suppose my master slept soundly for all that,

112 NARRATIVE OF THE

I was afraid to cal] any one to come and release me
from my torment, lest a still more terrible punish-
ment might overtake me.

" I was permitted to remain in this situation until
long after sunrise the next morning, which being
Sunday, was quiet and still ; my fellow-slaves being
permitted to take their rest after the severe toil of
the past week, and my old master and two young
ones having no occasion to rise to call the hands
to the field, did not think of interrupting their morn-
ing slumbers, to release me from my painful con-
finement. However, when the sun was risen about
an hour, I heard the noise of persons moving in the
great house, and soon after, a loud and boisterous
conversation, which I well knew portended no good
to me. At length they all three came into the yard
where I lay, lashed to the post, and approaching me,
my old master asked me if I had any accomplices
in stealing the sheep. I told them none — that it
was entirely my own act — and that none of my fel-
low-slaves had any hand in it. This was the
truth ; but if any of my companions had been con-
cerned with me, I should not have betrayed them ;
for such an act of treachery could not have alleviated
the dreadful punishment which I knew awaited me,
and would only have involved them in the same
misery.

" They called me a thief, loaded me with oaths and
imprecations, and each one proposed the punishment
which he deemed the most appropriate to the enormity
of the crime that I had committed. Master Tom

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 113

was of opinion, that I should be lashed to the post at
the foot of which I lay, and that each of my fellow-
slaves should be compelled to give me a dozen lash-
es in turn, with a roasted and greased hickory gad,
until I had received, in the whole, two hundred
and fifty lashes on my bare back, and that he would
stand by, with the whip in his hand, and compel
them not to spare me ; but after a short debate this
was given up, as it would probably render me una-
ble to work in the field again for several weeks.
My master Ned was in favour of giving me a dozen
lashes every morning for a month, with the whip ;
but my old master said, this would be attended with
too much trouble, and besides, it would keep me
from my work, at least half an hour every morning,
and proposed, in his turn, that I should not be
whipped at all, but that the carcass of the sheep
should be taken from the kettle in its half-boiled
condition, and hung up in the kitchen loft without
salt ; and that I should be compelled to subsist on
this putrid mutton without any other food, until it
should be consumed. This suggestion met the ap<
probation of my young masters, and would have
been adopted, had not mistress at this moment come
into the yard, and hearing the intended punishment,
loudly objected to it, because the mutton would, in a
day or two, create such an offensive stench, that she
and my young mistresses would not be able to re*
main in the house. My mistress swore dreadfully,
and cursed me for an ungrateful sheep thief, who,
after all her kindness in giving me soup and warm

10*

114 NARRATIVE OF THE

bread when I was sick last winter, was always
stealing every thing 1 could get hold of. She then
said to my master, that such villany ought not to be
passed over in a slight manner, and that as crimes,
such as this, concerned the whole country, my pun-
ishment ought to be public for the purpose of exam-
ple ; and advised him to have me whipped that
same afternoon, at five o'clock ; first giving notice to
the planters of the neighbourhood to come and see
the spectacle, and to bring with them their slaves,
that they might be witnesses to the consequences of
stealing sheep.

" They then returned to the house to breakfast ;
but as the pain in my hands and arms produced by
the ligatures of the cord with which I was bound,
was greater than 1 could bear, I now felt exceeding-
ly sick, and lost all knowledge of my situation.
They told me I fainted ; and when 1 recovered my
faculties, 1 found myself lying in the shade of the
house, with my hands free, and all the white per-
sons in my master's family, standing around me.
As soon as I was able to stand, the rope was tied
round my neck, and the other end again fastened
to the mill post. My mistress said I had only pre-
tended to faint; and master Tom said, I would
have something worth fainting for before night.
He was faithful to his promise ; but, for the present,
I was suffered to sit on the grass in the shade of
the house.

a As soon as breakfast was over, my two young
masters had their horses saddled, and set out to give

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 115

notice to their friends of what had happened, and
to invite them to come and see me punished for the
crime I had committed. My mistress gave me no
breakfast, and when I begged one of the black
boys whom I saw looking at me through the pales,
to bring me some water in a gourd to drink, she
ordered him to bring it from a puddle in the lane.
My mistress has always been very cruel to all her
black people.

" I i\ mained in this situation until about eleven
o'clock, when one of my young mistresses came to
me and gave me a piece of jonny-cake alout
the size of my hand, perhaps larger than my hand,
telling me at the same time, that my fellow-slaves
had been permitted to re-boil the mutton that I had
left in the kettle, and make their breakfast of it, but
that her mother would not allow her to give me any
part of it. It was well for them that I had parboiled it
with my shirt, and so defiled it, that it was unfit for
the table of my master, otherwise, no portion of it
would have fallen to the black people — as it was,
they had as much meat as they could consume in
two days, for which I had to suffer.

" About twelve o'clock, one of my young mas-
ters returned, and soon afterwards the other came
home. I heard them tell my old master that they
had been round to give notice of my offence to the
neighbouring planters, and that several of them
would attend to see me flogge I, and would bring
with them some of their slaves, who m ght be able
to report to their companions what had been done to
me for stealing.

116 NARRATIVE OF THE

" It was late in the afternoon before any of the
gentlemen came ; but, before five o'clock, there
were more than twenty white people, and at least
fifty black ones present, the latter of whom had
been compelled, by their masters, to come and see
me punished. Amongst others, an overseer from
a neighbouring estate attended, and to him was
awarded the office of executioner. I was stripped
of my shirt, and the waist-band of my trousers
was drawn closely round me, below my hips, so
as to expose the whole of my back, in its entire
length.

" It seems that it had been determined to beat me
with thongs of raw cow-hide, for the overseer had
two of these in his hands, each about four feet long ;
but one of the gentlemen present said this might
bruise my back so badly, that I could not work for
some time ; perhaps not for a week or two ; and as I
could not be spared from the field without great disad-
vantage to my master's crop, he suggested a different
plan, by which, in his opinion, the greatest degree
of pain could be inflicted on me, with the least dan-
ger of rendering me unable to work. As he was a
large planter, and had more than fifty slaves, all were
disposed to be guided by his counsels, and my mas-
ter said he would submit the matter entirely to him
as a man of judgment and experience in such cases.
He then desired my master to have a dozen pods of
red pepper boiled in half a gallon of water, and de-
sired the overseer to lay aside his thongs of raw hide,
and put a new cracker of silk, to the lash of his

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 117

negro whip. Whilst these preparations were being
made, each of my thumbs was lashed closely to
the end of a stick about three feet long, and a chair
being placed beside the mill post, I was compelled to
raise my hands and place the stick, to which my
thumbs were bound, over the top of the post, which
is about eighteen inches square ; the chair was then
taken from under me, and I was left hanging by
the thumbs, with my face towards the post, and my
feet about a foot from the ground. My two great
toes were then tied together, and drawn down the
post as far as my joints could be stretched ; the cord
was passed round the post two or three times and
securely fastened. In this posture I had no power
of motion, except in my neck, and could only move
that at the expense of beating my face against the
side of the post.

{ ll The pepper tea was now brought, and poured into
a basin to cool, and the overseer was desired to give
me a dozen lashes just above the waist-band ; and
not to cover a space of more than four inches on my
back, from the waist-band upwards. He obeyed
the injunction faithfully, but slowly, and each crack
of the whip was followed by a sensation as painful
as if a red hot iron had been drawn across my back.
When the twelve strokes had been given, the opera-
tion was suspended, and a black man, one of the
slaves present, was compelled to wash the gashes in
my skin, with the scalding pepper tea, which was
yet so hot that he could not hold his hand in it.
This doubly-burning liquid was thrown into my

1 18 NARRATIVE OF THE

raw and bleeding wounds, and produced a torment-
ing smart, beyond the description of language. After
a delay of ten minutes, by the watch, I received
another dozen lashes, on the part of my back which
was immediately above the bleeding and burning
gashes of the former whipping ; and again the bi-
ting, stinging, pepper tea was applied to my lacera-
ted and trembling muscles. This operation was
continued at regular intervals, until I had received
ninety-six lashes, and my back was cut and scalded
from end to end. Every stroke of the whip had
drawn blood ; many of the gashes were three inch-
es long ; my back burned as if it had been covered
by a coat of hot embers, mixed with living coals ;
and I felt my flesh quiver like that of animals that
have been slaughtered by the butcher and are flayed
whilst yet half alive,*. My face was bruised, and
my nose bled profusely, for in the madness of my
agony, I had not been able to refrain from beating
my head violently against the post.

* Vainly did I beg and implore for mercy. I
was kept bound to the post with my whole weight
hanging upon my thumbs, an hour and a half, but
it appeared to me that 1 had entered upon eternity,
and that my sufferings would never end. At length,
however, my feet we e unbound, and afterwards my
hands ; but when released from the cords, I was so
far exhausted as not to be able to stand, and my
thumbs were stiff and motionless. I was carried
into the kitchen, and laid on a blanket, where my
ss came to see me ; and after looking at my

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 119

lacerated back, and telling- me that my wounds
were only skin deep, said I had come off well, after
what I had done, and that I ought to be thankful
that it was not worse with me. She then bade me
not to groan so loud, nor make so much noise, and left
me to myself. 1 lay in this condition until it was
quite dark, by which time the burning of my back
had much abated, and was succeeded by an aching
soreness, which rendered me unable to turn over, or
bend my spine in the slightest manner. My mis-
tress again visited me, and brought with her about
half a pound of fat bacon, which she made one of
the black women roast before the fire on a fork, un-
til the oil ran freely from it, and then rub it warm
over my back. This was repeated until I was
greased from the neck to the hips, effectually. An
old blanket was then thrown over me, and I was
left to pass the night alone. Such was the terror
stricken into my fellow-slaves, by the example made
of me, that, although they loved and pitied me,
not one of them dared to approach me during this
night.

"My strength was gone, and I at length fell
asleep, from which I did not awake until the horn
was blown the next morning, to call the people to
the corn crib, to receive their weekly allowance of a
peck of corn. I did not rise, nor attempt to join the
other people, and shortly afterwards my master en-
tered the kitchen, and in a soft and gentle tone of
voice, asked me if I was dead. I answered him
that I was not dead, and making some effort, found

120 NARRATIVE OP THE

I was able to get upon my feet. My master had be-
come frightened when he missed me at the corn crib,
and being suddenly seized with an apprehension
that I was dead, his heart had become softened, not
with compassion for my sufferings, but with the fear
of losing his best field hand ; but when he saw me
stand before him erect, and upright, the recollection
of the lost sheep revived in his mind, and with it,
all his feelings of revenge against the author of its
death.

" ' So you are not dead yet, you thieving rascal,'
said he ; and cursing me with many bitter oaths,
ordered me to go along to the crib and get my corn,
and go to work with the rest of the hands. I was
forced to obey, and taking my basket of corn from
the door of the crib, placed it in the kitchen loft, and
went to the field with the other people.

" Weak and exhausted as I was, I was compelled
to do the work of an able hand, but was not per-
mitted to taste the mutton, which was all given to
the others, who were carefully guarded whilst they
were eating, lest they should give me some of it."

This man's back was not yet well. Many of the
gashes made by the lash were yet sore, and those
that were healed had left long white stripes across
his body. He had no notion of leaving the ser-
vice of his tyrannical master, and his spirit was
so broken and subdued, that he was ready to suffer
and to bear all his hardships ; not, indeed, with-
out complaining, but without attempting to resist his
oppressors, or to escape from their power. I saw

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 121

him often whilst I remained at this place, and ven-
tured to tell him once that if I had a master who
would abuse me as his had abused him, I would run
away. u Where could I run, or in what place could
I conceal myself? " said he. " I have known many
slaves who ran away, but they were always caught,
and treated worse afterwards than they had been
before. I have heard that there is a place called
Philadelphia, where the black people are all free, but
I do not know which way it lies, nor what road I
should take to go there ; and if I knew the way,
how could I hope to get there ? would not the patrol
be sure to catch me ? "

I pitied this unfortunate creature, and was at
the same time fearful, that, in a short time, I should
be equally the object of pity myself. How well my
fears were justified the sequel of my narrative will
show.

CHAPTER VIII.

We had been stationed in the old cotton-gin
house, about twenty days, had recovered from the fa-
tigues of our journey, and were greatly improved in
our strength and appearance, when our master re-
turned one evening, after an absence of two days,
and told us that we must go to Columbia the next
day ; and must, for this purpose, have our breakfast
ready by sunrise. On the following morning he

11

122 NARRATIVE OF THE

called us at daylight, and we made all despatch in
preparing our morning repast, the last that we were
to take in our present residence.

As our equipments consisted of the few clothes we
had on our persons, and a solitary blanket to each
individual, our baggage was easily adjusted, and
we were on the road before the sun was up half an
hour ; and in less than an hour we were in Colum-
bia, drawn up in a long line in the street opposite the
court-house.

The town, which was small and mean looking,
was full of people, and I believe that more than a
thousand gentlemen came to look at us within the
course of this day. We were kept in the street
about an hour, and were then taken into the jail-
yard and permitted to sit down ; but were not shut
up in the jail. % The court was sitting in Colum-
bia at this time, and either this circumstance, or the
intelligence of our arrival in the country, or both, had
drawn together a very great crowd of people.

We were supplied with victuals by the jailer, and
had a small allowance of salt pork for dinner. We
slept in the jail at night, and as none of us had been
sold on the day of our arrival in Columbia, and we
had not heard any of the persons who came to look
at us make proposals to our master for our purchase,
I supposed it might be his intention to drive us still
farther south before he offered us for sale ; but I dis-
covered my error on the second day, which was
Tuesday. This day the crowd in town was much
greater than it had been on Monday ; and, about ten

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 123

o'clock, our master came into the yard, in company
with the jailer, and after looking at us some time, the
latter addressed us in a short speech, which continued
perhaps five minutes. In this harangue he told us we
had come to live in the finest country in the world ;
that South Carolina was the richest and best part of
the United States ; and that he was going to sell us
to gentlemen who would make us all very happy,
and would require us to do no hard work ; but only
raise cotton and pick it. He then ordered a hand-
some young lad, about eighteen years of age, to fol-
low him into the street, where we observed a great
concourse of persons collected. Here the jailer made
another harangue to the multitude, in which he
assured them that he was just about to sell the most
valuable lot of slaves that had ever been offered in
Columbia. That we were all young, in excellent
health, of good habits, having been all purchased
in Virginia, from the estates of tobacco planters ;
and that there was not one in the whole lot who
had lost the use of a single finger, or was blind of an
eye.

He then cried the poor lad for sale, and the first
bid he received was two hundred dollars. Others
quickly succeeded, and the boy, who was a remark-
ably handsome youth, was striken off in a few min-
utes to a young man who appeared not much older
than himself, at three hundred and fifty dollars.
The purchaser paid down his price to our master on
a table in the jail, and the lad, after bidding us fare-

124

NARRATIVE OF THE

well, followed his new master with tears running-
down his cheeks.

He next sold a young girl, about fifteen or sixteen
years old, for two hundred and fifty dollars, to a lady
who attended the sales in her carriage, and made
her bids out of the window. In this manner the
sales were continued for about two hours and a half,
when they were adjourned until three o'clock. In
the afternoon they were again resumed, and kept
open until about five o'clock, when they were closed
for the day. As my companions were sold, they
were taken from amongst us, and we saw them no
more.

The next morning, before day, I was awakened
from my sleep by the sound of several heavy fires of
cannon which were discharged, as it seemed to me,
within a few yards of the place where I lay. These
were succeeded by fifes and drums, and all the noise
with which I had formerly heard the fourth of July
ushered in, at the navy -yard in Washington.

Since I had left Maryland I had carefully kept
the reckoning of the days of the week ; but had not
been careful to note the dates of the month ; yet as
soon as daylight appeared, and the door of our
apartment was opened, I inquired and learned,
that this was, as I had supposed it to be, the da)^ of
universal rejoicing.

I understood that the court did not sit this day,
but a great crowd of people gathered, and remained
around the jail, all the morning ; many of whom
were intoxicated, and sang and shouted in honour

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 125

of free government, and the rights of man. About
eleven o'clock, a long table was spread under a row
of trees which grew in the street, not far from the
jail, and which appeared to me, to be of the kind
called in Pennsylvania, the pride of China. At this
table, several hundred persons sat down to dinner,
soon after noon ; and continued to eat, and drink,
and sing songs in honour of liberty, for more than
two hours. At the end of the dinner, a gentleman
rose and stood upon his chair, near one end of the
table, and begged the company to hear him for a few
minutes. He informed them that he was a candi-
date for some office — but what office it was I do not
recollect — and said, that as it was an acknowledged
principle of our free government, that all men were
born free and equal, he presumed it would not be
deemed an act of arrogance in him, to call upon
them for their votes, at the coming election.

This first speaker was succeeded by another, who
addressed his audience in nearly the same lan-
guage ; and after he had concluded, the company
broke up. I heard a black man that belonged to
the jailer, or, who was at least in Ms service, say
that there had been a great meeting that morning in
the court house, at which several gentlemen had
made speeches.

When I lived at the navy-yard, the officers some-
times permitted me to go up town with them, on
the fourth of July, and listen to the fine speeches
that were made there, on such occasions.

About five o'clock, the jailer came and stood at

11*

126

NARRATIVE OF THE

the front door of the jail, and proclaimed, in a very
loud voice, that a sale of most valuable slaves would
immediately take place ; that he had sold many fine
hands yesterday, but they were only the refuse and
most worthless part of the whole lot ; — that those
who wished to get great bargains and prime proper-
ty, had better attend now ; as it was certain that
such negroes had never been offered for sale in Co-
lumbia before.

In a few minutes the whole assembly, that had
composed the dinner party, and hundreds of others,
were convened around the jail door, and the jailer
again proceeded with his auction. Several of the
stoutest men, and handsomest women in (he whole
company, had been reserved for this day ; and I per-
ceived that the very best of us, were kept back for
the last. We went off at rather better prices than
had been obtained on the former day ; and 1 per-
ceived much eagerness amongst the bidders, many
of whom were not sober. Within less than three
hours, only three of us remained in the jail ; and we
were ordered to come and stand at the door, in front
of the crier who made a most extravagant eulogium
upon our good qualities, and capacity to perform la-
bour. He said, " These three fellows are as strong as
horses, and as patient as mules ; one of them can do
as much work as two common men, and they are
perfectly honest. Mr. M'Giffin says, he was assured
bv their former masters, that they were never known
•to steal, or run away. They must bring good
prices, gentlemen, or they will not be sold. Their
master is determined, that if they do not bring six

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 127

hundred dollars, he will not sell them, but will take
them to Georgia next summer, and sell them to
some of the new settlers. These boys can do any-
thing. This one," referring to me, " can cut five
cords of wood in a day, and put it up. He is a rough
carpenter, and a first rate field hand." "This one,"
laying his hand on the shoulder of one of my com-
panions, " is a blacksmith ; and can lay a plough-
share ; put new steel upon an axe ; or mend a bro-
ken chain." The other, he recommended as a good
shoemaker ; and well acquainted with the process
of tanning leather.

We were all nearly of the same age ; and very
stout, healthy, robust young men, in full possession
of our corporal powers ; and if we had been shut up
in a room, with ten of the strongest of those who had
assembled to purchase us, and our liberty had de-
pended on tying them fast to each other, I have no
doubt that we should have been free, if ropes had
been provided for us.

After a few minutes of hesitancy amongst the
purchasers, and a closer examination of our persons
than had been made in the jail-yard, an elderly
gentleman said he would take the carpenter ; and
the blacksmith, and shoemaker, were immediately
taken by others, at the required price.

It was now sundown. The heat of the day had
been very oppressive, and I was glad to be released
from the confined air of the jail ; and the hot at-
mosphere, in which so many hundreds were breath-

128 NARRATIVE OF THE

ing. My new master asked me my name, and or-
dered me to follow him.

We proceeded to a tavern, where a great number
of persons were assembled, at a short distance frcm
the jail. My master entered the house, and joined
in the conversation of the party, in which the utmost
hilarity prevailed. They were drinking toasts in
honour of liberty and independence, over glasses of
toddy ; a liquor composed of a mixture of rum, wa-
ter, sugar, and nutmeg.

It was ten o'clock at night before my master and
his companions had finished their toasts and toddy :
and all this time, I had been standing before the
door, or sitting on a log of wood, that lay in front of
the house. At one time, I took a seat on a bench,
at the side of the house ; but was soon driven from
this position by a gentleman, in military clothes, with
a large gilt epaulet on each shoulder, and a profu-
sion of glittering buttons on his coat ; who passing
near me in the dark, and happening to cast his eye
on me, demanded of me, in an imperious tone, how
I dared to sit on that seat. I told him I was a
stranger, and did not know that it was wrong to sit
there. He then ordered me with an oath, to begone
from there ; and said, if he caught me on that bench
again, he would cut my head off. '• Did you not
see white people sit upon that bench, you saucy ras-
cal I " said he. I assured him I had not seen any
white gentleman sit on the bench, as it was near
night when I came to the house ; that I had not in-
tended to be saucy, or misbehave myself; and that

ADVENT17RF.S OF fHART.F.S RATX. 129

I hoped he would not be angry with me, as my mas-
ter had left me at the door, and had not told me
where 1 was to sit.

I remained on the log until the termination of the
festival, in honour of liberty and equality ; when my
master came to the door, and observed in my hear-
ing, to some of his friends, that they had celebrated
the day in a handsome manner.

No person, except the military gentleman, had
spoken to me, since I came to the house, in the even-
ing with my master, who seemed to have forgotten
me ; for he remained at the door, warmly engaged
in conversation, on various political subjects, a full
hour after he rose from the toast party. At length,
however, I heard him say — " I bought a negro this
evening, — I wonder where he is." Rising immedi-
ately from the log on which I had been so long seat-
ed, I presented myself before him, and said, "Here,
master." He then ordered me to go to the kitchen
of the inn, and go to sleep ; but said nothing to me
about supper. I retired to the kitchen, where f found
a large number of servants, who belonged to the
house ; and amongst them two young girls, who
had been purchased by a gentleman, who lived near
Augusta ; and who, they told me, intended to set
out for his plantation the next morning, and take
them with him.

These girls had been sold out of our company on
the first day ; and had been living in the tavern
kitchen since that time. They appeared quite con-
tented, and evinced no repugnance to setting out the

130

NARRATIVE OF THE

next morning for their master's plantation. They
were of that order of people who never look beyond
the present day ; and so long as they had plenty of
victuals, in this kitchen, they did not trouble them-
selves with reflections upon the cotton field.

One of the servants gave me some cold meat, and
a piece of wheaten bread ; which was the first I had
tasted since I left Maryland, and indeed, it was the
last that I tasted, until I reached Maryland again.

I here met with a man, who was born and brought
up in the Northern Neck of Virginia, on the banks
of the Potomac, and within a few miles of my native
place. We soon formed an acquaintance ; and sat
up nearly all night. He was the chief hostler in the
stable of this tavern ; and told me, that he had often
thought of attempting to escape, and return to Vir-
ginia. He said he had little doubt of being able to
reach the Potomac ; but having no knowledge of
the country, beyond that river, he was afraid that he
should not be able to make his way to Philadelphia ;
which he regarded as the only place in which he
could be safe, from the pursuit of his master. 1 was
myself then young, and my knowledge of the coun-
try, north of Baltimore, was very vague and unde-
fined. I, however, told him, that I had heard, that
if a black man could reach any part of Pennsylvania,
he would be beyond the reach of his pursuers. He
said he could not justly complain of want of food ;
but the services required of him were so unreasona-
ble, and the punishment frequently inflicted upon
him, so severe, that he was determined to set out for

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 131

the north, as soon as the corn was so far ripe, as to
be fit to be roasted. He felt confident, that by lying
in the woods, and unfrequented places all day, and
travelling only by night, he could escape the vigi-
lance of all pursuit ; and gain the Northern Neck,
before the corn would be gathered from the fields.
He had no fear of wanting food, as he could live
well on roasting ears, as long as the corn was in the
milk ; and afterwards, on parched corn, as long as
the grain remained in the field. I advised him, as
well as I could, as to the best means of reaching the
state of Pennsylvania ; but was not able to give him
any very definite instructions.

This man possessed a very sound understanding ;
and having been five years in Carolina, was well
acquainted with the country. He gave me such an
account of the sufferings of the slaves, on the cotton
and indigo plantations — of whom I now regarded
myself as one — that 1 was unable to sleep any this
night. From the resolute manner in which he
spoke of his intended elopement, and the regularity
with which he had connected the various combina-
tions of the enterprise, I have no doubt that he un-
dertook that which he intended to perform. Whe-
ther he was successful or not, in the enterprise, I can-
not say ; as I never saw him, nor heard of him,
after the next morning.

This man certainly communicated to me the out-
lines of the plan, which I afterwards put in execu-
tion ; and by which I gained my liberty, at the
expense of sufferings, which none can appreciate,

132 NARRATIVE OF THE

except those who have borne all that the stoutest
human constitution can bear, of cold and hunger,
toil and pain. The conversation of this slave,
aroused in my breast so many recollections of the
past, and fears of the future, that I did not lie down ;
but sat on an old chair until daylight.

From the people of the kitchen I again received
some cold victuals for my breakfast, but I did
not see my master until about nine o'clock ; the
toddy of the last evening, causing him to sleep
late this morning. At. length, a female slave gave
me notice that my master wished to see me . in the
dining room, whither 1 repaired, without a mo-
ment's delay. When I entered the room, he was
sitting near the window, smoking a pipe, with a
very long handle — I believe more than two feet in
length.

He asked no questions, but addressing me by the
title of " boy," ordered me to go with the hostler of
the inn, and get his horse and chaise ready. As
soon as this order could be executed, I informed him
that his chaise was at the door, and we immediately
commenced our journey to the plantation of my
master, which, he told me, lay at the distance of
twenty miles from Columbia. He said I must keep
up with him ; and, as he drove at the rate of five or
six miles an hour, I was obliged to run, nearly half
the time ; but I was then young, and could easily
travel fifty or sixty miles in a day. It was with
great anxiety that Hooked for the place, which was in
future to be my home ; but this did not prevent me

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 133

from making such observations upon the state of the
country through which we travelled, as the rapidity
of our march permitted.

This whole region had originally been one vast
wilderness of pine forest, except the low grounds and
river bottoms, here called swamps ; in which all the
varieties of trees, shrubs, vines, and plants, pecu-
liar to such places, in southern latitudes, vegetated
in unrestrained luxuriance. Nor is pine the on-
ly timber that grows on the uplands, in this part
of Carolina ; although it is the predominant tree,
and in some places, prevails to the exclusion of every
other — oak, hickory, sassafras, and many others are
found.

Here, also, I first observed groves of the most
beautiful of all the trees of the wood — the great
Southern Magnolia, or Green Bay. No adequate
conception can be formed of the appearance, or the
fragrance, of this most magnificent tree, by any one
who has not seen it, or scented the air when tainted
by the perfume of its flowers. It rises in a right
line to the height of seventy or eighty feet ; the stem
is of a delicate taper form, and casts off numerous
branches, in nearly right angles with itself; the ex-
tremities of which, decline gently towards the
ground, and become shorter and shorter in the as-
cent, until at the apex of the tree, they are scarcely
a foot in length ; whilst below they are many times
found twenty feet long. The immense cones form-
ed by these trees are as perfect as those diminutive
forms which nature exhibits in the bur of the pine

12

134 NARRATIVE OF THE

tree. The leaf of the magnolia is smooth, of an
oblong taper form, about six inches in length, and
half as broad. Its colour is the deepest and purest
green. The foliage of the Bay tree is as impervious
as a brick wall to the rays of the sun, and its re-
freshing coolness, in the heat of a summer day,
affords one of the greatest luxuries of a cotton plan-
tation. It blooms in May, and bears great numbers
of broad, expanded white flowers, the odour of which
is exceedingly grateful, and so abundant, that 1
have no doubt, that a grove of these trees, in full
bloom, may be smelledata distance of fifteen or twen-
ty miles. I have heard it asserted in the south, that
their scent has been perceived by persons fifty or
sixty miles from them.

This tree is one of nature's most splendid, and in
the climate where she has placed it, one of her most
agreeable productions. It is peculiar to the southern
temperate latitudes, and cannot bear the rigours of a
northern winter ; though I have heard that groves
of the Bay are found on Fishing Creek, in Western
Virginia, not far from Wheeling, and near the Ohio
river. Could this tree be naturalized in Pennsylva-
nia, it would form an ornament to her towns, cities,
and country seats, at once the most tasteful and the
most delicious. A forest of these trees, in the month
of May, resembles a wood, enveloped in an untime-
ly fall of snow at midsummer, glowing in the rays
of a morning sun.

We passed this day through cotton fields and
pine woods, alternately ; but the scene was some-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 135

times enlivened by the appearance of lots of corn,
and sweet potatoes, which, I observed, were gene-
rally planted near the houses. I afterwards learn-
ed that this custom of planting the corn and po-
tatoes near the house of the planter, is general
over all Carolina. The object is, to prevent the
slaves from stealing; and thus procuring more
food, than, by the laws of the plantation, they are
entitled to.

In passing through a lane, I this day saw a field,
which appeared to me to contain about fifty acres, in
which people were at work with hoes, amongst a
sort of plants that I had never seen before. I asked
my master what this was, and he told me it was in-
digo. I shall have occasion to say more of this
plant hereafter.

We at length arrived at the residence of my mas-
ter, who descended from his chaise, and leaving "me
in charge of the horse at the gate, proceeded to the
house, across a long court yard. In a few minutes
two young ladies, and a young gentleman, came out
of the house, and walked to the gate, near which I
was with the horse. One of the ladies said, they
had come to look' at me, and see what kind of a boy
her pa had brought home with him. The other
one said I was a very smart looking boy; and
this compliment flattered me greatly ; they being
the first kind words that had been addressed to
me since I left Maryland. The young gentleman
asked me if I could run fast, and if I had ever picked
cotton. His manner did not impress me so much in

136

NARRATIVE OF THE

his favour, as the address of his sister had done
for her. These three young persons were the son
and daughters of my master. After looking at me
a short time, my young master, (for so I must now
call him,) ordered me to take the harness from the
horse, give him water at a well which was near, and
come into the kitchen, where some boiled rice was
given me for my dinner.

I was not required to go to work this first day of
my abode in my new residence ; but after I had
eaten my rice, my young master told me I might
rest myself or walk out and see the plantation, but
that I must be ready to go with the overseer the
next morning.

CHAPTER IX.

By the law7s of the United States I am still a slave ;
and though I am now growing old, I might even
yet be deemed of sufficient value to be worth pursu-
ing as far as my present residence, if those to whom
the law gives the right of dominion over my person
and life, knew w7here to find me. For these reasons
I have been advised, by those whom I believe to be
my friends, not to disclose the true names of any of
those families in which I was a slave, in Carolina
or Georgia, lest this narrative should meet their eyes,
and in some way lead them to a discovery of my
retreat.

I was now the slave of one of the most wealthy

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 137

planters in Carolina, who planted cotton, rice, indigo,
corn, and potatoes ; and was the master of two hun-
dred and sixty slaves.

The description of one great cotton plantation will
give a correct idea of all others ; and I shall here
present an outline of that of my master.

He lived about two miles from Caugaree river ;
which bordered his estate on one side, and in the
swamps of which were his rice fields. The country
hereabout is very flat ; the banks of the river are
low ; and in wet seasons large tracts of country are
flooded by the superabundant water of the river.
There are no springs ; and the only means of pro-
curing water, on the plantations, is from wells, which
must be sunk in general about twenty feet deep, be-
fore a constant supply of water can be obtained.
My mister had two of these wells on his plantation ;
one at the mansion house, and one at the quarter.

My master's house was of brick, (brick houses
are by no means common amongst the planters,
whose residences are generally built of frame work,
weather boarded with pine boards, and covered with
shingles of the white cedar or juniper cypress,) and
contained two laige parlours, and a spacious hall or
entry on the ground floor. The main building
was two stories high ; and attached to this was a
smaller building, one story and a half high, with a
large room, where the family generally took break-
fast ; with a kitchen at the farther extremity from
the main building.

There was a spacious garden behind the house,

12*

138 NARRATIVE OF THE

containing, I believe, about five acres, well cultiva-
ted, and handsomely laid out. In this garden grew
a great variety of vegetables ; some of which I
have never seen in the market of Philadelphia. It
contained a profusion of flowers, three different shrub-
beries, a vast number of ornamental and small fruit
trees, and several small hot houses, with glass roofs.
There was a head gardener, who did nothing but
attend to this garden through the year ; and during
the summer he generally had two men and two
boys to assist him. In the months of April and
May this garden was one of the sweetest and most
pleasant places that I ever was in. At one end of
the main building was a small house, called the li-
brary, in which my master kept his books and pa-
pers, and where he spent much of his time.

At some distance from the mansion was a pigeon
house, and near the kitchen was a large wooden
building, called the kitchen quarter, in which the
house servants slept ; and where they generally
took their meals. Here, also, the washing of the
family was done ; and all the rough or unpleasant
work of the kitchen department, — such as cleaning
and salting fish, putting up pork, &c. was assigned
to this place.

There was no barn on this plantation, according
to the acceptation of the word barn in Pennsylvania;
but there was a wooden building, about forty feet
long, called the coach-house ; in one end of which
the family carriage, and the chaise in which my
master, rode were kept. Under the same roof was a

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 139

stable, sufficiently capacious to contain ten or twelve
horses. In one end of the building the corn intended
for the horses was kept; and the whole of the loft,
or upper story, was occupied by the fodder, or blades
and tops of the corn.

About a quarter of a mile from the dwelling-house
were the huts or cabins of the plantation slaves, or
field hands, standing in rows, much like the Indian
villages which I have seen in the country of the
Cherokees. These cabins were thirty-eight in
number, generally about fifteen or sixteen feet
square, built of hewn logs, covered with shingles,
and provided with floors of pine boards. These
houses were all dry and comfortable, and were pro-
vided with chimnies, so that the people when in
them, were well sheltered from the inclemencies of
the weather. In this practice of keeping their slaves
well sheltered at night, the southern planters are
pretty uniform ; for they know that upon this cir-
cumstance, more than any other in that climate,
depends the health of the slave, and consequently
his value.

In these thirty-eight cabins were lodged two hun-
dred and fifty people, of all ages, sexes, and sizes.
Ten or twelve were generally employed in the gar-
den, and about the house.

At a distance of about one hundred yards from
the lines of cabins stood the house of the overseer ; a
small two-story log building, with a yard and gar-
den attached to it of proportionate dimensions. This
small house was the abode of a despot, more abso-

140 NARRATIVE OP THE

lute, and more cruel than were any of those we read
of in the Bible, who so grievously oppressed the
children of Israel. In one corner of the overseers
garden stood the corn crib, also a log building, in
which was stored up the corn, constituting the yearly
provisions of the coloured people. In another corner
of the same garden was a large vault, covered with
sods, very like some ice-houses that I have seen.
This was the potato-house, and in it were deposited
the sweet potatoes, also intended to supply the people.

At a short distance beyond the garden of the
overseer stood a large building, constituting the
principal feature in the landscape of every great
cotton plantation. This was the house containing
the cotton-gin, and the sheds to contain the cotton,
when brought from the field in the seed ; and also
the bales, after being pressed and prepared for mar-
ket.

As I shall be obliged to make frequent references
to the cotton-gin, it may perhaps be well to describe
it. Formerly there was no way of separaing the
cotton from the seed, but by pulling it off with the
fingers — a very tedious and troublesome process —
but a person from the north, by the name of Whit-
ney, at length discovered the gin, which is a very
simple though very powerful machine. It is com-
posed of a wooden cylinder, about six or eight feet in
length, surrounded at very short intervals, with
small circular saws, in such a manner that as the
cylinder is turned rapidly round, by a leather
strap on the end, similar to a turner's lathe, the

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 141

teeth of the saws, in turning over, continually cut
downwards in front of the cylinder, which is placed
close to a long hopper, extending the whole length
of the cylinder, and so close to it that the seeds of the
cotton cannot pass between them. This cylinder re-
volves, with almost inconceivable rapidity, and great
caution is necessary in working with the gin, not to
touch the saws. One end of the cylinder and hop-
per being slightly elevated, the seeds as they are
stripped of the wool, are gradually but certainly
moved toward the lower end, where they drop down
into a heap, after being as perfectly divested of the
cotton as they could be by the most careful picking
with the fingers.

The rapid evolutions of the cylinder are procured
by the aid of cogs and wheels, similar to those used
in small grist mills.

It is necessary to be very careful in working about
a cotton-gin ; more especially in removing the seeds
from before the saws ; for if they do but touch the
hand the injury is very great. I knew a black man
who had all the sinews of the inner part of his right
hand torn out — some of them measuring more than
a foot in length — and the flesh of his palm cut into
tatters, by carelessly putting his hand too near the
saws, when they were in motion, for the idle purpose
of feeling the strength of the current of air created
by the motions of the cylinder. A good gin will clean
several thousand pounds of cotton, in the seed, in a
day. To work the gin two horses are necessary ;•
though one is often compelled to perform the labour.

142 NARRATIVE OF THE

There was no smoke-house, nor any other place,
for curing or preserving meat, attached to the quar-
ter ; and whilst I was on this plantation no pork was
ever salted for the use of the slaves.

After remaining in the kitchen some time, I went
into the garden, and remained with the gardener,
assisting him to work until after sundown ; when
my old master came to the gate, and called one of
the garden boys to him. The boy soon returned,
and told me I must go with him to the quarter, as
his master had told him to take me to the overseer.
When we arrived at the overseer's house he had not
yet returned from the field ; but in a few minutes
we saw him coming at some distance through a
cotton field, followed by a great number of black
people. As he approached us, the boy that was
with me handed him a small piece of paper, which
he carried in his hand, and without saying a word;
ran back toward the house, leaving me to become
acquainted with the overseer in the best way I could.
But I found this to be no difficult task ; for he had
no sooner glanced his eye over the piece of paper,
than, turning to me, he asked me my name ; and
calling to a middle-aged man who was passing us
at some distance, told him he must take me to live
with him, and that my supper should be sent to me
from his own house.

I followed my new friend to his cabin, which I
found to be the habitation of himself, his wife, and
five children. The only furniture in this cabin, con-
sisted of a few blocks of wood for seats; a short

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 143

bench, made of a pine board, which served as a
table ; and a small bed in one corner composed of a
mat, made of common rushes, spread upon some
corn husks, pulled and split into fine pieces, and kept
together by a narrow slip of wood, confined to the
floor by wooden pins. There was a common iron
pot, standing beside the chimney ; and several
wooden spoons and dishes hung against the wall.
Several blankets also hung against the wall upon
wooden pins. An old box, made of pine boards,
without either lock or hinges, occupied one corner.

At the time I entered this humble abode the mis-
tress was not at home. She had not yet returned
from the field ; having been sent, as the husband in-
formed me, with some other people late in the even-
ing, to do some work in a field about two miles dis-
tant. I found a child, about a year old; lying on
the mat-bed, and a little girl about four years old
sitting beside it.

These children were entirely naked, and when
we came to the door, the elder rose from its place
and ran to its father, and clasping him round one of
his knees, said, u. Now we shall get good supper."
The father laid his hand upon the head of his naked
child, and stood silently looking in its face — which
was turned upwards toward his own for a moment —
and then turning to me, said, " Did you leave any
children at home ? " The scene before me — the
question propounded — and the manner of this poor
man and his child, caused my heart to swell until
my breast seemed too small to contain it. My soul

144 NARRATIVE OF THE

fled back upon the wings of fancy to my wife's
lowly dwelling in Maryland • where I had been so
often met on a Saturday evening, when I paid them
my weekly visit, by my own little ones, who clung
to my knees for protection and support, even as the
poor little wretch now before me, seized upon the
wTeary limb of its hapless and destitute father, hop-
ing that, naked as he was, (for he too was naked,
save only the tattered remains of a pair of old trou-
sers,) he would bring with his return at evening its
customary scanty supper. I was unable to reply ;
but stood motionless, leaning against the walls of
the cabin. My children seemed to flit by the door
in the dusky twilight ; and the twittering of a swal-
low, which that moment fluttered over my head,
sounded in my ear as the infantile tittering of my
own little boy ; but on a moment's reflection I knew
that we were separated without the hope of ever
again meeting ; that they no more heard the wel-
come tread of my feet, and could never again receive
the little gifts with which, poor as I was, I was ac-
customed to present them. I was far from the place
of my nativity, in a land of strangers, with no one
to care for me beyond the care that a master bestows
upon his ox ; with all my future life, one long,
waste, barren desert, of cheerless, hopeless, lifeless
slavery ; to be varied only by the pangs of hunger
and the stings of the lash.

My revery was at length broken by the appear-
ance of the mother of the family, with her three eld-
est children. The mother wTore an old ragged shift ;

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 145

but the children, the eldest of whom appeared to be
about twelve, and the youngest six years old, were
quite naked. When she came in, the husband told
her that the overseer had sent me to live with them ;
and she and her oldest child, who was a boy, im-
mediately set about preparing their supper, by boil-
ing some of the leaves of the weed called lamb's-
quarter, in the pot. This, together with some cakes
of cold corn bread, formed their supper. My supper
was brought to me from the house of the overseer
by a small girl, his daughter. It was about half a
pouud of bread, cut from a loaf made of corn meal.
My companions gave me a part of their boiled
greens, and we all sat down together to my first meal
in my new habitation.

I had no other bed than the blanket which I had
brought with me from Maryland; and I went to sleep
in the loft of the cabin which was assigned to me as
my sleeping room ; and in which I continued to lodge
as long as I remained on this plantation.

The next morning I was waked, at the break of
day. by the sound of a horn, which was blown very
loudly. Perceiving that it was growing light, I
came down, and went out immediately in front of
the house of the overseer, who was standing near his
own gate, blowing the horn. In a few minutes the
whole of the working people, from all the cabins
were assembled ; and as it was now light enough
for me distinctly to see such objects as were about
me, I at once perceived the nature of the servitude to
which I was, in future, to be subject.

13

146 NARRATIVE OP THE

As I have before stated, there were altogether on
this plantation, two hundred and sixty slaves ; but
the number was seldom stationary for a single week.
Births were numerous and frequent, and deaths
were not uncommon. When I joined them I be-
lieve we counted in all two hundred and sixty-three ;
but of these only one hundred and seventy went to
the field to work. The others were children, too
small to be of any service as labourers ; old and
blind persons, or incurably diseased. Tenor twelve
were kept about the mansion-house and garden,
chosen from the most handsome and sprightly of the
gang.

I think about one hundred and sixty-eight assem-
bled this morning, at the sound of the horn — two or
three being sick, sent word to the overseer that they
could not come.

The overseer wrote something on a piece of paper,
and gave it to his little son. This I was told was a
note to be sent to our master, to inform him that
some of the hands were sick — it not being any part
of the duty of the overseer to attend to a sick negro.

The overseer then led off to the field, with his
horn in one hand and his whip in the other ; we
following — men, women, and children, promiscuous-
ly— and a wretched looking troop we were. There
was not an entire garment amongst us.

More than half of the gang were entirely naked.
Several young girls, who had arrived at puberty,
wearing only the livery with which nature had orna-
mented them, and a great number of lads, of an

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 47

equal or superior age, appeared in the same costume.
There was neither bonnet, cap, nor head dress of
any kind amongst us, except the old straw hat that
I wore ; and which my wife had made for me in
Maryland. This I soon laid aside to avoid the ap-
pearance of singularity ; and, as owing to the severe
treatment I had endured whilst travelling in chains,
and being compelled to sleep on the naked floor,
without undressing myself, my clothes were quite
worn out, I did not make a much better figure than
my companions ; though still I preserved the sem-
blance of clothing so far, that it could be seen that
my shirt and trousers had once been distinct and
separate garments. Not one of the others had on
even the remains of two pieces of apparel. Some
of the men had old shirts, and some ragged trousers,
but no one wore both. Amongst the women, seve-
ral wore petticoats, and many had shifts. Not one
of the whole number wore both of these vestments.
We walked nearly a mile through one vast cotton
field, before we arrived at the place of our intended
day's labour. At last the overseer stopped at the
side of the field, and calling to several of the men
by name, ordered them to call their companies and
turn into their rows. The work we had to do to-
day was to hoe and weed cotton, for the last time ;
and the men whose names had been called, and
who were, I believe, eleven in number, were desig-
nated as captains, each of whom had under his
command a certain number of the other hands.
The captain was the foreman of his company, and

148 NARRATIVE OF THE

those under his command had to keep up with him.
Each of the men and women had to take one row ;
and two, and in some cases where they were very
small, three of the children had one. The first cap-
tain, whose name was Simon, took the first row, —
and the other captains were compelled to keep up
with him. By this means the overseer had nothing
to do but to keep Simon hard at work, and he was
certain that all the others must work equally hard.

Simon was a stout, strong man, apparently about
thirty-five years of age ; and for some reason un-
known to me, I was ordered to take the row next to
his. The overseer with his whip in his hand
walked about the field after us, to see that our work
was well done. As we worked with hoes, I had no
difficulty in learning how the work was to be per-
formed.

The fields of cotton at this season of the year are
very beautiful. The plants, amongst which we
worked this day, were about three feet high, and in
full bloom, with branches so numerous that they
nearly covered the whole ground— leaving scarcely
space enough between them to permit us to move
about, and work with our hoes.

About seven o'clock in the morning the overseer
sounded his horn ; and we all repaired to the shade
of some perscimmon trees, which grew in a corner of
the field, to get our breakfast. I here saw a cart
drawn by a yoke of oxen, driven by an old black
man, nearly blind. The cart contained three bar-
rels, filled with water, and several large baskets' full

ADVENTURES OP CHARLE3 BALL. 149

of corn bread, that had been baked in the ashes.
The water was for us to drink, and the bread was
our breakfast. The little son of the overseer was
also in the cart, and had brought with him the
breakfast of his father, in a small wooden bucket.

The overseer had bread, butter, cold ham, and
coffee for his breakfast. Ours was composed of a
corn cake, weighing about three quarters of a pound,
to each person, with as much water as was desired.
I at first supposed that this bread was dealt out to
the people as their allowance ; but on further inquiry
I found this not to be the case. Simon, by whose
side I was now at work, and who seemed much
pleased with my agility and diligence in my duty,
told me that here, as well as every where in this
country, each person received a peck of corn at the
crib door, every Sunday evening, and that in ordi-
nary times, every one had to grind this corn and
bake it, for him or herself, making such use of it as
the owner thought proper ; but that for some time
past, the overseer, for the purpose of saving the time
which had been lost in baking the bread, had made
it the duty of an old woman, who was not capable
of doing much work in the field, to stay at the quar-
ter, and bake the bread of the whole gang. When
baked, it was brought to the field in a cart, as I saw,
and dealt out in loaves.

They still had to grind their own corn, after
night ; and as there were only three hand-mills on
the plantation, he said they experienced much diffi-
culty in converting their corn into meai. We workr

13*

150 NARRATIVE OF THE

ed in this field all day ; and at the end of every
hour, or hour and a quarter, we had permission to go
to the cart, which was moved about the field, so as
to be near us. and get water.

Our dinner was the same, in all respects, as our
breakfast, except that, in addition to the bread, we
had a little salt, and a radish for each person. We
were not allowed to rest at either breakfast or din-
ner, longer than while we were eating ; and we
worked in the evening as long as we could distin-
guish the weeds from the cotton plants.

Simon informed me, that formerly, when they
baked their own bread, they had left their work
soon after sundown, to go home and bake for the
next day, but the overseer had adopted the new po-
licy for the purpose of keeping them at work until
dark.

When we could no longer ee to work, the horn
was again sounded, and we returned home. I
had now lived through one of the days — a succes-
sion of which make up the life of a slave — on a
cotton plantation.

As we went out in the morning, I observed seve-
ral women, who carried their young children in
their arms to the field. These mothers laid their
children at the side of the fence, or under the shade
of the cotton plants, whilst they were at work ; and
when the rest of us went to get water, they would
go to give suck to their children, requesting some
one to bring them water in gourds, which they were
careful to carry to the field with them. One young

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 151

woman did not, like the others, leave her child at
the end of the row, but had contrived a sort of rude
knapsack, made of a piece of coarse linen cloth, in
which she fastened her child, which was very young,
upon her back ; and in this way carried it all day,
and performed her task at the hoe with the other
people.

I pitied this woman; and as we were going
home at night, I came near her, and sptke to her.
Perceiving as soon as she spoke that she had not
been brought up amongst (he slaves of this planta-
tion- for her language was different from theirs — I
asked her why she did not do as the other women
did, and leave her child at the end of the row in the
shade. " Indeed," said she, " I cannot leave my
child in the weeds amongst the snakes. What
would be my feelings if I should leave it (here, and
a scorpion were to bite it ? Besides, my child cries
so piteously, when I leave it alone in the field, that I
cannot bear to hear it. Poor thing, I wish we were
both in the grave, where all sorrow is forgotten."

I asked this woman, who did not appear to be
more than twenty years old, how long she had been
here, and where she came from. "I have been
here," said she, "almost two >eaiv, and came from
the Eastern Shore. 1 once lived as well as any lady
in Maryland. I was born a slave, in the family of
a gentleman whose name was Le Compt. My mas-
ter was a man of property ; lived on his estate, and
entertained much company. My mistress, who was
very kind to me, made me her nurse, when I was

152

NARRATIVE OF THE

about ten years old, and put me to live with her own
children. I grew up amongst her daughters ; not
as their equal and companion, but as a favoured and
indulged servant. I was always well dressed, and
received a portion of all the delicacies of their table.
1 wanted nothing, and had not the trouble of provi-
ding even for myself. I believe there was not a
happier being in the world than I was. At present
none can be more wretched.

" When 1 was yet a child, my master had given
me to his oldest daughter, who was about one year
older than I was. To her, I had always looked as
my future mistress; and expected that whenever
she became a wife, I should follow her person, and
cease to be a member of the family of her father.
When I was almost seventeen, my young mistress
married a gentleman of ihe Eastern Shore of Vir-
ginia, who had been addressing her, more than a
year.

" Soon after the wedding was over, my new mas-
ter removed his wife to his own residence ; and took
me and a black boy of my own age, that the lady's
father had given her, with him. He had caused it
to be reported in Maryland, that he was very
wealthy ; and was the owner of a plantation, with
a large stock of slaves and other property. It was
supposed at the time of the marriage, that my young
mistress was making a very good match, and all
her friends were pleased with it. When her lover
came to visit her, he always rode in a handsome gig,
accompanied by a black man on horseback, as his

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 153

servant. This man told us in the kitchen, that his
master was one of the most fashionable men in Vir-
ginia ; was a man of large fortune, and that all the
young ladies in the county he lived in, had their eyes
upon him. These stories I repeated carefully to my
young mistress ; and added every persuasion that I
could think of, to induce her to accept her lover, as
her husband. My feelings had become deeply in-
terested in the issue of this matter ; for whilst the
master was striving to win the heart of my young
mistress, the servant had already conquered mine.

'It was more than a hundred miles from the resi-
dence of my old master, to that of my young one ;
and when we arrived at the latter place, my mistress
and I soon found, that we had been equally credu-
lous, and were equally deceived. We were taken to
an old dilapidated mansion, which was quite in
keeping with every thing on the estate to which it
was attached. The house was almost without fur-
niture ; and there were no servants in it, except my-
self and my companion. The black man who had
so effectually practiced upon me, belonged to one of
my new master's companions, — and had a wife and
three children in the neighbourhood.

" My mistress, soon discovered that her husband's
companions were gamblers and horse racers ; who
frequently convened at her house to concert or ma-
ture some scheme, the object of which was to cheat
some one.

" My old master was a member of the church, and
was very scrupulous in the observance of his moral

154

NARRATIVE OF THE

duties. His precepts had been deeply implanted in
the mind of my young mistress ; and the society of
these sportsmen, (as the friends of my young master
denominated themselves,) became so revolting to her
feelings, that after she had been married nearly a
year, and had exhausted all her patience, and all her
fortitude, in endeavouring to reclaim her husband
from the vile associations and pursuits, by which his
time and his affections were engaged, she determin-
ed at last to return to her father, for a time, and to
take me with her, for the purpose of ascertaining
whether this would not bring him to reflect upon the
wrong he had done her, as well as himself.

" She communicated to me her designs, and we
were waiting for an opportunity of carrying them
into effect, when one evening, near sundown, my
master came to me in the kitchen ; and told me he
wished me to go to the house of a gentleman who
lived about a mile distant, and deliver a letter for
him ; without letting my mistress know any thing
of the matter, I immediately set out, expecting to
return in half an hour. As I left the house I saw
my mistress in the garden ; and I never saw her
again.

li Between the house of my master, and that to
which he had sent me, was a grove of young pine
trees, that had grown up in a field, that had former-
ly been cultivated ; but which had been neglected,
on account of its poverty, for many years. Through
this thicket, the path which I had to travel led ; and
when near the middle of the wood, I saw a white

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 155

man step into the path, only a few yards before me,
with a rope in his hand. Sometime before this, my
mistress had told me, that she wished to get me
back to her father's house in Maryland, because she
was afraid that my master would sell me to the ne-
gro buyers ; and the moment I saw the man with
the rope, in my path, the words of my mistress were
recollected.

" I screamed, and turned to fly towards home ;
but at the first step was met by the coloured man,
who had attended my master, as his servant, when
he visited Maryland, at the time he was courting
my mistress — and who had made so deep an im-
pression on my heart. This was the first time I had
seen him, since I came to live in Virginia ; and base
as I knew he must be, from his former conduct to
me, yet at sight of him, my former affection for a
moment revived, and I rushed into his arms which
were extended towards me, hoping that he would
save me from the danger I so much dreaded from
behind. He saw that I was frightened, and had
fled to him for protection, and only said, l Come with
me.' 1 followed him, more by instinct than by rea-
son, and holding to his arm, ran as fast as I could —
I knew not whither. I did not observe whether we
were on the path or not. I do not know how far
we had run, when he stopped, and said — 'We must
remain here for some time.'

" In a few minutes the white man whom I had
seen in the path, came up with us, and seizing me
by the hands, he and my pretended protector bound

156 NARRATIVE OF THE

them together, at my back, and to suppress my cries,
tied a large handkerchief round my head, and over
my mouth. It was now becoming dark, and they
hurried out of the wood, and across the fields, to a
small creek, the water of which fell into the Chesa-
peake Bay. Here was a boat ; and another white
man in it. They forced me on board ; and the
white men taking the oars, whilst the black mana-
ged the rudder, we were quickly out in the bay, and
in less than an hour, I was on board a small
schooner, lying at anchor ; where I found eleven
others, who like myself, had been dragged from their
homes and their friends, to be sold to the southern
traders.

" I have no doubt, that my master had sold me
without the knowledge of my mistress ; and that he
endeavoured to persuade her, that I had run away :
perhaps he was successful in this endeavour.

" I heard no more of my mistress, for whom I was
very sorry, for I knew she would be greatly distress-
ed at losing me.

" The vessel remained at anchor where we found
her that night, and the next day until evening,
when she made sail, and beat up the bay all night
against a head wind. When she approached the
western shore, she hoisted a red handkerchief at her
mast head, and a boat came off from the land, large
enough to carry us all, and we were removed to a
house on the bank of York river, where I found
about thirty men and women, all imprisoned in the
cellar of a small tavern. The men were in irons,

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 157

but the women were not bound with any thing.
The cords and handkerchief had been taken from
me, whilst on board the vessel. We remained at
York river more than a week ; and whilst there,
twenty-five or thirty persons were brought in, and
shut up with us.

" When we commenced our journey for the south,
we were about sixty in number. The men were
chained together, but the women were all left quite
at liberty. At the end of three weeks, we reached
Savannah river, opposite the town of Augusta, where
we were sold out by our owner. Our present master
was there, and purchased me and another woman
who has been at work in the field to-day.

"Soon after I was brought home, the overseer
compelled me to be married to a man I did not like.
He is a native of Africa, and still retains the manners
and religion of his country. He has not been with
us to day, as he is sick, and under the care of the
doctor. I must hasten home to get my supper, and
go to rest ; and glad I should be, if I were never to
rise again.

" I have several times been whipped unmercifully,
because I was not strong enough to do as much
work with the hoe, as the other women, who have
lived all their lives on this plantation, and have been
accustomed from their infancy to work in the field.

"For a long time after I was brought here, I
thought it would be impossible for me to live, on the
coarse and scanty food, with which we are supplied.
When I contrast my former happiness with my pres-

14

158 NARRATIVE OF THE

ent misery, I pray for death to deliver me from my
sufferings."

I was deeply affected by the narrative of this
woman, and as we had loitered on our way, it was
already dark, whilst we were at some distance from
the quarter ; but the sound of the overseer's horn,
here interrupted our conversation — at hearing which,
she exclaimed, " We are too late, let us run. or we
shall be whipped ;" and setting off as fast as she could
carry her child, she left me alone. A moment's re-
flection, however, convinced me that I too had better
quicken my pace — I quickly passed the woman, en-
cumbered with her infant, and arrived in the crowd
of the people, some time, perhaps a minute, be-
fore her.

CHAPTER X.

At the time I joined the company, the overseer
was calling over the names of the whole, from a
little book ; and the first name that 1 heard was
that of my companion whom 1 had just left, which
was Lydia — called by him Lyd. As she did not
answer, I said, "Master, Lydia, the woman that
carries the baby on her back, will be here in a min-
ute— I left her just behind." The overseer took no
notice of what I said, but went on with his roll-call.

As the people answered to their names, they pass-
ed off to the cabins, except three — two women and
a man ; who, when their names were called, were

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 159

ordered to go into the yard, in front of the overseer's
house. My name was the last on the list ; and
when it was called I was ordered into the yard with
the three others. Just as we had entered, Lydia
came up out of breath, with the child in her arms ;
and following us into the yard, dropped on her knees
before the overseer, and begged him to forgive her.
11 Where have you been ? " said he. Poor Lydia
now burst into tears, and said, "I only stopped to
talk awhile to this man," pointing to me ; {: but, in-
deed, master overseer, I will never do so again."
K Lie down," was his reply. Lydia immediately fell
prostrate upon the ground ; and in this position he
compelled her to remove her old tow linen shift, the
only garment she wore, so as to expose her hips,
when he gave her ten lashes, with his long whip,
every touch of which brought blood, and a shriek
from the sufferer. He then ordered her to go and
get her supper, with an injunction never to stay be-
hind again. The other three culprits were then put
upon their trial.

The first was a middle aged woman, who had,
as her overseer said, left several hills of cotton in
the course of the day, without cleaning and hilling
them in a proper manner. She received twelve
lashes. The other two were charged in general
terms, with having been lazy, and of having neg-
lected their work that day. Each of these received
twelve lashes.

These people all received punishment in the same
manner that it had been inflicted upon Lydia, and

160 NARRATIVE OP THE

when they were all gone, the overseer turned to me
and said — " Boy, you are a stranger here yet, but I
called you in, to let you see how things are done
here, and to give you a little advice. When I get a
new negro under my command, I never whip at
first ; I always give him a few days to learn his du-
ty, unless he is an outrageous villain, in which case
I anoint him a little at the beginning. I call over
the names of all the hands twice every week, on
Wednesday and Saturday evenings, and settle with
them according to their general conduct, for the last
three days. I call the names of my captains every
morning, and it is their business to see that they have
all their hands in their proper places. You ought
not to have staid behind to-night with Lyd; but
as this is your first offence, I shall overlook it, and
you may go and get your supper." I made a low
bow, and thanked master overseer for his kindness
to me. and left him. This night for supper, we had
corn bread and cucumbers ; but we had neither salt,
vinegar, nor pepper, with the cucumbers.

I had never before seen people flogged in the way
our overseer flogged his people. This plan of ma-
king the person who is to be whipped, lie down up-
on the ground, was new to me, though it is much
practised in the south ; and I have since seen men
and women too, cut nearly in pieces by this mode
of punishment. It has one advantage over tying
people up by the hands, as it prevents all accidents
from sprains in the thumbs or wrists. I have known
people to hurt their joints very much, by struggling

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 161

when tied up by the thumbs, or wrists, to undergo a
severe whipping. The method of ground whipping,
as it is called, is, in my opinion, very indecent, as it
compels females to expose themselves in a very
shameful manner.

The whip used by the overseers on the cotton
plantations, is different from all other whips, that I
have ever seen. The staff is about twenty or twen-
ty-two inches in length, with a large and heavy
head, which is often loaded with a quarter or half a
pound of lead, wrapped in cat-gut, and securely
fastened on, so that nothing but the greatest violence
can separate it from the staff. The lash is ten feet
long, made of small strips of buckskin, tanned so as
to be dry and hard, and plaited carefully and closely
together, of the thickness, in the largest part, of a
man's little finger, but quite small at each extremity.
At the farthest end of this thong is attached a crack-
er, nine inches in length, made of strong sewing
silk, twisted and knotted, until it feels as firm as the
hardest twine.

This whip, in an unpractised hand, is a very
awkward and inefficient weapon ; but the best qual-
ification of the overseer of a cotton plantation is the
ability of using this whip with adroitness ; and when
wielded by an experienced arm, it is one of the
keenest instruments of torture ever invented by the
ingenuity of man. The cat-o'-nine tails, used in
the British military service, is but a clumsy instru-
ment beside this whip ; which has superseded the
cow-hide, the hickory, and every other species of

14*

162 NARRATIVE OF THE

lash, on the cotton plantations. The cow-hide and
hickory, bruise and mangle the flesh of the sufferer;
but this whip cuts, when expertly applied, almost as
keen as a knife, and never bruises the flesh, nor in-
jures the bones.

It was now Saturday night, and I wished very
much for Sunday morning to come that I might
see the manner of spending the Sabbath, on a great
cotton plantation. 1 expected, that as these people
had been compelled to work so hard, and fare so
poorly all the week, they would be inclined to re-
pose themselves on Sunday ; and that the morning
of this day would be passed in quietness, if not in
sleep, by the inhabitants of our quarter. No horn
was blown by the overseer,- to awaken us this
morning, and I slept, in my little loft, until it was
quite day ; but when I came down, I found our
small community a scene of universal bustle and
agitation.

Here it is necessary to make my readers acquaint-
ed with the rules of polity, which governed us on
Sunday, (for I now speak of myself, as one of the
slaves on this plantation,) and with the causes which
gave rise to these rules.

All over the south, the slaves are discouraged, as
much as possible, and by all possible means, from
going to any place of religious worship on Sunday.
This is to prevent them from associating together,
from different estates, and distant parts of the coun-
try ; and plotting conspiracies and insurrections. On
some estates, the overseers are required to prohibit

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL.

163

the people from going to meeting off the plantation,
at any time, under the severest penalties. White
preachers cannot come upon the plantations, to
preach to the people, without first obtaining permis-
sion of the master, and afterwards procuring the
sanction of the overseer. No slave dare leave the
plantation to which he belongs, a single mile, with-
out a written pass from the overseer, or master ; but
by exposing himself to the danger of being taken
up and flogged. Any white man who meets a
slave off the plantation without a pass, has a right
to take him up, and flog him at his discretion. All
these causes combined, operate powerfully to keep
the slave at home. But, in addition to these princi-
ples of restraint, it is a rule on every plantation, that
no overseer ever departs from, to flog every slave,
male or female, that leaves the estate for a single
hour, by night or by day — Sunday not excepted —
without a written pass.

The overseer who should permit the people under
his charge to go about the neighbourhood without a
pass, would soon lose his character, and no one
would employ him ; nor would his reputation less
certainly suffer in the estimation of the planters, were
he to fall into the practice of granting passes, except
on the most urgent occasions ; and for purposes ge-
nerally to be specified in the pass.

A cotton planter has no more idea of permitting
his slaves to go at will, about the neighbourhood on
Sunday, than a farmer in Pennsylvania has of
letting his horses out of his field on that day. Nor

164 NARRATIVE OF THE

would the neighbours be less inclined to complain
of the annoyance, in the former, than in the latter
case.

There has always been a strong repugnance,
amongst the planters, against their slaves becoming
members of any religious society, Not, as I be-
lieve, because they are so maliciously disposed to-
wards their people as to wish to deprive them of the
comforts of religion — provided the principles of reli-
gion did not militate against the principles of sla-
very— but they fear that the slaves, by attending
meetings, and listening to the preachers, may im-
bibe with the morality they teach, the notions of
equality and liberty, contained in the gospel. This,
I have no doubt, is the ground of all the dissatis-
faction, that the planters express, with the itinerant
preachers, who have from time to time, sought op-
portunities of instructing the slaves in their religious
duties.

The cotton planters have always, since I knew
any thing of them, been most careful to prevent the
slaves from learning to read ; and such is the gross
ignorance that prevails, that many of them could
not name the four cardinal points.

At the time I first went to Carolina, there were a
great many African slaves in the country, and they
continued to come in for several years afterwards.
I became intimately acquainted with some of these
men. Many of them believed there were several
gods ; some of whom were good, and others evil
and they prayed as much to the latter as to the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 165

former. I knew several who must have been, from
what I have since learned, Mohamedans ; though
at that time, I had never heard of the religion of
Mohamed.

There was one man on this plantation, who
prayed five times every day, always turning his
face to the east, when in the performance of his
devotion.

There is, in general, very little sense of religious
obligation, or duty, amongst the slaves on the cotton
plantations ; and Christianity cannot be, with pro-
priety, called the religion of these people. They
are universally subject to the grossest and most
abject superstition ; and uniformly believe in witch-
craft, conjuration, and the agency of evil spirits in
the affairs of human life. Far the greater part of
them are either natives of Africa, or the descend-
ants of those who have always, from generation to
generation, lived in the south, since their ancestors
were landed on this continent ; and their supersti-
tion, for it does not deserve the name of religion, is
no better, nor is it less ferocious, than that which
oppresses the inhabitants of the wildest regions of
Negro-land.

They have not the slightest religious regard for
the Sabbath-day, and their masters make no efforts to
impress them with the least respect for this sacred
institution. My first Sunday on this plantation was
but a prelude to all that followed ; and I shall here
give an account of it.

166

NARRATIVE OF THE

At the time I rose this morning, it wanted only
about fifteen or twenty minutes of sunrise ; and a
large number of the men, as well as some of the
women, had already quitted the quarter, and gone
about the business of the day. That is, they had
gone to work for wages for themselves — in this man-
ner : our overseer had, about two miles off, a field of
near twenty acres, planted in cotton, on his own ac-
count. He was the owner of this land ; but as he
had no slaves, he was obliged to hire people to work
it for him, or let it lie waste. He had procured this
field to be cleared, as I was told, partly by letting
white men make tar and turpentine from the pine
wood which grew on it ; and partly by hiring slaves
to work upon it on Sunday. About twenty of our
people went to work for him to-day, for which he
gave them fifty cents each. Several of the others,
perhaps forty in all, went out through the neighbour-
hood, to work for other planters.

On every plantation, with which I ever had any
acquaintance, the people are allowed to make patch-
es, as they are called — that is, gardens, in some
remote and unprofitable part of the estate, generally
in the woods, in which they plant corn, potatoes,
pumpkins, melons, &c. for themselves.

These patches they must cultivate on Sunday,
or let them go uncultivated. I think, that on this
estate, there were about thirty of these patches,
cleared in the woods, and fenced — some with rails,
and others with brush — the property of the various
families.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 167

The vegetables that grew in these patches, were
always consumed in the families of the owners ;
and the money that was earned by hiring out, was
spent in various ways ; sometimes for clothes, some-
times for better food than was allowed by the over-
seer, and sometimes for rum ; but those who drank
rum, had to do it by stealth.

By the time the sun was up an hour, this morn-
ing, our quarter was nearly as quiet and clear of
inhabitants, as it had been at the same period on the
previous day.

As I had nothing to do for myself, I went with
Lydia, whose husband was still sick, to help her to
work in her patch, which was about a mile and a
half from our dwelling. We took with us some
bread, and a large bucket of water ; and worked all
day. She had onions, cabbages, cucumbers, mel-
ons, and many other things in her garden.

In the evening, as we returned home, we were
joined by the man who prayed five times a day ;
and at the going down of the sun, he stopped and
prayed aloud in our hearing, in a language I did not
understand.

This man told me, he formerly lived on the con-
fines of a country, which had no trees, nor grass
upon it ; and that in some places, no water was to
be found for several days' journey. That this bar-
ren country was, nevertheless, inhabited by a race of
men, who had many camels and goats, and some
horses. They had no settled place of residence;
but removed from one part of the country to an-

168 NARRATIVE OF THE

other, in quest of places where green herbage
was to be found — their chief food being the milk
of their camels, and goats ; but that they also ate
the flesh of these animals, sometimes. The hair
of these people, was not short and woolly, like that
of the negroes ; nor were they of a shining black.
They were continually at war with some of the
neighbouring people, and very often with his own
countrymen. He was himself once taken prisoner
by them, when a lad, in a great battle fought be-
tween them and his own people, in which his party
were defeated. The victors kept him in their pos-
session, more than two years, compelling him to at-
tend to their camels and goats.

Whilst he was with these people, they travelled a
great way towards the rising sun ; and came to a
river, running through a country inhabited by yel-
low people, where the land was very rich, and pro-
duced great quantities of rice, such as grows here —
and many other kinds of grain.

The people who had taken him prisoner, profes-
sed the same religion that he did ; and it was forbid-
den by its precepts, for one man to sell another into
slavery, who held the same faith with himself;
otherwise he should have been sold to these yellow
people. In the river of this country he saw alligators,
in great abundance, like those that he had seen in
Carolina ; and the musquitos were, in some places,
so numerous, that it was difficult to breathe without
inhaling them.

" When we turned the camels out to graze, we

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 169

used to tie their fore-feet together, with a rope made
of the hair of this animal, spun upon small sticks,
and twisted into a rope. Sometimes they broke
these ropes, and slipped their feet out of its coils ; and
it was then very difficult to retake them. They
would sometimes strike off at a trot, across the open
country, and we would be obliged to mount other
camels, and follow them for a day or two, before we
could retake them. I had been with these people so
long, and being of the same religion with them-
selves, had become so familiar with their customs
and manner of life, that they seemed almost to re-
gard me as one of their own nation ; and frequently
sent me alone, in pursuit of the stiw camels, giving
me instructions how to direct my course, so as to re-
join them ; for they never waited for me, to return
to them, at the place where I left them, if the beasts
had consumed the bushes, and green herbage, grow-
ing there, before I came back.

" When I had been a captive with them fully two
years, we came one evening, and encamped at a lit-
tle well, the mouth of which was about a yard over ;
and the water in which was very sweet and good.

11 This well, seemed to have been scooped out of
the hard and flinty sand, with men's hands, and
was scarcely more than four feet deep ; though it
contained an abundant supply of water. We en-
camped by this fountain all night ; and I remem-
bered that we had been at the same place, soon after
I was made a prisoner ; and that when we had for-
merly come to it, we travelled with our backs to the

15

170 NARRATIVE OF THE

mid-day sun. There was no herbage hereabout, ex-
cept a few stunted and thorny bushes ; and in wan-
dering abroad in quest of something to eat, one of
the best and fleetest camels, entangled the rope
which bound his fore -feet, amongst these bushes,
and broke it. I found part of the rope fast to a bush
in the morning ; but the camel was at a great dis-
tance from us, towards the setting sun.

" The chief of our party ordered me to mount an-
other camel, and go with a long rope, in pursuit of
the stray : and told me that they should travel to-
wards the south, that day, and encamp at a place
where there was much grass. I went in pursuit of
the lost camel ; but when I came near him, he took
off at a great trot over the country, — and 1 pursued
him until noon, without being able to overtake him,
or even to change the line of his march. His course
was towards the south-west ; and when I found it
impossible to overtake him, as his speed was superior
to that of the beast I rode, I resolved to strive to ac-
complish that, by stratagem, which force could not
effect. I knew the beasts were both hungry ; and
that having received as much water as they could
drink, the night before, they would devour with the
utmost avidity, the first green herbage that they
might meet with.

" I slackened the speed of my camel, and followed
at a leisure gait, after the one I pursued, suffering
him to leave me behind him at a considerable dis-
tance. He still, however, kept on in the same direc-
tion, and with nearly the same speed, with which he

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 171

had advanced all the morning ; so that it became
necessary for me to quicken my pace, to prevent him
from passing out of my sight, and escaping from me
altogether.

" About rive o'clock in the afternoon, 1 came in
sight of trees, the tops of which were only visible
across the open plain. The camel I rode was now
as desirous to advance rapidly, as his leader had
been throughout the day. 1 was carried forward as
quickly as the swiftest horse could trot ; and awhile
before sundown, I approached a small grove of tall
straight trees, which are greatly valued in Africa,
and which bear large quantities of nuts, of a very
good quality. Under and about these trees, was a
small tract of ground, covered with long green grass ;
and here my stray camel stopped.

" I have no doubt that he had scented the odour
of this grass, soon after I first gave chase to him in
the morning ; though the distance at which he was
from it, was so great, that the best horse could not
have travelled it in one day. When I came up to
the trees, 1 dismounted from the camel I rode, and
tying its feet together with a short rope, preserved
my long one, for the purpose of taking the runaway.
I gathered as many nuts as I could eat, and after
satisfying my hunger, lay down to sleep.

" This was the first time that I had ever attempt-
ed to pass a night alone, in this open country ; and
after I had made my bed in the grass, I became fear-
ful that some wild beast might fall in with me before
morning, as I had often heard lions, and other crea-

172 NARRATIVE OF THE

tures of prey, breaking the stillness of night, in those
desolate regions, by their yells and roaring. I there-
fore ascended a tree, and placed myself amongst
some spreading limbs, in such a position as to be in
no danger of falling, even if I should be overtaken by
sleep.

" The moon was now full ; and in that country
where there are no clouds, and where there is seldom
any dew, objects can be distinguished at the dis-
tance of several miles over the plains, by moon-
light. When I had been in the tree about an hour,
I heard at a great distance, a loud sullen noise, be-
tween a growl and a roar, which I knew to proceed
from a lion ; for I was well acquainted with the hab-
its and noise of this animal : having frequently as-
sisted in hunting him, in my own country.

" I was greatly terrified by this circumstance ; not
for my own safety, for I knew that no beast of prey
could reach me in the tree, but I feared that my
camels might be devoured, and I be left to perish in
the desert.

"My fears were in part, well founded ; for keep-
ing my eye steadily directed towards the point from
which the sound had proceeded, it was not long be-
fore I saw some object, moving over the naked plain.

" The runaway camel now joined his tethered
companion, and both quitting the herbage, came and
stood at the root of the tree, upon the branches of
which I was. I still kept my eye steadily fixed upon
the moving body which was evidently advancing
nearer to me over the plain. I had no longer any

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 173

doubt that it was coming to the grove of trees, which
were only twelve or fifteen in number ; and so bare
of branches that I could distinctly see in every direc-
tion around me.

;c In a few minutes, the animal approached me.
It was a monstrous lion, of the black maned species.
It was now within one hundred paces of me, and
the poor camels raised their heads, as high as they
could, towards me, and crouched close to the trunk
of the tree, apparently so stupiried by fear, as to be
incapable of attempting to fly. The lion approach-
ed with a kind of circular motion ; and at length
dropping on his belly, glided along the ground, until
within about ten yards of the tree, when uttering a
terrific roar, which shook the stillness of the night for
many a league around, he sprang upon and seized
the unbound camel by the neck.

;- Finding that I afforded no protection, the animal,
after striving in vain to shake off his assailant, rush-
ed out upon the open plain, carrying on his back the
lion, which I could perceive, had already fastened
upon the throat of his victim, which did not go more
than a stone's cast from the trees, before he fell, and
after a short struggle, ceased to move his limbs.
The lion held the poor beast by the throat for some
time after he was dead, and until, I suppose, the
blood had ceased to flow from his veins — then, quit-
ting the neck, he turned to the side of the slain, and
tearing a hole into the cavity of the body, extracted
the intestines, and devoured the liver and heart, be-
fore he began to gorge himself with the flesh.

15*

174 NARRATIVE OF THE

" The moon was now high in the heavens, and
shone with such exceeding brilliancy, that I could
see distinctly for many miles round me. In that
country, the smooth and glittering surface of the
hard and baked sandy plains, reflects the light of the
moon, as strongly as a sheet of snow in winter does
in this ; and the atmosphere being free from all hu-
midity, is so clear and transparent, that I could per-
ceive the quivering motion of the camel's lips, in his
last agony, as well as the tongue of the lion, when
he licked the blood from his paws.

"As soon as my fright had a little subsided, I
looked for my surviving camel which, to my terror,
I could not see, either at the foot of the tree on which
I was, and where I had last seen it, or anywhere in
the grove.

" I now concluded, that in the alarm caused by
the lion, and the destruction of his companion, my
surviving beast had broken the cord which bound
its feet, and had taken to flight, leaving me alone,
and without any means of escaping from the desert;
for I had no hope of being able to reach, on foot, ei-
ther the people with whom I had so long lived, or
the inhabitants of the woody countries, lying far to
the south of me. No condition can be more misera-
ble than that to which I was now reduced.

u My late masters were distant from me. at least
one day's journey, on a swift camel ; and were re-
moving farther from me every day, as fast as their
beasts could carry them ; and I had no knowledge
of the various watering places, and spots of herbage,

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 175

which lie scattered over the wide expanse of those
unfrequented regions, in the midst of which I then
was. I had not seen any water at this place, since
I came to it ; and had not the poor consolation of
knowing, that I could remain here, and live on the
fruit of the trees, until some chance should bring
hither some of the wandering tribes, that roam over
those solitudes.

"After a lapse of two or three hours, not being
able to discover my living camel anywhere, although
the moon had now passed her meridian, and shone
with a splendour which enabled me to distinguish
small pebbles at some distance, I gave him up for
lost, and again turned my attention to the lion,
which still continued at intervals, to utter deep and
sullen growls over his prey. I expected, that at the
approach of day, the lion would leave the dead car-
cass, and retire to his lair in some distant place ; and
I determined to await the period of his departure, to
descend the tree, and search for water amongst the
grass, which rose in some places to the height of my
shoulders.

" I slept none this night, — but from my couch in
the boughs, watched the motions of the lion, which,
after swallowing at least one third of the camel,
stretched himself at full length on his belly, about
twenty paces from it, and laying his head between
his fore-feet, prepared to guard his spoil against all
the intruders of the night. In this position he re-
mained, until the sun was up in the morning, and
began to dart his rays across the naked and parched

176 NARRATIVE OF THE

plain, upon which he lay — when rising- and stretch-
ing himself, he walked slowly towards the grove-
passed under me — went to the other side of the trees
and entered some very tall herbage, where I heard
him lap water. I now knew that I was in no dan-
ger of dying from thirst, provided I could escape wild
beasts, on my way to and from the fountain.

" The trees afforded me both food and shelter ;
but I quickly found myself deprived of tasting wa-
ter, at the present — for the lion, after slaking his
thirst, returned by the same way that he had gone
to the water, and coming to the tree in the boughs
of which I lay, rubbed himself against its trunk,
raising his tail, and exposing his sides alternately to
the friction of the rough bark. After continuing this
exercise for some time, he rested his weight on his
hind-feet, licked his breast, fore- legs and paws, and
then lying down on his side in the shade, appeared
to fall into a deep sleep. Great as my anxiety wras
to leave my present lodgings, I dared not attempt to
pass the sentinel that kept guard at the root of the
tree, even though he slept on his post : for whenever
I made the least rustling in the branches, I perceived
that he moved his ears, and opened his eyes, but
closed the latter again, when the noise ceased.

" The lion lay all day under the tree, only remo-
ving so as to place himself in the shade in the after-
noon ; but soon after the sun descended below the
horizon, in the evening, he aroused himself, and
resting upon his hind-feet, as he had done in the
morning, uttered a roar that shook all the leaves

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 177

about my head, and caused a tremulous motion in
the branches upon which I rested. This horrid noise,
together with the sight of the great beast that utter-
ed it, so agitated my whole frame, that I was near
leaping from my seat, and falling to the ground. I
was so overcome with fear, that all prudence and
self-possession forsook me ; and I uttered a loud
shout, as if in defiance of the monster below me.

" The moment the lion heard my voice, he raised
his head, looked directly at me, with his fiery eyes,
and crouched down in the attitude of springing ; but
perceiving me to be quite out of the reach of his
longest leap, he walked slowly off, and lay down
about half way between me and the dead camel,
with his head towards my tree. I had no doubt that
his object was to watch me, until my descent from
the tree, that he might make his supper of me this
night, as he had of my camel, the night before.

" I had now been without water two days — my
thirst was tormenting, and I had no prospect before
me but of remaining in this tree, until driven to de-
lirium for water, I should voluntarily descend, and
deliver myself into the jaws of my enemy.

" The moon did not rise this night until long af-
ter the disappearance of daylight ; but in the coun-
try where I then was, the stars shed such abundant
light, that objects of magnitude can be seen at a
great distance by their rays, without the aid of the
moon. The lion moved frequently from place to
place, but 1 could perceive that his attention was still
fixed upon me : at last, however, he started away

178 NARRATIVE OF THE

across the plain, and went farther and farther from
me, until at length I lost sight of him in the dis-
tance ; and all remained as quiet and noiseless, in
the immense expanse around me, as the land of the
dead.

" I now thought of descending, to go in quest of
water ; but whilst I deliberated upon this subject the
moon rose, and cast her broad and glorious light
upon these wide fields of desolation. As I could now
see every thing, I resolved to descend ; but before
doing this, thought it prudent to cast a look about
me, to see if there might not be some other beast of
prey near. This thought saved my life ; for on
turning my eyes in a direction quite different from
that in which the lion had departed, I saw him re-
turning, within two or three stone's cast, creeping
along the ground. I watched him, and he came
and placed himself between me and the water.

" All was again silent ; and I remained in the
tree, burning with thirst, until the moon was eleva-
ted high in the heavens, when the silence was inter-
rupted by the roaring of a lion, at a great distance,
which was again repeated after a short interval. At
the end of half an hour I again heard the same lion,
apparently not far off. Casting my eye in the di-
rection of the sound, I saw the beast advancing ra-
pidly, as I thought towards me, and began to appre-
hend that a whole den of lions were lying in wait
for me.

tl The stranger soon undeceived me, for he was
coming to partake of the dead camel, whose flesh or

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 179

blood he had doubtlessly smelled, though it was not
putrid, for, in this dry atmosphere, flesh is preserved
a long time free from taint, and is sometimes dried
in the sun, in a state of perfect soundness. I knew
the nature of the lion too well, to suppose that the
stranger was going to get his supper free of cost ;
aud before he had reached the carcass, my jailer
quitted his post, and set off to defend his acquisition
of the last niorht.

" The new comer arrived first, and fell upon the
dead camel, with the fury of a hungry lion — as he
was ; but he had scarcely swallowed a second morsel
when the rightful owner, uttering a roar yet more
dreadful than any that had preceded it, leaped upon
the intruder, and brought him to the ground. For
a moment I heard nothing but the gnashing of teeth,
the clashing of talons, and the sounds caused by
the laceration of the flesh and hides of the combat-
ants; but anon, they rolled along the ground, and
filled the whole canopy of heaven with their yells of
rage — then the roaring would cease, aud only the
rending of the flesh of these lords of the waste could
be heard — then the roaring would again burst forth,
with renewed energy.

"This battle lasted more than an hour; but at
length both appearing to be exhausted, they lay for
some minutes on their sides, each with the other wrap-
ped in his fierce embrace. In the end, I perceived
that one of them rose and walked away, leaving the
other upon the ground. The victor, which I could
perceive wras the stranger, for his mane was not

180 NARRATIVE OP THE

black, returned to the remnant of the camel, and lay-
down panting beside it. After he had taken time to
breathe, he recommenced his attack, and consumed
far the larger part of the carcass. Having eaten to
fulness, he took up the bones and remaining flesh
of the camel, and set out across the desert, — I follow-
ed him with my eye for more than an hour.

"Parched as my throat was, but still afraid to
descend from my place of safety, I remained on the
tree until the light of the next morning, when I ex-
amined carefully around, to see that there was no
beast of prey lurking about the place, where I knew
the water to be. Perceiving no danger, I descended
before the sun was up, and going to the water, knelt
down, and drank as long and as much as I thought
I could with safety.

" I then proceeded to make a more minute exa-
mination of this place, and saw numerous tracks of
wild goats, and of other animals, that had come here,
as well to drink as to eat the grass. I also saw the
tracks of lions, and other beasts of prey, which satis-
fied me that these had come to lie in wait for other
animals coming to drink : it also convinced me that
it was not safe for me to remain in this grove alone ;
but 1 knew of no means by which I could escape
from it.

" It now occurred to my mind that if my living
camel had not escaped from me, I might have made
my way to my own country, for on my camel I had
two leather bottles, which I had neglected to fill
with water, the morning I left the company of my

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 181

former masters. By replenishing these from the
fountain, giving my camel as much as he could
drink, and filling two small sacks attached to my
saddle, with the nuts from these trees, I should have
been equipped for a journey of ten days, within
which period, I had no doubt, I should have been
able to reach my own people ; but my camel was
gone, and these reflections served only to aggravate
the bitterness of my anguish.

li I walked out upon the desert, and prayed to be
delivered from the perils that environed me. At the
distance of two or three miles from me, I now observ-
ed a small sand hill, rising to the height of eight or
ten feet ; easily perceived when looking along the
level surface of the ground, but which had escaped
my observation from my elevated post in the tree.
Such sand hills are often found in those deserts, and
sometimes contain the bones of men and animals
that have been buried in them.

" In my situation, I could not remain idle ; and
urged forward by restlessness, bordering on despair,
I resolved to go to the little hill before me, without
having any definite object in view. I soon approach-
ed the hill, and having reached its foot, walked along
its base for some distance. I then turned to go back
to the trees ; but after advancing a few steps, was
seized with a sudden impulse, which urged me to go
to the top of the sand hill. I again turned and
walked slowly to the summit, beyond which I saw
only the same dreary expanse that I was so well used
to look upon. Advancing along the top of this sand

16

182 NARRATIVE OF THE

hill, which had been blown up by the wind in a long
narrow ridge, I saw a recess or hollow place, on the
side opposite to that by which I had ascended it ;
and on coming to this spot, beheld my camel crouch-
ed down close to the ground, with his neck extend-
ed at full length. My joy was unbounded — I leap-
ed with delight, and was wild for some minutes, with
a delirium of gladness.

" My camel had fled from the grove, at the time
his companion was killed by the lion, and reaching
this place, had here taken refuge, and had not mo-
ved since. I hastened to loose his feet from the cords
with which I had bound them ; mounted upon his
back, and was quickly at the watering place. 1 fill-
ed my two water skins with water, and gathering as
many nuts as my sacks would contain, caused my
camel to take a full draught, and fill his stomach
with grass, and then directed my course to the south,
with a quick pace.

"It was now noon when I left this watering
place ; and I travelled hard all that day and the suc-
ceeding night, until the moon rose. I then alighted,
and causing my camel to lie down, crept close to his
side, and betook myself to sleep. I rested well this
night, and recommencing my journey at the dawn
of day, I pursued my route, without any thing
worthy of relating happening to me until the eighth
day, when I discovered trees, and all the appearance
of a woody country, before me.

tt Soon after entering the forest, I came to a small
stream of water. Descending this stream a few

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 183

miles, I found some people, who were cutting grass
for the purpose of making mats to sleep on. These
people spoke my own language, and told me that
one of them had been in my native village lately.
They took me and my camel to their village, and
treated me very kindly ; promising me that after I
had recovered from my fatigue, they would go with
me to my friends.

" My protectors were at war with a nation whose
religion was different from ours ; and about a month
after I came to the village we were alarmed one
morning, just at break of day, by the horrible up-
roar caused by mingled shouts of men, and blows
given with heavy sticks upon large wooden drums.
The village was surrounded by enemies, who at-
tacked us with clubs, long wooden spears, and bows
and arrows. After fighting for more than an hour,
those who were not fortunate enough to run away,
were made prisoners. It was not the object of our
enemies to kill ; they wished to take us alive, and
sell us as slaves. I was knocked down by a heavy
blow of a club, and when I recovered from the stu-
por that followed, I found myself tied fast with the
long rope that I had brought from the desert, and in
which I had formerly led the camels of my masters.

" We were immediately led away from this vil-
lage, through the forest, and were compelled to travel
all day, as fast as we could walk. We had nothing
to eat on this journey, but a small quantity of grain,
taken with ourselves. This grain we were compel-
led to carry on our backs, and* roast by the fires

184 NARRATIVE OF THE

which we kindled at nights, to frighten away the
wild beasts. We travelled three weeks in the
woods, — sometimes without any path at all ; and
arrived one day at a large river, with a rapid cur-
rent. Here we were forced to help our conquerors,
to roll a great number of dead trees into the water,
from a vast pile that had been thrown together by
high floods.

These trees being dry and light, floated high out
of the water ; and when several of them were fasten-
ed together, with the tough branches of young trees,
formed a raft, upon which we all placed ourselves,
and descended the river for three davs, when we
came in sight of what appeared to me the most
wonderful object in the world ; this was a large
ship, at anchor, in the river. When our raft came
near the ship, the white people — for such they were
on board — assisted to take us on deck, and the logs
were suffered to float down the river.

" I had never seen white people before ; and they
appeared to me the ugliest creatures in the world.
The persons who brought us down the river receiv-
ed payment for us of the people in the ship, in vari-
ous articles, of which I remember that a keg of
liquor, and some yards of blue and red cotton cloth,
were the principal. At the time we came into this
ship, she was full of black people, who were all con-
fined in a dark and low place, in irons. The women
were in irons as well as the men

" About twenty persons were seized in our village,
at the time I was ; and amongst these were three

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 185

children, so young that they were not able to walk,
or to eat any hard substance. The mothers of
these children had brought them all the way with
them ; and had them in their arms when we were
taken on board this ship.

" When they put us in irons, to be sent to our
place of confinement in the ship, the men who fast-
ened the irons on these mothers, took the children
out of their hands; and threw them over the side of
the ship, into the water. When this was done, two
of the women leaped overboard after the children —
the third was already confined by a chain to another
woman, and could not get into the water, but in strug-
gling to disengage herself she broke her arm, and died
a few days after, of a fever. One of the two women
who were in the river, was carried down by the
. weight of her irons, before she could be rescued ; but
the other was taken up by some men in a boat, and
brought on board. This woman threw herself over-
board one night, when we were at sea.

" The weather was very hot, whilst we lay in the
river, and many of us died every day ; but the num-
ber brought on board greatly exceeded those who
died, and at the end of two weeks the place in which
we were confined was so full that no one could lie
down ; and we were obliged to sit all the time, for
the room was not high enough for us to stand. When
our prison would hold no more, the ship sailed down
the river, and on the night of the second day after
she sailed, I heard the roaring of the ocean, as it
dashed against her sides.

16*

186

NARRATIVE OF THE

" After we had been at sea some days, the irons
were removed from the women, and they were per-
mitted to go upon deck ; but whenever the wind
blew high, they were driven down amongst us.

" We had nothing to eat but yams, which were
thrown amongst us at random — and of these we
had scarcely enough to support life. More than
one-third of us died on the passage ; and when we
arrived at Charleston, I was not able to stand. It
was more than a week after I left the ship, before I
could straighten my limbs. I was bought by a
trader, with several others ; brought up the country,
and sold to our present master : I have been here
five years."

CHAPTER IX.

It was dusky twilight when this narrative was
ended, and we hastened home to the quarter. When
we arrived, the overseer had not yet come He
had been at his cotton field, with the people he had
hired in the morning to work for him ; but he soon
made his appearance, and going into his house,
came out with a small bag of money, and paid each
one the price he had a right to receive. In this
transaction the overseer acted with entire fairness to
the people who worked for him ; and with the ex-
ception of the moral turpitude of violating the Sab-
bath, in this shameful manner, the business was
conducted with propriety.

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 187

I must here observe, that when the slaves go out
to work for wages on Sunday, their employers never
flog them ; and so far as I know never give them
abusive language. I have often hired myself to
work on Sunday, and have been employed in this
way by more than twenty different persons, not one
of whom ever insulted or maltreated me in any way.
They seldom took the trouble of coming to look at
me uut.il towards evening, and sometimes not then.
I worked faithfully, because I knew that if I did not,
I ^ould not expect payment ; and those who hired
me, knew that if I did not work well, they need not
employ me.

The practice of working on Sunday, is so univer-
sal amongst the slaves on the cotton plantations,
that the immorality of the matter is never spoken of.

We retired lo rest this evening at the usual hour ;
and no one could have known, by either our appear-
ance or our manners, (hat this was Sunday evening.
There were no clean clothes amongst us ; for few of
our people were acquainted with the luxury of a suit
of clean vestments, and those who could afford a
clean garment, reserved it for Monday morning.
Sunday is the customary wash-day on cotton plan-
tations.

It is here proper to observe, that it is usual, on the
cotton estates, to deal out the weekly allowance of
corn to the slaves, on Sunday evening; but our
overseer, at this period, had changed this business
from Sunday to Monday morning, for the reason, 1
believe, that he wished to keep the hired people at

188 NARRATIVE OF THE

work, in his own cotton field, until night. He,
however, soon afterwards resumed the practice of
distributing the allowance on Sunday evening, and
continued it as long as I remained on the estate.
The business was conducted in the same manner,
when performed on Sunday, as when attended to on
Monday, only the time was changed.

On Monday morning I heard the sound of the
horn, at the usual hour, and repairing to the front
of the overseer's house, found that he had already
gone to the corn crib, for the purpose of distributing
corn amongst the people, for the bread of the week ;
or rather, for the week's subsistence ; for this corn
was all the provision that our master, or his over-
seer, usually made for us ; — I say usually, for what-
ever was given to us beyond the corn, which we re-
ceived on Sunday evening, wras considered in the
light of a bounty bestowed upon us, over and beyond
what we were entitled to, or had a right to expect
to receive.

When I arrived at the crib, the door was unlock-
ed and open, and the distribution had already com-
menced. Each person was entitled to half a bushel
of ears of corn, which was measured out by several
of the men who were in the crib. Every child
above six months old drew this weekly allowance of
corn ; and in this way, women who had several
small children, had more corn than they could con-
sume, and sometimes bartered small quantities with
the other people, for such things as they needed, and
were not able to procure.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 189

The people received their corn in baskets, old
bags, or any thing with which they could most con-
veniently provide themselves. I had not been able,
since I came here, to procure a basket, or any thing
else to put my corn in, and desired the man with
whom I lived to take my portion in his basket, with
that of his family. This he readily agreed to do,
and as soon as we had received our share we left
the crib.

The overseer attended in person to the measuring
of this corn ; and it is only justice to him to say;
that he was careful to see that justice was done us.
The men who measured the corn always heaped
the measure as long as an ear would lie on; and
he never restrained their generosity to their fellow-
slaves.

In addition to this allowance of corn, we received
a weekly allowance of salt, amounting, in general,
to about half a gill to each person ; but this article
was not furnished regularly, and sometimes we re-
ceived none for two or three weeks.

The reader must not suppose, that, on this plan-
tation we had nothing to eat beyond the corn and
salt. This was far from the case. I have already
described the gardens, or patches, cultivated by the
people, and the practice which they universally fol-
lowed of working on Sunday, for wages. In addi-
tion to all these, an industrious, managing slave
would contrive to gather up a great deal to eat.

I have before observed, that the planters are care-
ful of the health of their slaves, and in pursuance

190 NARRATIVE OF THE

of this rule, they seldom expose them to rainy wea-
ther, especially in the sickly seasons of the year, if
it can be avoided.

In the spring and early parts of the summer, the
rains are frequently so violent, and the ground be-
comes so wet, that it is injurious to the cotton to
work it, at least whilst it rains. In the course of
the year there are many of these rainy days, in
which the people cannot go to work with safety ;
and it often happens that there is nothing for them
to do in the house. At such time they make baskets,
brooms, horse collars, and other things, which they
are able to sell amongst the planters.

The baskets are made of wooden splits, and the
brooms of young white oak or hickory trees. The
mats are sometimes made of splits, but more fre-
quently of flags as they are called — a kind of tall
rush, which grows in swampy ground. The horse
or mule collars are made of husks of corn, though
sometimes of rushes, but the latter are not very
durable.

The money procured by these, and various other
means, which I shall explain hereafter, is laid out by
the slaves in purchasing such little articles of neces-
sity or luxury, as it enables them to procure. A part
is disbursed in payment for sugar, molasses, and
sometimes a few pounds of coffee, for the use of the
family ; another part is laid out for clothes for win-
ter ; and no inconsiderable portion of his pittance is
squandered away by the misguided slave for tobac-
co, and an occasional bottle of rum. Tobacco is

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 191

deemed so indispensable to comfort, nay to existence,
that hunger and nakedness are patiently endured,
to enable the slave to indulge in this highest of en-
joyments.

There being few towns in the cotton country,
the shops, or stores, are frequently kept at some cross
road, or other public place, in or adjacent to a rich
district of plantations. To these shops the slaves
resort, sometimes with, and at other times without,
the consent of the overseer, for the purpose of lay-
ing out the little money they get. Notwithstanding
all the vigilance' that is exercised by the planters,
the slaves, who are no less vigilant than their mas-
ters, often leave the plantation after the overseer has
retired to his bed, and go to the store.

The store-keepers are always ready to accommo-
date the slaves, who are frequently better customers
than many white people ; because the former always
pay cash, whilst the latter almost always require
credit. In dealing with the slave, the shop-keeper
knows he can demand whatever price he pleases for
his goods, without danger of being charged with ex-
tortion ; and he is ready to rise at any time of the
night to oblige friends, who are of so much value to
him.

It is held highly disgraceful, on the part of store-
keepers, to deal with the slaves for any thing but
money, or the coarse fabrics that it is known are the
usual products of the ingenuity and industry of the
negroes ; but, notwithstanding this, a considerable
traffic is carried on between the shop-keepers and

192 NARRATIVE OF THE

slaves, in which the latter make their payments by
barter. The utmost caution and severity of masters
and overseers, are sometimes insufficient to repress
the cunning contrivances of the slaves.

After we had received our corn, we deposited it in
our several houses, and immediately followed the
overseer to the same cotton field, in which we had
been at work on Saturday. Our breakfast this
morning was bread, to which was added a large
basket of apples, from the orchard of our master.
These apples served us for a relish with our bread,
both for breakfast and dinner, and when I returned
to the quarter in the evening, Dinah (the name of
the woman who was at the head of our family)
produced at supper, a black jug, containing mo-
lasses, and gave me some of the molasses for my
supper.

I felt grateful to Dinah for this act of kindness,
as I well knew that her children regarded molasses
as the greatest of human luxuries, and that she was
depriving them of their highest enjoyment to afford
me the means of making a gourd full of molasses
and water. I therefore proposed to her and her
husband, whose name was Nero, that whilst I should
remain a member of the family, I would contribute
as much towards its support as Nero himself; or, at
least, that I would bring all my earnings into the
family stock, provided I might be treated as one of
its members, and be allowed a portion of the pro-
ceeds of their patch or garden. This offer was very
readily accepted, and from this time we constituted

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 193

one community, as long as I remained among the
field hands on this plantation. After supper was
over, we had to grind our corn ; but as we had to
wait for our turn at the mill, we did not get through
this indispensable operation before one o'clock in
the morning. We did not sit up all night to wait
for our turn at the mill, but as our several turns
were assigned us by lot, the person who had the
first turn, when done with the mill, gave notice
to the one entitled to the second, and so on. By
this means nobody lost more than half an hour's
sleep, and in the morning every one's grinding was
done.

We worked very hard this week. We were now
laying by the cotton, as it is termed ; that is, we
were giving the last weeding and hilling to the
crop, of which there was, on this plantation, about
five hundred acres, which looked well, and promised
to yield a fine picking.

In addition to the cotton, there was on this plan-
tation, one hundred acres of corn, about ten acres of
indigo, ten or twelve acres in sweet potatoes, and a
rice swamp of about fifty acres. The potatoes and
indigo had been laid by, (that is, the season of
working in them was past,) before I came upon
the estate ; and we were driven hard by the overseer
to get done with the cotton, to be ready to give the
corn another harrowing, and hoeing, before the sea-
son should be too far advanced. Most of the corn in
this part of the country, was already laid by, but the

17

194 NARRATIVE OF THE

crop here had been planted late, and yet required
to be worked.

We were supplied with an abundance of bread,
for a peck of corn is as much as a man can consume
in a week, if he has other vegetables with it ; but we
were obliged to provide ourselves with the other
articles, necessary for our subsistence. Nero had
corn in his patch, which was now hard enough to be
fit for boiling, and my friend Lydia had beans in her
garden. We exchanged corn for beans, and had a
good supply of both ; but these delicacies we were
obliged to reserve for supper. We took our break-
fast in the field, from the cart, which seldom afforded
us any thing better than bread, and some raw vege-
tables from the garden. Nothing of moment oc-
curred amongst us, in this first week of my residence
here. On Wednesday evening, called settlement-
night, two men and a woman were whipped ; but
circumstances of this kind were so common, that I
shall, in future, not mention them, unless something
extraordinary attended them.

I could make wooden bowls and ladles, and went
to work with a man who was clearing some new
land about two miles off — on the second Sunday of
my sojourn here, and applied the money I earned
in purchasing the tools necessary to enable me to
carry on my trade. I occupied all my leisure hours,
for several months after this, in making wooden
trays, and such other wooden vessels as were most
in demand. These I traded off, in part, to a store-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 195

keeper, who lived about five miles from the planta~
tion ; and for some of my work I obtained money.
Before Christmas, I had sold more than thirty dol-
lars worth of my manufactures ; but the merchant
with whom I traded, charged such high prices for his
goods, that I was poorly compensated for my Sun-
day toils, and nightly labours ; nevertheless, by these
means, I was able to keep our family supplied with
molasses, aud some other luxuries, and at the ap-
proach of winter, I purchased three coarse blankets,
to which Nero added as many, and we had all these
made up into blanket- coats for Dinah, ourselves, and
the children.

About ten days after my arrival, we had a great
feast at the quarter. One night, after we had re-
turned from the field, the overseer sent for me by
his little son, and when I came to his house, he
asked me if I understood the trade of a butcher — I
told him I was not a butcher by trade, but that I
had often assisted my master and others, to kill hogs
and cattle, and that I could dress a hog, or a bul-
lock, as well as most people. He then told me
he was going to have a beef killed in the morning
at the great house, and I must do it — that he would
not spare any of the hands to go with me, but he
would get one of the house-boys to help me.

When the morning came, I went, according to or-
ders, to butcher the beef, which I expected to find
in some enclosure on the plantation ; but the over-
seer told me I must take a boy named Toney, from

196 NARRATIVE OF THE

the house, whose business it was to take care of the
cattle, and go to the woods and look for the beef.
Toney and I set out sometime before sunrise, and
went to a cow-pen, about a mile from the house,
where he said he had seen the young cattle only a
day or two before. At this cow-pen, we saw seve-
ral cows waiting to be milked, I suppose, for their
calves were in an adjoining field, and separated
from them only by a fence. Toney then said; we
should have to go to the long savanna, where the
dry cattle generally ranged, and thither we set off.
This long savanna lay at the distance of three
miles from the cow-pen, and when we reached it,
I found it to be literally what it was called, a long
savanna. It was a piece of low, swampy ground,
several miles in extent, with an open space in the
interior part of it, about a mile long, and perhaps
a quarter of a mile in width. It was manifest that
this open space was covered with water through the
greater part of the year, which prevented the growth
of timber in this place ; though at the time it was
dry, except a pond near one end, which covered,
perhaps, an acre of ground. In this natural mea-
dow, every kind of wild grass, common to such
places in the southern country, abounded.

Here I first saw the scrub and saw grasses — the
first of which is so hard and rough, that it is ga-
thered to scrub coarse wooden furniture, or even
pewter ; and the last is provided with edges, some-
what like saw teeth, so hard and sharp that it
would soon tear the skin off the legs of any one

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 197

who should venture to walk through it with bare
limbs.

As we entered this savanna, we were enveloped
in clouds of musquitos, and swarms of galinip-
pers, that threatened to devour us. As we advanc-
ed through the grass, they rose up until the air was
thick, and actually darkened with them. They
rushed upon us with the fury of yellow-jackets,
whose hive has been broken in upon, and covered
every part of our persons. The clothes I had on,
which were nothing but a shirt and trousers of tow
linen, afforded no protection, even against the mus-
quitos, which were much larger than those found
along the Chesapeake Bay ; and nothing short of a
covering of leather could have defended me against
the galinippers.

I was pierced by a thousand stings at a time, and
verily believe 1 could not have lived beyond a few
hours in this place. Toney ran into the pond, and
rolled himself in the water to get rid of his perse-
cutors ; but he had not been long there before he
came running out, as fast as he had gone in, hal-
looing and clamouring in a manner wholly un-
intelligible to me. He was terribly frightened ; but
I could not imagine what could be the cause of his
alarm, until he reached the shore, when he turned
round with his face to the water, and called out — -
" the biggest alligator in the whole world — did not
you see him ? " I told him I had not seen any thing
but himself in the water ; but he insisted that he had
been chased in the pond by an alligator, which had

17*

198 NARRATIVE OF THE

followed him until he was close to the shore. We
waited a few minutes for the alligator to rise to the
surface, but were soon compelled by the musquitos,
to quit this place.

Toney said, we need not look for the cattle here ;
no cattle could live amongst these musquitos, and I
thought he was right in his judgment. We then
proceeded into the woods and thickets, and after
wandering about for an hour or more, we found
the cattle, and after much difficulty, succeeded in
driving a part of them back to the cow-pen, and en-
closing them in it. I here selected the one that
appeared to me to be the fattest, and securing it
with ropes, we drove the animal to the place of
slaughter.

This beef was intended as a feast for the slaves, at
the laying by of the corn and cotton ; and when I
had it hung up, and had taken the hide off, my
young master, whom I had seen on the day of my
arrival, came out to me, and ordered me to cut off
the head, neck, legs, and tail, and lay them, toge-
ther with the empty stomach and the harslet, in a
basket. This basket was sent home, to the kitchen
of the great house, by a woman and a boy. who
attended for that purpose. I think there was at
least one hundred and twenty or thirty pounds of
this ofTal. The residue of the carcass I cut into
four quarters, and we carried it to the cellar of the
great house. Here one of the hind quarters was
salted in a tub, for the use of the family, and the
other was sent, as a present, to a planter, who

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 199

lived about four miles distant. The two fore-quar-
ters were cut into very small pieces, and salted by
themselves. These, I was told, would be cooked for
our dinner on the next day, (Sunday,) wThen there
was to be a general rejoicing amongst all the slaves
of the plantation.

After the beef was salted down, I received some
bread and m.lk for my breakfast, and went to join
the hands in the corn field, where they were now
harrowing and hoeing the crop for the last time.
The overseer had promised us that we should have
holiday, after the completion of this work, and by
great exertion, we finished it about five o'clock in the
afternoon.

On our return to the quarter, the overseer, at roll-
call — which he performed this day before night —
told us that every family must send a bowl to the
great house, to get our dinners of meat. This intel-
ligence diffused as much joy amongst us, as if each
one had drawn a prize in a lottery. At the assu-
rance of a meat dinner, the old people smiled and
showed their teeth, and returned thanks to master
overseer ; but many of the younger ones shouted,
clapped their hands, leaped, and ran about with de-
light.

Each family, or mess, now sent its deputy, with a
large wooden bowl in his hand, to receive the dinner
at the great kitchen. I went on the part of our
family, and found that the meat dinner of this day,
was made up of the basket of tripe, and other offal,
that I had prepared in the morning. The whole

200

NARRATIVE OF THE

had been boiled in four great iron kettles, until the
flesh had disappeared from the bones, which were
broken in small pieces — a flitch of bacon, some green
corn, squashes, tomatos, and onions, had been added,
together with other condiments, and the whole con-
verted into about a hundred gallons of soup, of which
I received in my bowl, for the use of our family,
more than two gallons. We had plenty of bread,
and a supply of black-eyed peas, gathered from our
garden, some of which Dinah had boiled in our ket-
tle, whilst I was gone for the soup, of which there
was as much as we could consume, and I believe
that every one in the quarter had enough.

I doubt if there was in the world a happier assem-
blage than ours, on this Saturday evening. We
had finished one of the grand divisions of the la-
bours of a cotton plantation, and were supplied with
a dinner, which to the most of my fellow-slaves, ap-
peared to be a great luxury, and most liberal dona-
tion on the part of our master, whom they regarded
with sentiments of gratitude, for this manifestation of
his bounty.

In addition to present gratification, they looked
forward to the enjoyments of the next day, when
they were to spend a whole Sunday in rest and ban-
queting ; for it was known that the two fore-quar-
ters of the bullock, were to be dressed for Sunday's
dinner ; and I had told them that each of these quar-
ters weighed at least one hundred pounds.

Our quarter knew but little quiet this night ; sing-
ing— playing on the banjoe, and dancing, occupied

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 201

nearly the whole community, until the break of day.
Those who were too old to take any part in our ac-
tive pleasures, beat time with their hands, or recited
stories of former times. Most of these stories referred
to affairs that had been transacted in Africa, and
were sufficiently fraught with demons, miracles, and
murders, to fix the attention of many hearers.

To add to our happiness, the early peaches were
now ripe, and the overseer permitted us to send, on
Sunday morning, to the orchard, and gather at least
ten bushels of very fine fruit.

In South Carolina they have very good summer
apples, but they fall from the trees, and rot immedi-
ately after they are ripe; indeed, very often they
speck-rot on the trees, before they become ripe. This
"speck- rot," as it is termed, appears to be a kind of
epidemic disease amongst apples ; for in some sea-
sons whole orchards are subject to it, and the fruit is
totally worthless, whilst in other years, the fruit in
the same orchard continues sound and good, until it
is ripe. The climate of Carolina is, however, not
favourable to the apple, and this fruit of so much
value in the north, is in the cotton region, only of a
few weeks continuance— winter apples being un-
known. Every climate is congenial to the growth
of some kind of fruit tree ; and in Carolina and
Georgia, the peach arrives at its utmost perfection :
the fig also ripens well, and is a delicious fruit.

None of our people went out to work for wages,
to-day. Some few, devoted a part of the morning to
such work as they deemed necessary, in or about

202 NARRATIVE OF THE

their patches, and some went to the woods, or the
swamps, to collect sticks for brooms, and splits, or to
gather flags for mats ; but far the greater number
remained at the quarter, occupied in some small
work, or quietly awaiting the hour of dinner, which
we had been informed, by one of the house-servants,
would be at one o'clock. Every family made ready
some preparation of vegetables, from their own gar-
den, to enlarge the quantity, if not to heighten the
flavour of the dinner of this day.

One o'clock at length arrived, but not before it
had been long desired ; and we proceeded with our
bowls a second time, to the great kitchen. I acted,
as I had done yesterday, the part of commissary for
our family ; but when we were already at the place
where we were to receive our soup and meat, into
our bowls, (for it was understood that we were, with
the soup, to have an allowance of both beef and
bacon, to-day,) we were told that puddings had been
boiled for us, and that we must bring dishes to re-
ceive them in. This occasioned some delay, until
we obtained vessels from the quarter. In addition
to at least two gallons of soup, about a pound of beef,
and a small piece of bacon, I obtained nearly two
pounds of pudding, made of corn meal, mixed with
lard, and boiled in large bags. This pudding, with
the molasses that we had at home, formed a very
palatable second course, to our bread, soup, and ve-
getables.

On Sunday afternoon, we had a meeting, at
which many of our party attended, A man named

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 203

Jacob, who had come from Virginia, sang and pray-
ed ; but a great many of the people went out about
the plantation, in search of fruits ; for there were
many peach and some fig trees, standing along the
fences, on various parts of the estate. With us, this
was a day of uninterrupted happiness.

A man cannot well be miserable, when he sees
every one about him immersed in pleasure ; and
though our fare of to-day, was not of a quality to yield
me much gratification, yet such was the impulse
given to my feelings, by the universal hilarity and
contentment, which prevailed amongst my fellows,
that I forgot for the time, all the subjects of grief that
were stored in my memory, all the acts of wrong
that had been perpetrated against me, and entered
with the most sincere and earnest sentiments, in the
participation of the felicity of our community.

CHAPTER XII.

At the time of which I now speak, the rice was
ripe, and ready to be gathered. On Monday morn-
ing, after our feast, the overseer took the whole of
us to the rice field, to enter upon the harvest of this
crop. The field lay in a piece of low ground, near
the river, and in such a position that it could be flood-
ed by the water of the stream, in wet seasons. The
rice is planted in drills, or rows, and grows more
like oats than any of the other grain, known in the
north.

204 NARRATIVE OF THE

The water is sometimes let in to the rice fields, and
drawn off again, several times, according to the state
of the weather. Watering and weeding the rice is
considered one of the most unhealthy occupations on
a southern plantation, as the people are obliged to
live for several weeks in the mud and water, subject
to all the unwholesome vapours that arise from stag-
nant pools, under the rays of a summer sun, as well
as the chilly autumnal dews of night. At the time
we came to cut this rice, the field was quite dry ;
and after we had reaped and bound it, we hauled it
upon wagons, to a piece of hard ground, where we
made a threshing floor, and threshed it. In some
places, they tread out the rice, with mules or horses,
as they tread wheat in Maryland ; but this renders
the grain dusty, and is injurious to its sale.

After getting in the rice, we were occupied for
some time in clearing and ditching swampy land,
preparatory to a more extended culture of rice, the
next year ; and about the first of August, twenty or
thirty of the people, principally women and children,
were employed for two weeks in making cider, of
apples which grew in an orchard of nearly two
hundred trees, that stood on a part of the estate.
After the cider was made, a barrel of it was one day
brought to the field, and distributed amongst us ;
but this gratuity was not repeated. The cider that
was made by the people, was converted into brandy,
at a still in the corner of the orchard.

I often obtained cider to drink, at the still, which
was sheltered from the weather by a shed, of boards

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 205

and slabs. We were not permitted to go into the
orchard at pleasure ; but as long as the apples con-
tinued, we were allowed the privilege of sending five
or six persons every evening, for the purpose of
bringing apples to the quarter, for our common use ;
and by taking large baskets, and filling them well,
we generally contrived to get as many as we could
consume.

When the peaches ripened, they were guarded
with more rigour — peach brandy being an article
which is nowhere more highly prized than in South
Carolina. There were on the plantation, more than
a thousand peach trees, growing on poor sandy fields
which were no longer worth the expense of cultiva-
tion. The best peaches grow upon the poorest sand-
hills.

We were allowed to take three bushels of peaches
every day, for the use of the quarter ; but we could,
and did eat, at least three times that quantity, for
we stole at night that which was not given us by
day. I confess, that I took part in these thefts, and
I do not feel that I committed any wrong, against
either God or man, by my participation in the com-
mon danger that we ran, for we well knew the con-
sequences that would have followed detection.

After the feast at laying by the corn and cotton,
we had no meat for several weeks; and it is my
opinion that our master lost money, by the economy
he practised at this season of the year.

In the month of August, we had to save the fod-
der. This fodder-saving is the most toilsome, and
next to working in the rice swamps, the most un-

18

206 NARRATIVE OF THE

healthy job, that has to be performed on a cotton
plantation, in the whole year. The manner of doing
it is to cut the tops from the corn, as is done in Penn-
sylvania; but in addition to this, the blades below
the ear, are always pulled off by the hand. Great
pains is taken with these corn-blades. They consti-
tute the chosen food of race, and all other horses,
that are intended to be kept with extraordinary care,
and in superior condition. For the purpose of pro-
curing the best blades, they are frequently stripped
from the stock, sometimes before the corn is ripe
enough in the ear, to permit the top of the stalk to
be cut off, without prejudice to the grain. After the
blades are stripped from the stem, they are stuck be-
tween the hills of corn until they are cured, ready
for the stack. They are then cut, and bound in
sheaves, with small bands of the blades themselves.
This binding, and the subsequent hauling from the
field, must be done either early in the morning, be-
fore the dew is dried up, or in the night, whilst the
dew is falling.

This work exposes the people who do it, to the fogs
and damps of the climate, at the most unhealthy
season of the year. Agues, fevers, and all the dis-
eases which follow in their train, have their dates at
the time of fodder-saving. It is the only work, ap-
pertaining to a cotton estate, which must of necessity
be done in the night, or in the fogs of the morning ;
and the people at this season of the year, and whilst
engaged in this very fatiguing work, would certainly
be better able to go through with it, if they were reg-

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 207

ularly supplied, with proper portions of sound and
wholesome salted provisions.

If every master would, through the months of Au-
gust and September, supply his people with only a
quarter of a pound of good bacon flitch to each per-
son, daily, I have no doubt but that he would save
money by it ; to say nothing of the great comfort it
would yield to the slaves, at this period, when the
human frame is so subject to debility and feebleness.

Early in August, disease made its appearance
amongst us. Several were attacked by the ague,
with its accompanying fever ; but in South Caro-
lina, the " ague," as it is called, is scarcely regarded
as a disease, and if a slave has no ailment that is
deemed more dangerous, he is never withdrawn
from the roll of the field hands. I have seen many
of our poor people compelled to pick cotton, when
their frames were shaken so violently, by the ague,
that they were unable to get hold of the cotton in the
burs, without difficulty. In this, masters commit a
great error. Many fine slaves are lost, by this dis-
ease, which superinduces the dropsy, and sometimes
the consumption, which could have been prevented
by arresting the ague at its onset. When any of our
people were taken so ill that they were not able to
go to the field, they were removed to the great house,
and placed in the " sick room," as it was termed.
This sick room was a large, airy apartment, in the
second story of a building which stood in the garden.

The lower part of this building was divided into
two apartments, in one of which was kept the milk,

208

NARRATIVE OF THE

butter, and other things connected with the dairy.
In the other, the salt provisions of the family, in-
cluding fish, bacon, and other articles, were secu-
red. This apartment also constituted the smoke
house ; but as the ceiling was lathed, and plastered
with a thick coat of lime and sand, no smoke could
penetrate the " sick room," which was at all seasons
of the year, a very comfortable place to sleep in.

Though I was never sick myself, whilst on this
plantation, I was several times in this " sick room,"
and always observed, when there, that the sick slaves
were well attended to. There was a hanging parti-
tion, which could be let down at pleasure, and
which was let down when it was necessary, to divide
the rooms into two apartments, which always hap-
pened when there were several slaves of different
sexes, sick at the same time.

The beds, upon which the sick lay, were of straw,
but clean and wholesome, and the patients when
once in this room, were provided wTith every thing
necessary for persons in their situation. A physician
attended them daily, and proper food, and even wines,
were not wanting.

The contrast between the cotton and rice fields,
and this little hospital, was very great ; and it ap-
peared to me at the time, that if a part of the tender-
ness and benevolence, displayed here, had been be-
stowed upon the people whilst in good health, very
many of the inmates of this infirmary, would never
have been here.
X have often seen the same misapplication of the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 209

principles of philanthropy in Pennsylvania, — the sub-
jects only being varied, from slaves to horses. The
finest, and most valuable horses, are often overwork-
ed, or driven beyond their capacity of endurance, (it
cannot be said that horses are not generally well fed
in Pennsylvania,) without mercy or consideration,
on the part of their owners ; or more frequently of
unfeeling hirelings, who have no interest in the life
of the poor animal ; and when his constitution is bro-
ken, and his health gone, great care and even ex-
pense, are bestowed upon him, for the purpose of re-
storing him to his former strength ; the one half of
which care or expense, would have preserved him in
beauty and vigour, had they been bestowed upon
him before he had suffered the irreparable injuries,
attendant upon his cruel treatment.

In Pennsylvania, the horse is regarded, and justly
regarded, only on account of the labour he is able to
perform. Being the subject of property, his owner
considers, not how he shall add most to the comforts
and enjoyments of his horse, but by what means he
shall be able to procure the greatest amount of labour
from him, with the least expense to himself. In de
vising the means of saving expense, the life of the
horse, and the surest and cheapest method of its pres^
ervation, are taken into consideration.

Precisely in this way, do the cotton planters reason
and act, in relation to their slaves. Regarding the
negroes merely as objects of property, like prudent
calculators, they study how to render this property
of the greatest value, and to obtain the greatest

IS*

210 NARRATIVE OF THE

yearly income, from the capital invested in the
slaves, and the lands they cultivate.

Experience has proved to me, that a man who
eats no animal food, may yet be healthy, and able
to perform the work usually done on a cotton planta-
tion. Corn bread, sweet potatoes, some garden vege-
tables, with a little molasses and salt, assisted by the
other accidental supplies that a thrifty slave is able
to procure, on a plantation, are capable of sustaining
life and health ; and a slave who lives on such food,
and never tastes flesh, stands at least an equal
chance, for long life, with his master or mistress,
" who are clad in purple and fine linen, and fare
sumptuously every day." More people are killed by
eating and drinking too much, than die of the ef-
fects of starvation, in the south ; but the diseases of
the white man, do not diminish the sufferings of the
black one. A man who lives upon vegetable diet,
may be healthy, and active ; but I know he is not so
strong and vigorous, as if he enjoyed a portion of ani-
mal food.

The labour usually performed by slaves, on a cot-
ton plantation, does not require great bodily strength,
but rather superior agility, and wakefulness. The
hoes in use, are not heavy, and the art of picking
cotton depends not upon superior strength, but upon
the power of giving quick and accelerated motion to
the fingers, arms, and legs. The fences have to be
made, and repaired, and ditches dug — wood must
also be cut, for many purposes, and all these opera-
tions call for strength ; but they consume only a very

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 211

small portion of the whole year, — more than three
fourths of which is spent in the cotton, corn, rice, and
indigo fields, where the strength of a boy, or a wo-
man is sufficient to perform any kind of labour, ne-
cessary in the culture of the plants ; but men are
able to do more, even of this work, than either boys
or women.

We scarcely had time to complete the securing of
the fodder, and working up the apples, and peaches,
when the cotton was ready for picking. This busi-
ness of picking cotton, constitutes about half the la-
bour of the year, on a large plantation. In Caroli-
na, it is generally commenced about the first of Sep-
tember ; though in some years, much cotton is pick-
ed in August. The manner of doing the work is
this. The cotton being planted in hills, in straight
rows, from four to five feet apart, each hand or pick-
er, provided with a bag, made of cotton bagging, hold-
ing a bushel or more, hung round the neck, with
cords, proceeds from one side of the field to the other,
between two of these rows, picking all the cotton
from the open burs, on the right and left, as he goes.
It is the business of the picker to take all the cotton,
from each of the rows, as far as the lines of the rows
or hills. In this way he picks half the cotton from
each of the rows, and the pickers who come on his
right and left, take the remainder from the opposite
sides of the rows.

The cotton is gathered into the bag, and when it
becomes burdensome by its weight, it is deposited in
some convenient place, until night, when it is taken

212 NARRATIVE OF THE

home, either in a large bag or basket, and weighed
under the inspection of the overseer. A day's work
is not estimated by the number of hills, or rows, that
are picked in the day, but by the number of pounds
of cotton in the seed, that the picker brings into the
cotton house, at night.

In a good field of cotton, fully ripe, a day's work
is sixty pounds ; but where the cotton is of inferior
quality, or the burs are not in full blow, fifty pounds
is the day's work ; and where the cotton is poor, or
in bad order, forty, or even thirty pounds, is as much
as one hand can get in a day.

The picking of cotton, continues from August un-
til December, or January ; and in some fields, they
pick from the old plants, until they are ploughed up
in February or March, to make room for the plant-
ing of the seeds of another crop.

On all estates, the standard of a day's work is fix-
ed by the overseer, according to the quality of the
cotton ; and if a hand gathers more than this stand-
ard, he i3 paid for it ; but if, on the other hand, when
his or her cotton is weighed at the cotton-house, in
the evening, it is found that the standard quantity
has not been picked, the delinquent picker is sure to
receive a whipping.

On some estates, settlements are made every even-
ing, and the whipping follows immediately ; on
others, the whipping does not occur until the next
morning, whilst on a few plantations, the accounts
are closed twice, or three times a week.

I have stated heretofore, that our overseer whip-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 213

peel twice a week, for the purpose of saving time ;
but if this method saved time to the overseer and
the hands, it also saved the latter of a great many
hard stripes ; for very often, when one of us had dis-
pleased the overseer, he would tell us that on Wed-
nesday or Saturday night, as the case might be, we
should be remembered ; yet the matter was either
forgotten, or the passion of the overseer subdued, be-
fore the time of retribution arrived, and the delin-
quent escaped altogether from the punishment,
which would certainly have fallen upon him, if it
had been the custom of the overseer to chastise for
every offence, at the moment, or even on the day, of
its perpetration. A short days work was always
punished.

The cotton does not all ripen at the same time, on
the same plant, which is picked and repicked, from
six to ten times. The burs ripen, and burst open on
the lower branches of the plant, whilst those at the
top are yet in flower ; or perhaps only in leaf or bud.
The plant grows on, taller and larger, until it is ar-
rested by the frost, or cool weather in autumn, con-
tinually throwing out new branches, new stems,
new blossoms, and new burs, ceasing only with the
first frost, at which time there are always some
green burs, at the top of the plant, that never arrive
at maturity. This state of things is, however, often
prevented by topping the plant, in August or Sep-
tember, which prevents it from throwing out new
branches, and blossoms, and forwards the growth
and ripening of those already formed.

214 NARRATIVE OF THE

The first picking, takes the cotton from the burs
of the lowest branches ; the second from those a little
higher, and so on, until those of the latest growth, at
the top of the plant, are reached.

When the season has been bad, or from any other
cause, the crop is light, the picking is sometimes
complete, and the field clear of the cotton, before the
first of January ; but when the crop is heavy, or the
people have been sickly in the fall, the picking is fre-
quently protracted until February, or even the first
of March. The winter does not injure the cotton,
standing in the field, though the wind blows some of
it out of the expanded burs, which is thus scattered
over the field and lost.

An acre of prime land, will yield two thousand
pounds of cotton in the seed. I have heard of three
thousand pounds having been picked from an acre,
but have not seen it. Four pounds of cotton in the
seed, yields one pound when cleaned, and prepared
for market.

It is estimated by the planters, or rather by the
overseers, that a good hand can cultivate and pick
five acres of cotton, and raise as much corn as will
make his bread, and feed a mule or a horse. I
know this to be a very hard task for a single hand,
if the land is good, and the crops at all luxuriant.
One man may, with great diligence, and continued
good health, be able to get through with the cotton,
and two or three, or even five acres of corn, up to
the time when the cotton is ready to be picked ; but
from this period, he will find the labour more than

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 215

he can perform, if the cotton is to be picked clean
from the plants. Five acres of good cotton will
yield ten thousand pounds of rough, or seed cot-
ton. If he can pick sixty pounds a day, and works
twenty-five days in a month, the picking of ten
thousand pounds will occupy him more than six
months.

Prom my own observations, on the plantations
of South Carolina and Georgia, I am of opinion,
that the planters in those states, do not get more
than six or seven thousand pounds of cotton in the
seed, for each hand employed ; and I presume, that
fifteen hundred pounds of clean cotton, is a full aver-
age of the product of the labour of each hand.

I now entered upon a new scene of life. My true
value had not yet been ascertained by my present
owner ; and whether I was to hold the rank of a
first, or second rate hand, could only be determined
by an experience of my ability to pick cotton ; nor
was this important trait in my character, to be fully
understood by a trial of one, or only a few days. It
requires some time to enable a stranger, or new hand,
to acquire the sleight of picking cotton.

I had ascertained, that at the hoe, the spade,
the axe, the sickle, or the flail, I was a full match
for the best hands on the plantation ; but soon dis-
covered, when we came to the picking of cotton, that
I was not equal to a boy of twelve or fifteen years
of age. I worked hard the first day, and made
every effort to sustain the character that 1 had ac-
quired, amongst my companions, but when evening

216 NARRATIVE OF THE

came, and our cotton was weighed, I had only thirty-
eight pounds, and was vexed to see that two young
men, about my own age, had, one fifty-eight, and
the other fifty-nine pounds. This was our first day's
work ; and the overseer had not yet settled the
amount of a day's picking. It was necessary for
him to ascertain, by the experience of a few days,
how much the best hands could pick in a day, before
he established the standard of the season. I hung
down my head, and felt very much ashamed of my-
self, when I found that m}r cotton was so far behind
that of many, even of the women, who had hereto-
fore regarded me as the strongest and most powerful
man of the whole gang.

I had exerted myself to-day, to the utmost of my
power ; and as the picking of cotton seemed to be
so very simple a business, I felt apprehensive that I
should never be able to improve myself, so far as to
become even a second rate hand. In thjs posture
of affairs, I looked forward to something still more
painful than the loss of character which I must sus-
tain, both with my fellows and my master ; for I
knew that the lash of the overseer would soon be-
come familiar with my back, if I did not perform as
much work as any of the other young men.

I expected, indeed, that it would go hard with me
even now, and stood by with feelings of despond-
ence and terror, whilst the other people were getting
their cotton weighed. When it was all weighed,
the overseer came to me where I stood, and told me
to show him my hands. When I hacf done this,

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 217

and he had looked at them, he observed — "You have
a pair of good hands — you will make a good picker."
This faint praise of the overseer revived my spirits
greatly, and I went home with a lighter heart than
1 had expected to possess, before the termination of
cotton-picking.

When I came to get my cotton weighed, on the
evening of the second day, I was rejoiced to find
that I had forty-six pounds, although I had not work-
ed harder than I did the first day. On the third
evening I had fifty-two pounds ; and before the end
of the week, there were only three hands in the
field — two men and a young woman — who could
pick more cotton in a day, than I could.

On the Monday morning of the second week when
we went to the field, the overseer told us, that he
fixed the day's work at fifty pounds ; and that all
those who picked more than that, would be paid a
cent a pound, for the overplus. Twenty-five pounds
was assigned as the daily task of the old people, as
well as a number of boys and girls, whilst some of
the women, who had children, were required to
pick forty pounds, and several children had ten
pounds each as their task.

Picking of cotton may almost be reckoned among
the arts. A man who has arrived at the age of
twenty-five, before he sees a cotton field, will ne-
ver, in the language of the overseer, become a crack
picker.

By great industry and vigilance, I was able, at
the end of a month, to return every evening a few

19

218 NARRATIVE OF THE

pounds over the daily rate, for which I received my
pay ; but the business of picking cotton was an irk-
some, and fatiguing labour to me, and one to which
I could never become thoroughly reconciled ; for the
reason, I believe, that in every other kind of work in
which I was engaged in the south, I was able to
acquire the character of a first rate hand ; whilst
in picking cotton, I was hardly regarded as a privne
hand.

CHAPTER XIII.

In a community of near three hundred persons,
governed by laws as severe and unbending as those
which regulated our actions, it is not to be expected
that universal content can prevail, or that crimes
will not be imagined, and even sometimes perpe-
trated. Ignorant men estimate those things which
fortune has placed beyond their reach, not by their
real value, but by the strength of their own desires
and passions. Objects in themselves indifferent,
which they are forbidden to touch, or even ap-
proach, excite in the minds of the unreflecting,
ungovernable impulses. The slave, who is taught
from infancy, to regard his condition as unchange-
able, and his fate as fixed, by the laws of nature,
fancies that he sees his master in possession of that
happiness which he knows has been denied to him-
self. The lower men are sunk in the scale of
civilization, the more violent become their animal

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 219

passions. The native Africans are revengeful, and
unforgiving in their tempers, easily provoked, and
cruel in their designs. They generally place little,
or even no value, upon the fine houses, and superb
furniture of their masters ; and discover no beauty
in the fair complexions, and delicate forms of their
mistresses. They feel indignant at the servitude
that is imposed upon them, and only want power to
iuflict the most cruel retribution upon their oppres-
sors ; but they desire only the means of subsistence,
and temporary gratification in this country, during
their abode here.

They are universally of opinion, and this opinion
is founded in their religion, that after death they
shall return to their own country, and rejoin their
former companions and friends, in some happy re-
gion, in which they will be provided with plenty of
food, and beautiful women, from the lovely daugh-
ters of their own native land.

The case is different with the American negro,
who knows nothing of Africa, her religion, or cus-
toms, and who has borrowed all his ideas of pre-
sent and future happiness, from the opinions and
intercourse of white people, and of Christians. He
is, perhaps, not so impatient of slavery, and excessive
labour, as the native of Congo ; but his mind is bent
upon other pursuits, and his discontent works out
for itself other schemes, than those which agitate the
brain of the imported negro. His heart pants for
no heaven beyond the waves of the ocean ; and he
dreams of no delights in the arms of sable beauties,

220 NARRATIVE OF THE

in groves of immortality, on the banks of the Niger,
or the Gambia ; nor does he often solace himself
with the reflection, that the day will arrive when
all men will receive the awards of immutable jus-
tice, and Jive together in eternal bliss, without any
other distinctions than those of superior virtue, and
exalted mercy. Circumstances oppose great obsta-
cles in the way of these opinions.

The slaves who are natives of the country, (I
now speak of the mass of those on the cotton planta-
tions, as I knew them,) like all other people, who
suffer wrong in this world, are exceedingly prone to
console themselves with the delights of a future
state, when the evil that has been endured in this
life, will not only be abolished, and all injuries be
compensated by proper rewards, bestowed upon the
sufferers, but, as they have learned that wickedness
is to be punished, as well as goodness compensated,
they do not stop at the point of their own enjoyments
and pleasures, but believe that those who have tor-
mented them here, will most surely be tormented in
their turn hereafter. The gross and carnal minds
of these slaves, are not capable of arriving at the
sublime doctrines taught by the while preachers ; in
which they are encouraged to look forward to the
day wrhen all distinctions of colour, and of condition,
will be abolished, and they shall sit down in the same
paradise, with their masters, mistresses, and even
with the overseer. They are ready >enough to re-
ceive the faith, which conducts them to heaven, and
eternal rest, on account of their present sufferings ;

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 221

but they by no means so willingly admit the master
and mistress to an equal participation in their en-
joyments— this would only be partial justice, and
half way retribution. According to their notions,
the master and mistress are to be, in future, the
companions of wicked slaves, whilst an agreeable
recreation of the celestial inhabitants of the ne-
gro's heaven, will be a return to the overseer of
the countless lashes that he has lent out so liberally
here.

Tt is impossible to reconcile the mind of the native
slave to the idea of living in a state of perfect equals
ity, and boundless affection, with the white people.
Heaven will be no heaven to him, if he is not to be
avenged of his enemies. I know, from experience,
that these are the fundamental rules of his religious
creed ; because I learned them in the religious meet-
ings of the slaves themselves. A favourite and kind
master or mistress, may now and then be admitted
into heaven, but this rather as a matter of favour,
to the intercession of some slave, than as matter of
strict justice to the whites, who will, by no means,
be of an equal rank with those who shall be raised
from the depths of misery, in this world.

The idea of a revolution in the conditions of the
whites and the blacks, is the corner-stone of the re-
ligion of the latter ; and indeed, it seems to me, at
least, to be quite natural, if not in strict accordance
with the precepts of the Bible ; for in that book, I
find it every where laid down, that those who have
possessed an inordinate portion of the good things of

19*

222

NARRATIVE OF THE

this world, and have lived in ease and luxury, at
the expense of their fellow men will surely have to
render an account of their stewardship, and be
punished, for having withheld from others the par-
ticipation of those blessings, which they themselves
enjoyed.

There is no subject which presents to the mind
of the male slave a greater contrast betwTeen his
own condition and that of his master, than the re-
lative station and appearance of his wife and his
mistress. The one, poorly clad, poorly fed, and ex-
posed to all the hardships of the cotton field ; the
other dressed in clothes of gay and various colours,
ornamented with jewelry, and carefully protected
from the rays of the sun, and the blasts of the
wind.

As I have before observed, the Africans have feel-
ings peculiar to themselves ; but with an American
slave, the possession of the spacious house, splendi<J
furniture, and fine horses of his master, are but the
secondary objects of his desires. To fill the mea-
sure of his happiness, and crown his highest ambi-
tion, his young and beautiful mistress must adorn his
triumph, and enliven his hopes.

I have been drawn into the above reflections, by
the recollection of an event of a most melancholy
character, which took place when 1 had been on this
plantation about three months. Amongst the house-
servants of my master, was a young man, named
Hardy, of a dark yellow complexion — a quadroon,

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 223

or mulatto — one fourth of whose blood was trans-
mitted from white parentage.

Hardy was employed in various kinds of work
about the house, and was frequently sent of errands ;
sometimes on horseback. I had become acquainted
with the boy, who had often come to see me at the
quarter, and had sometimes staid all night with me,
and often told me of the ladies and gentlemen, who
visited at the great house.

Amongst others, he frequently spoke of a young
lady, who resided six or seven miles from the
plantation, and often came to visit the daughters
of the family, in company with her brother, a lad
about twelve or fourteen years of age. He de-
scribed the great beauty of this girl, whose mother
was a widow, living on a small estate of her own.
This lady did not keep a carriage; but her son and
daughter, when they went abroad, travelled on
horseback.

One Sunday, these two young people came to
visit at the house of my master, and remained until
after tea in the evening. As I did not go out to
work that day, I went over to the great house, and
from the house to a place in the woods, about a
mile distant, where I had set snares for rabbits.
This place was near the road, and I saw the young
lady and her brother, on their way home. It was
after sundown, when they passed me; but, as the
evening was clear and pleasant, I supposed they
would get home soon after dark, and that no accident
would befall them.

224

NARRATIVE OF THE

No more was thought of the matter this evening,
and I heard nothing further of the young people,
until the next day, about noon, when a black boy
came into the field, where we were picking cotton,
and went to the overseer with a piece of paper. In
a short time the overseer called me to come with
him ; and, leaving the field with the hands under
the orders of Simon, the first captain, we proceeded
to the great house.

As soon as we arrived at the mansion, my master,
who had not spoken to me since the day we came
from Columbia, appeared at the front door, and or-
dered me to come in and follow him. He led me
through a part of the house, and passed into the
back yard, where I saw the young gentleman, his
son, another gentleman, whom I did not know, the
family doctor, and the overseer, all standing to-
gether, and in earnest conversation. At my ap-
pearance, the overseer opened a cellar door, and
ordered me to go in. I had no suspicion of evil,
and obeyed the order immediately : as, indeed, I
must have obeyed it, whatever might have been my
suspicions.

The overseer, and the gentlemen, all followed ;
and as soon as the cellar door was closed after us,
by some one whom I could not see, 1 was ordered
to pull off my clothes, and lie down on my back.
I was then bound by the hands and feet, with
strong cords, and extended at full length between
two of the beams that supported the timbers of the
building.

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 225

The stranger, who, I now observed, was much
agitated, spoke to the doctor, who then opened a
small case of surgeons' instruments, which he took
from his pocket, and told me he was going to skin
me, for what I had done last night ; " But," said the
doctor, « before you are skinned, you had better con-
fess your crime." " What crime, master, shall I con-
fess 1 I have committed no crime — what has been
done, that you are going to murder me ? " was'my re-
ply. My master then asked me, why I had followed
the young lady and her brother, who went from
the house the evening before, and murdered her 1
Astonished and terrified at the charge of being a
murderer, I knew not what to say ; and only contin-
ued the protestations of my innocence, and my en-
treaties not to be put to death. My young master
was greatly enraged against me, and loaded me with
maledictions, and imprecations ; and his father ap-
peared to be as well satisfied as he was, of my guilt,
but was more calm, and less vociferous in his lan-
guage.

The doctor, during this time, was assorting his in-
struments, and looking at me — then stooping down,
and feeling rny pulse, he said, it would not do to
skin a man so full of blood as I was. I should bleed
so much that he could not see to do his work ; and
he should probably cut some large vein, or artery,
by which I should bleed to death in a few minutes :
it was necessary to bleed me in the arms, for some
time, so as to reduce the quantity of blood that was
in me, before taking my skin off. He then bound a

226

NARRATIVE OP THE

string round my right arm, and opened a vein near
the middle of the arm, from which the blood ran in
a large and smooth stream. I already began to feel
faint, with the loss of blood, when the cellar door was
thrown open, and several persons came down, with
two lighted candles.

I looked at these people attentively, as they came
near, and stood around me, and expressed their
satisfaction at the just and dreadful punishment
that I was about to undergo. Their faces were
all new, and unknown to me, except that of a
lad, whom I recognized as the same, who had rid-
den by me, the preceding evening, in company with
his sister.

My old master spoke to this boy. by name, and
told him to come and see the murderer of his sister
receive his due. The l>oy was a pretty youth, and
wore his hair long, on the top of his head, in the fa-
shion of that day. As he came round near my
head, the light of a candle, which the doctor held in
his hand, shone full in my face, and seeing that the
eyes of the boy met mine, I determined to make
one more effort to save my life, and said to him, in
as calm a tone as I could, " Young master, did I
murder young mistress, your sister 1 " The youth
immediately looked at my master, and said, " This is
not the man, — this man has short wool, and he
had long wool, like your Hardy."

My life was saved. I was snatched from the
most horrible of tortures ; and from a slow and pain-
ful death. I was unbound, the bleeding of my arm

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 227

stopped, and I was suffered to put on my clothes,
and go up into the back yard of the house, where I
was required to tell what I knew of the young lady
and her brother, on the previous day. I stated that
I had seen them in the court 3^ard of the house, at
the time I was in the kitchen ; that I had then
gone to the woods, to set my snares, and had seen
them pass along the road, near me, and that this
was all the knowledge I had of them. The boy
was then required to examine me particularly, and
ascertain whether I was, or was not, the man who
had murdered his sister. He said, he had not seen
me at the place, where I stated I was, and that he
Avas confident I was not the person who had attack-
ed him and his sister. That my hair, or wool, as he
called it, was short ; but that of the man who com-
mitted the crime was long, like Hardy's, and that
he was about the size of Hardy — not so large as
I was, but black like me, and not yellow like
Hardy. Some one now asked where Hardy was,
and he was called for, but could not be found in
the kitchen. Persons were sent to the quarter, and
other places, in quest of him, but returned without
him. Hardy was nowhere to be found. Whilst
this inquiry, or rather search, was going on, — per-
ceiving that my old master had ceased to look upon
me as a murderer, I asked him to please to tell me
what had happened, that had been so near proving
fatal to me.

I was now informed, that the young lady, who
had left the house on the previous evening, in com-

228 NARRATIVE OP THE

pany with her brother, had been assailed on the
road, about four miles off, by a black man, who had
sprung from a thicket, and snatched her from her
horse, as she was riding at a short distance behind
her brother. That the assassin, as soon as she was
on the ground, struck her horse a blow with a long
stick, which, together with the fright caused by the
screams of its rider, when torn from it, had caused it
to fly off at full speed ; and the horse of the brother
also taking fright, followed in pursuit, notwithstand-
ing all the exertions of the lad to stop it. All the
account the brother could give of the matter was,
that as his horse ran with him, he saw the ne-
gro drag his sister into the woods, and heard her
screams for a short time. He was not able to stop
his horse, until he reached home, when he gave
information to his mother, and her family. That
people had been scouring the woods all night, and all
the morning, without being able to find the young
lady.

When intelligence of this horrid crime was brought
to the house of my master, Hardy was the first
to receive it ; he having gone to take the horse
of the person, — a young gentleman of the neigh-
bourhood,— who bore it, and who immediately re-
turned to join his friends, in their search for the dead
body.

As soon as the messenger was gone, Hardy had
come to my master, and told him, that if he would
prevent me from murdering him, he wTould disclose
the perpetrator of the crime. He was then ordered

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 229

to communicate all he knew, on the subject ; and
declared, that, having gone into the woods the day
before, to hunt squirrels, he staid until it was late,
and on his return home, hearing the shrieks of a
woman, he had proceeded cautiously to the place ;
but before he could arrive at the spot, the cries had
ceased ; nevertheless, he had found me, after some
search, with the body of the young lady, whom I had
just killed, and that I was about to kill him too,
with a hickory club, but he had saved his life by
promising that he would never betray me. He was
glad to leave me ; and what I had done with the
body, he did not know.

Hardy was known in the neighbourhood, and his
character had been good. I was a stranger, and
on inquiry, the black people in the kitchen supported
Hardy, by saying, that I had been seen going to the
woods, before night, by the way of the road, which
the deceased had travelled. These circumstances
were deemed conclusive against me by my master;
and as the offence, of which I was believed to be
guilty, was the highest that can be committed by a
slave, according to the opinion of owners, it was de-
termined to punish me in a way unknown to the law,
and to inflict tortures upon me which the law would
not tolerate. I was now released, and though very
weak from the effects of bleeding, I was yet able to
return to my own lodgings.

1 had no doubt, that Hardy was the perpetrator of
the crime, for which I was so near losing my life ;
and now recollected, that when I was at the kitchen

20

230 NARRATIVE OF THE

of the great house, on Sunday, he had disappeared,
a short time before sundown, as I had looked for him
when I was going to set my snares, but could not
find him. I went back to the house, and commu-
nicated this fact to my master.

By this time, nearly twenty white men had col-
lected about the dwelling, with the intention of going
to search for the body of the lost lady ; but it was
now resolved to make the look-out double, and tofgive
it the twofold character of a pursuit of the living, as
well as a seeking for the dead.

I now returned to my lodgings, in the quarter, and
soon fell into a profound sleep, from which I did not
awake until long after night, when all was quiet, and
the stillness of undisturbed tranquillity prevailed over
our little community. I felt restless, and sunk into a
labyrinth of painful reflections, upon the horrid and
perilous condition, from which I had this day esca-
ped, as it seemed, merely by chance ; and as I slept
until all sensations of drowsiness had left me, I rose
from my bed, and walked out by the light of the
moon, which was now shining. After being in the
open air some time, I thought of the snares that I
had set on Sunday evening, and determined to go,
and see if they had taken any game. I sometimes
caught oppossums in my snares ; and as these ani-
mals were very fat, at this season of the year, I felt a
hope that I might be fortunate enough to get one to-
night. I had been at my snares, and had returned,
as far as the road, near where I had seen the young
lady and her brother, on horseback, on Sunday

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 231

evening, and had seated myself under the boughs of
a holly bush, that grew there. It so happened, that
the place where I sat, was in the shade of the bush,
within a few feet of the road, but screened from it by
some small boughs. In this position, which I had
taken by accident, I could see a great distance along
the road, towards the end of my master's lane.
Though covered as I was, by the shade, and envel-
oped in boughs, it was difficult for a person in the
road to see me.

The occurrence that had befallen me, in the
course of the previous day, had rendered me ner-
vous, and easily susceptible of all the emotions of fear.
I had not been long in this place, when I thought I
heard sounds, as of a person walking on the ground
at a quick pace ; and looking along the road, to-
wards the lane, I saw the form of some one, passing
through a space in the road, where the beams of
the moon, piercing between two trees, reached the
ground. When the moving body passed into the
shade, I could not see it ; but in a short time, it came
so near, that 1 could distinctly see that it was a man,
approaching me by the road. When he came op-
posite me, and the moon shone full in his face, I
knew him to be a young mulatto, named David, the
coachman of a widow lady, who resided somewhere
near Charleston ; but who had been at the house of
my master, for two or three weeks, as a visiter, with
her two daughters.

This man passed on at a quick step, without ob-
serving me ; and the suspicion instantly riveted itself

232

NARRATIVE OF THE

in my mind, that he was the murderer, for whose
crime I had already suffered so much, and that he
was now on his way to the place where he had left
the body, for the purpose of removing, or burying it
in the earth. I was confident, that no honest pur-
pose could bring him to this place, at this time of
night, alone. I was about two miles from home, and
an equal distance from the spot, where the girl had
been seized.

Of her subsequent murder, no one entertained a
doubt ; for it was not to be expected, that the fellow
who had been guilty of one great crime, would flinch
from the commission of another, of equal magnitude,
and suffer his victim to exist, as a witness to identify
his person.

I felt animated, by a spirit of revenge, against the
wretch, whoever he might be, who had brought me
so near to torture and death ; and feeble and weak
as I was, resolved to pursue the foot-steps of this
coachman, at a wary and cautious distance, and as-
certain, if possible, the object of his visit to these
woods, at this time of night.

I waited until he had passed me, more than a
hundred yards ; and until I could barely discover his
form, in the faint light of the deep shade of the trees,
when stealing quietly into the road, I followed, with
the caution of a spy, traversing the camp of an ene-
my. We were now in a dark pine forest, and on
both sides of us, were tracts of low swampy ground,
covered with thickets so dense, as to be difficult of
penetration, even by a person on foot. The road led

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 233

along a neck of elevated, and dry ground, that divi-
ded these swamps for more than a mile, when they
terminated, and were succeeded by ground that pro-
duced scarcely any other timber, than a scrubby kind
of oak, called black jack. It was amongst these
black jacks, about half a mile beyond the swamps,
that the lady had been carried off. I had often been
here, for the purpose of snaring, and trapping, the
small game of these woods, and was well acquainted
with the topography of this forest, for some distance,
on both sides of the road.

It was necessary for me to use the utmost caution,
in the enterprise I was now engaged in. The road
we were now travelling, was in no place very broad,
and at some points, barely wide enough to permit a
carriage to pass between the trees, that lined its
sides. In some places, it was so dark that I could
not see the man, whose steps I followed : but was
obliged to depend on the sound, produced by the
tread of his feet, upon the ground. I deemed it ne-
cessary to keep as close as possible, to the object of
my pursuit, lest he should suddenly turn into the
swamp, on one side or the other of the road, and
elude my vigilance ; for I had no doubt that he
would quit the road, somewhere. As we approach-
ed the termination of the low grounds, my anxiety
became intense, lest he should escape me ; and at
one time, I could not have been more than one hun-
dred feet behind him ; but he continued his course,
until he reached the oak woods, and came to a place
where an old cart-road led off to the left, along the side

20*

234 NARRATIVE OF THE

of the Dark Swamp, as it was termed in the neigh-
bourhood.

This road, the mulatto took, without turning to
look behind him. Here my difficulties, and perils
increased, for I now felt myself in danger, as I had
no longer any doubt, that I was on the trail of the
murderer, and that, if discovered by him, my life
would be the price of my curiosity. I was too weak
to be able to struggle with him, for a minute ; though
if the blood which I had lost, through his wicked-
ness, could have been restored to my veins, I could
have seized him by the neck, and strangled him.

The road I now had to travel, was so little fre-
quented, that bushes of the ground oak, and bilberry,
stood thick, in almost every part of it. Many of these
bushes were full of dry leaves, which had been touch-
ed by the frost, but had not yet fallen. It was easy
for me to follow him, for I pursued by the noise he
made, amongst these bushes ; but it was not so easy
for me to avoid, on my part, the making of a rust-
ling, and agitation of the bushes, which might ex-
pose me to detection. I was now obliged to depend
wholly on my ears, to guide my pursuit, my eyes
being occupied in watching my own way, to enable
me to avoid every object, the touching of which was
likely to produce sound.

I followed this road more than a mile, led by the
cracking of the sticks, or the shaking of the leaves.
At length, I heard a loud, shrill whistle, and (hen a
total silence succeeded. J now stood still, and in a
few seconds, heard a noise in the swamp like the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 235

drumming of a pheasant. Soon afterwards, I heard
the breaking of sticks, and the sounds caused by the
bending of branches of trees. In a little time, I was
satisfied, that something having life was moving in
the swamp, and coming towards the place where the
mulatto stood.

This was at the end of the cart-road, and opposite
some large pine trees, which grew in the swamp, at
the distance of two or three hundred yards from its
margin. The noise in the swamp, still approach-
ed us ; and at length a person came out of the
thicket, and stood for a minute, or more, with the
mulatto whom I had followed; and then they both
entered the swamp, and took the course of the pine
trees, as I could easily distinguish by my ears.

When they were gone, I advanced to the end of
the road, and sat down upon a log, to listen to their
progress, through the swamp. At length, it seemed
that they had stopped, for I no longer heard any
thing of them. Anxious, however, to ascertain more
of this mysterious business, I remained in silence on
the log, determined to stay there until day, if I could
not sooner learn something to satisfy me, why these
men had gone into the swamp. All uncertainty
upon this subject was, however, quickly removed
from my mind ; for within less than ten minutes,
after I had ceased to hear them moving in the thick-
et, I was. shocked by the faint, but shrill wailings of
a female voice, accompanied with exclamations, and
supplications, in a tone so feeble, that I could only
distinguish a few solitary words.

236 NARRATIVE OF THE

My mind comprehended the whole ground of this
matter, at a glance. The lady supposed to have
been murdered, on Sunday evening, was still living ;
and concealed by the two fiends who had passed out
of my sight, but a few minutes before. The one I
knew, for I had examined his features, within a few
feet of me, in the full light of the moon ; and, that
the other was Hardy, I was as perfectly convinced,
as if I had seen him also.

I now rose to return home ; the cries of the fe-
male in the swamp, still continuing ; but growing
weaker, and dying away, as I receded from the place
where I had sat.

I was now in possession of the clearest evidence,
of the g;uilt of the two murderers ; but I was afraid
to communicate my knowledge to my master, lest he
should suspect me of being an accomplice in this
crime ; and, if the lady could not be recovered alive,
I had no doubt, that Hardy and his companion, were
sufficiently depraved, to charge me as a participator
with themselves, to be avenged upon me. I was
confident that the mulatto, David, would return to
the house before day, and be found in his bed in the
morning ; which he could easily do, for he slept in a
part of the stable loft ; under pretence of being near
the horses of his mistress.

I thought it possible, that Hardy might also return
home, that night, and endeavour to account for his
absence from home on Monday afternoon, by some
ingenious lie ; in the invention of which I knew
him to be very expert. In this case, I saw that I

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 237

should have to run the risk, of being overpowered by
the number of my false accusers ; and, as I stood
alone, they might yet be able to sacrifice my life,
and escape the punishment due to their crimes.
After much consideration, I came to the resolution
of returning-, as quick as possible, to the quarter —
calling up the overseer — and acquainting him with
all that I had seen, heard, and done, in the course of
this night.

As I did not know what time of night it was,
when I left my bed, I was apprehensive that day
might break before I could so far mature my plans,
as to have persons to way-lay, and arrest the mu-
latto, on his return home ; but when I roused the
overseer, he told me it was only one o'clock, and
seemed but little inclined to credit my story ; but,
after talking to me several minutes, he told me he
now, more than ever, suspected me to be the mur-
derer ; but he would go with me, and see if I had
told the truth. When we arrived at the great house,
some members of the family had not yet .gone to
bed, having been kept up by the arrival of several
gentlemen, who had been searching the woods all
day for the lost lady, and who had come here to
seek lodgings, when it was near midnight. My
master was in bed, but was called up and listened
attentively to my story — at the close of which, he
shook his head, and said with an oath, "You

, I believe you to be the murderer ; but

we will go and see if all you say is a lie ; if it is, the
torments of will be pleasure to what awaits

238 NARRATIVE OF THE

you. You have escaped once, but you will not get
off a second time." I now found that somebody
must die; and if the guilty could not be found,
the innocent would have to atone for them. The
manner in which my master had delivered his words,
assured me, that the life of somebody must be taken.

This new danger aroused my energies, — and I
told them I was ready to go, and take the conse-
quences. Accordingly, the overseer, my young
master, and three other gentlemen, immediately set
out with me. It was agreed that we should all
travel on foot ; the overseer and I going a few
paces in advance of the others. We proceeded
silently, but rapidly, on our way ; and as we passed
it, I shewed them the place where I sat under the
holly bush, when the mulatto passed me. We nei-
ther saw nor heard any person on the road, and
readied the log at the end of the cart-road, where
I sat, when I heard the cries in the swamp. All
was now quiet, and our party lay down in the bush-
es, on each side of a large gum tree ; at the root of
which the two murderers stood, when they talked
together, before they entered the thicket. We had
not been here more than an hour, when I heard, as
I lay with my head near the ground, a noise in the
swamp, which I believed could only be made by
those whom we sought.

I, however, said nothing, and the gentlemen did
not hear it. It was caused, as I afterwards ascer-
tained, by dragging the fallen branch of a tree, along
the ground, for the purpose of lighting the fire.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 239

The night was very clear and serene— its silence
only being broken at intervals, by the loud hooting
of the great long-eared owls, which are numerous in
these swamps. I felt oppressed by the cold, and was
glad to hear the crowing of a cock, at a great dis-
tance, announcing the approach of day. This was
followed, after a short interval, by the cracking of
sticks, and by other tokens, which I knew could pro-
ceed only from the motions of living bodies. I now
whispered to the overseer, who lay near me, that it
would soon appear whether I had spoken the truth
or not.

All were now satisfied that people were coming
out of the swamp, for we heard them speak to each
other. I desired the overseer to advise the other
gentlemen to let the culprits come out of the swamp,
and gain the high ground, before we attempted to
seize them ; but this counsel was, unfortunately, not
taken ; and when they came near to the gum-tree,
and it could be clearly seen that there were two
men, and no more, one of the gentlemen called out
to them to stop, or they were dead. Instead, however,
of stopping, they both sprang forward, and took to
flight. They did not turn into the swamp, for the
gentleman who ordered them to stop, was in their
rear — they having already passed him. At the
moment they had started to run, each of the gentle-
men fired two pistols at them. The pistols made
the forest ring, on all sides ; and 1 supposed it was
impossible for either of the fugitives to escape from
so many balls. This was, however, not the case ;

240 NARRATIVE OF THE

for only one of them was injured. The mulatto,
David, had one arm and one leg broken, and fell
about ten yards from us ; but Hardy escaped, and
when the smoke cleared away, he was nowhere to
be seen. On being interrogated, David acknow-
ledged that the lady was in the swamp, on a small
island, and was yet alive — that he and Hardy had
gone from the house on Sunday, for the purpose of
waylaying and carrying her off; and intended to
kill her little brother — this part of the duty being
assigned to him, whilst Hardy was to drag the sister
from her horse. Jb they were both mulattos, they
blacked their faces with charcoal, taken from a pine
stump, partially burrred. The boy was riding before
his sister, and when Hardy seized her and dragged
her from her horse, she screamed and frightened
both the horses, which took off at full speed, by
which means the boy escaped. Finding that the
boy was out of his reach, David remained in the
bushes, until Hardy brought the sister to him.
They immediately tied a handkerchief round her
face, so as to cover her mouth and stifle her shrieks ;
and taking her in their arms, carried her back to-
ward my master's house, for some distance, through
the woods, until they came to the cart-road leading
along the swamp. They then followed this road
as far as it led, and, turning into the swamp, took
their victim to a place they had prepared for her the
Sunday before, on a small knoll in the swamp,
where the ground was dry.

Her hands were closely confined, and she was

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 241

tied by the feet to a tree. He said he had stolen
some bread, and taken it to her this night ; but
when they unbound her mouth to permit her to eat,
she only wept and made a noise, begging them to
release her, until they were obliged again to bandage
her mouth.

It was now determined by the gentlemen, that as
the lady was still alive, we ought not to lose a mo-
ment in endeavouring to rescue her from her dread-
ful situation. I pointed out the large pine trees, in
the direction of which I heard the cries of the young
lady, and near which I believed she was — underta-
king, at the same time, to act as pilot, in penetrating
the thicket. Three of the gentlemen and myself,
accordingly set out, leaving the other two with the
wounded mulatto, with directions to inform us when
we deviated from a right line to the pine trees.
This they were able to do by attending to the noise
we made, with nearly as much accuracy as if they
had seen us.

The atmosphere had now become a little cloudy,
and the morning was very dark, even in the oak
wToods ; but when we had entered the thickets of
the swamp, all objects became utterly invisible ;
and the obscurity was as total as if our eyes had
been closed. Our companions on the dry ground,
lost sight of the pine trees, and could not give us
any directions in our journey. We became entangled
in briers, and vines, and mats of bushes, from which
the greatest exertions were necessary to disengage
ourselves.

21

242 NARRATIVE O^ THE

It was so dark, that we could not see the fallen
trees ; and, missing these, fell into quagmires, and
sloughs of mud and water, into which we sunk up
to the arm-pits, and from which we were able to ex-
tricate ourselves, only by seizing upon the hanging
branches of the surrounding trees. After struggling
in this half-drowned condition, for at least a quarter
of an hour, we reached a small dry spot, where
the gentlemen again held a council, as to ulterior
measures. They called to those left on the shore,
to know if we were proceeding toward the pine
trees ; but received for answer that the pines were
invisible, and they knew not whether we were right
or wrong. In this state of uncertainty, it was thought
most prudent to wait the coming of day, in our pre-
sent resting place.

The air was frosty, and in our wet clothes, load-
ed as we were with mud, it may be imagined that
our feelings were not pleasant ; and when the day
broke, it brought us but little relief, for we found, as
soon as it was light enough to enable us to see
around, that we were on one of those insulated
dry spots, called u tussocks ," by the people of the
south. These tussocks are formed by clusters of
small trees, which, taking root in the mud, are, in
process of time, surrounded by long grass, which,
entwining its roots with those of the trees, overspread
and cover the surface of the muddy foundation, by
which the superstructure is supported. These tus-
socks are often several yards in diameter. That
upon which we now were, stood in the midst of a

)

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 243

great miry pool, into which we were again obliged
to launch ourselves, and struggle onward for a dis-
tance of ten yards, before we reached the line of some
fallen and decaying trees.

It was now broad daylight, and we saw the pine
trees, at the distance of about a hundred yards from
us ; but even with the assistance of the light,
we had great difficulty in reaching them, — to do
which, we were compelled to travel at least a quar-
ter of a mile by the angles and curves of the fallen
timber, upon which alone we could walk ; this part
of the swamp being a vast half-fluid bog.

It was sunrise when we reached the pines, which
we found standing upon a small islet of firm ground
containing, as well as I could judge, about half an
acre, covered with a heavy growth of white maples,
swamp oaks, a few large pines, and a vast mat of
swamp laurel, called in the south ivy. I had no
doubt, that the object of our search was somewhere
on this little island ; but small as it was, it was no
trifling affair to give every part of it a minute examU
nation, for the stems and branches of the ivy were
so minutely interwoven with each other, and spread
along the ground in so many curves and crossings,
that it was impossible to proceed a single rod, with-
out lying down and creeping along the earth.

The gentlemen agreed, that if any one discovered
the young lady, he should immediately call to the
others ; and we all entered the thicket. I, however,
turned along the edge of the island, with the intenr
tion of making its circuit, for the purpose of tracing,
if possible, the footsteps of those who had passed be^

244

NARRATIVE OF THE

tween it and the main shore. I made my way more
than half round the island, without much difficulty,
and without discovering any signs of persons having
been here before me : but in crossing the trunk of a
large tree which had fallen, and the top of which
extended far into the ivy, I perceived some stains of
mud, on the bark of the log. Looking into the
swamp, I saw that the root of this tree was connected
with other fallen timber, extending beyond the reach
of my vision which was obstructed by the bramble
of the swamp, and the numerous ever-greens, grow-
ing here. I now advanced along the trunk of the tree,
until I reached its topmost branches, and here discov-
ered evident signs of a small trail, leading into the
thicket of ivy . Creeping along, and following this trail,
by the small bearberry bushes that had been tram-
pled down, and had not again risen to an erect posi-
tion, I was led almost across the island, and found
that the small bushes were discomposed, quite up to
the edge of a vast heap of the branches of ever-green
trees, produced by the falling of several large juniper
cypress trees, which grew in the swamp in a cluster,
and, having been blown down, had fallen with their
tops athwart each other, and upon the almost imper-
vious mat of ivies, with which the surface of the
island was coated over.

I stood and looked at this mass of entangled
green brush, but could not perceive the slightest
marks of any entrance into its labyrinths ; nor did
it seem possible for a.nj creature, larger than a squir-
rel, to penetrate it. It now for the first time struck
me as a great oversight in the gentlemen, that they

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 245

had not compelled the mulatto, David, to describe
the place where they had concealed the lady ; and,
as the forest was so dense, that no communication
could be had with the shore, either by words or signs,
we could not now procure any information on this
subject. I therefore called to the gentlemen, who
were on the island with me, and desired them to
come to me without delay.

Small as this island was, it was after the lapse of
many minutes, that the overseer, and the other gen-
tlemen, arrived where I stood ; and when they came,
they would have been the subjects of mirthful emo-
tions, had not the tragic circumstances, in which I
w7as placed, banished from my heart, every feeling
but that of the most profound melancholy.

When the gentlemen had assembled, 1 informed
them of signs of footsteps, that I had traced from the
other side of the island ; and told them, that I be-
lieved the young lady lay somewhere under the heap
of brushwood, before us. This opinion obtained but
little credit, because there was no opening in the
brush, by which any one could enter it ; but on go-
ing a few paces round the heap, I perceived a small,
snaggy pole, resting on the brush, and nearly con-:
cealed by it, with the lower end stuck in the ground,
The branches had been cut from this pole, at the
distance of three or four inches from the main stem,
which made it a tolerable substitute for a ladder. I
immediately ascended the pole, which led me to the
top of the pile ; and here I discovered an opening in
the brush, between the forked top of one of the cy?

2X#

246

NARRATIVE OF THE

press trees, through which a man might easily pass.
Applying my head to this aperture, I distinctly heard
a quick, and laborious breathing, like that of a per-
son in extreme illness ; and again called the gentle-
men to follow me.

When they came up the ladder, the breathing was
audible to all ; and one of the gentlemen, whom I
now perceived to be the stranger, who was with us
in my master's cellar, when I was bled, slid down
into the dark and narrow passage, without uttering'
a word. I confess, that some feelings of trepidation
passed through my nerves, when I stood alone ; but
now that a leader had preceded me, I followed, and
glided through the smooth and elastic cypress tops,
to the bottom of this vast labyrinth of green boughs.

When I reached the ground, I found myself in
contact with the gentleman, who was in advance of
me, and near one end of a large concave, oblong,
open space, formed by the branches of the trees, hav-
ing been supported and kept above the ground,
partly by a cluster of very large and strong ivies,
that grew here, and partly by a young gum tree,
which had been bent into the form of an arch, by
the falling timber.

Though we could not see into this leafy cavern
from above, yet when we had been in it, a few mo-
ments, we had light enough to see the objects around
us, with tolerable clearness ; but that which surpri-
sed us both greatly, was, that the place was totally
silent, and we could not perceive the appearance of
any living thing, except ourselves.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 247

After we had been here some minutes, our vision
became stili more distinct; and I saw, at the other
end of the open space, ashes of wood, and some ex-
tinguished brands, but there was no smoke. Going
to these ashes, and stirring them with a stick, I
found coals of fire carefully covered over, in a hole
six or eight inches deep.

When he saw the fire, the gentleman spoke to me,
and expressed his astonishment, that we heard the
breathing no longer; but he had scarcely uttered
these words, when a faint groan, as of a woman in
great pain, was heard to issue, apparently from the
ground ; but a motion of branches on our right, as-
sured me that the sufferer was concealed there.
The gentleman sprung to the spot, pushed aside the
pendant boughs, stooped low beneath the bent ivies,
and came out, bearing in his hands, a delicate fe-
male figure. As he turned round, and exposed her
half-closed eye and white forehead, to the light, he
exclaimed, " Eternal God, Maria, is it you ? " He
then pressed her to his bosom, and sunk upon the
ground, still holding her closely in his embrace.

The lady lay motionless in his arms, and I
thought she was dead. Her hair hung matted and
dishevelled from her head ; a handkerchief, once
white, but now soiled with dust, and stained with
blood, was bound firmly round her head, covering
her mouth and chin, and was fastened at the back
of the neck, by a double knot, and secured by a liga-
ture of cypress bark.

I knew not whom most to pity, — the lady, who

248 NARRATIVE OF THE

now lay insensible, in the arms that still clasped her
tenderly ; or the unhappy gentleman, who having
cut the cords from her limbs, and the handkerchief
from her face, now sat, and silently gazed upon her
death-like countenance. He uttered not a sigh, and
moved not a joint; but his breast heaved with
agony ; the sinews, and muscles of his neck rose
and fell, like those of a man in convulsions ; all the
lineaments of his face were, alternately, contracted
and expanded, as if his last moments were at hand ;
whilst great drops of sweat rolled down his forehead,
as though he struggled against an enemy, whose
strength was more than human.

Oppressed by the sight of so much wretched-
ness, I turned from its contemplation ; and called
aloud to the gentlemen without, (who had all this
time been waiting to hear from us,) to come up the
ladder, to the top of the pile of boughs. The over-
seer was quickly at the top of the opening, by which
I had descended ; and I now informed him that we
had found the lady. He ordered me to hand her
up — and I desired the gentleman, who was with me,
to permit me to do so; but this he refused — and
mounting the boughs of the fallen trees, and support-
ing himself by the strong branches of the ivies, he
quickly reached the place, where the overseer stood.

He even here refused to part from his charge, but
bore her down the ladder alone. He was, however,
obliged to accept aid, in conveying her through the
swamp, to the place where we had left the two gen-

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 249

tlemen, with the wounded mulatto, whose sufferings,
demon as he was, were sufficient to move the hard-
est heart. His right arm, and left leg were broken ;
and he had lost much blood, before we returned from
the island ; and as he could not walk, it was neces-
sary to carry him home. We had not brought any
horses ; and until the lady was recovered, no one
seemed to think any more about the mulatto, after
he was shot down.

It was proposed to send for a horse, to take David
home ; but it was finally agreed, that we should
leave him in the woods, where he was, until a man
could be sent for him, with a cart. At the time we
left him, his groans and lamentations seemed to ex-
cite no sympathy, in the breast of any. More cruel
sufferings yet awaited him.

The lady was carried home, in the arms of the
gentlemen ; and she did not speak, until after she
was bathed, and put to bed in my master's house, as
I afterwards heard. I know she did not speak on
the way. She died on the fourth day after her res-
cue; and before her death, related the circumstan-
ces of her misfortune, as I was told by a coloured
woman, who attended her in her illness, in the fol-
lowing manner :

As she was riding in the dusk of the evening, at
a rapid trot, a few yards behind her brother, a black
man sprang from behind a tree standing close by
the side of the road ; seized her by her riding dress,
and dragged her to the ground, but failed to catch
the bridle of the horse, which sprang off at full speed.

250 NARRATIVE OF THE

Another negro immediately came to the aid of the
first, and said, " I could not catch him — we must
make haste." They carried her as fast as they could
go, to the place where we found her; when they
bound her hands, feet, and mouth, and left her until
the next night ; and had left her the second morn-
ing, only a few minutes, when she heard the report
of guns. Soon after this, by great efforts, she ex-
tricated one of her feet from the bark, with which
she was bound; but finding herself too weak to
stand, she crawled, as far as she could, under the
boughs of the trees, hoping that when her assassins
returned again, they would not be able to find her ;
and that she might there die alone.

Exhausted by the efforts she had made, to remove
herself, she fell into the stupor of sleep, from which
she was aroused by the noise we made, when we
descended into the cavern. She then, supposing us
to be her destroyers returned again, lay still, and
breathed as softly as possible, to prevent us from
hearing her ; but when she heard the voice of the
gentleman who was with me, the tones of which
were familiar to her, she groaned, and moved her
feet, to let us know where she was. This exertion,
and the idea of her horrid condition, overcame the
strength of her nerves ; and when her deliverer
raised her from the ground, she had swooned, and
was unconscious of all things.

We had no sooner arrived at the house, than in-
quiry was made for Hardy ; but it was ascertained
in the kitchen, that he had not been seen, since the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 251

previous evening, at night fall, when he had left the
kitchen for the purpose of going to sleep at the stable,
with David, as he had told one of the black women ;
and preparation was immediately made, to go in pur-
suit of him.

For this purpose all the gentlemen present equip-
ped themselves with pistols, fowling pieces, and
horns — such as are used by fox hunters. Messen-
gers were despatched round the country, to give no-
tice to all the planters, within the distance of many
miles, of the crime that had been committed, and of
the escape of one of its perpetrators, with a request to
them to come without delay, and join in the pursuit,
intended to be given. Those who had dogs, trained
to chase thieves, were desired to bring them ; and a
gentleman who lived twelve miles off, and who own-
ed a blood hound, was sent for, and requested to come
with his dog, in all haste.

In consequence, I suppose, of the information I
had given, I was permitted to be present at these de-
liberations ; and though my advice was not asked,
I was often interrogated, concerning my knowledge
of the affair. Some proposed to go at once, with
dogs and horses, into the woods, and traverse the
swamp and thickets, for the purpose of rousing Har-
dy from the place of concealment, he might have
chosen; but the opinion of the overseer prevailed,
who thought, that from the intimate knowledge pos-
sessed by him, of all the swamps and coverts in the
neighbourhood, there would be little hope of discov-
ering him in this manner. The overseer advised

252 NARRATIVE OF THE

them, to wait the coining of the gentleman with his
blood hound, before they entered the woods; for the
reason, that if the blood hound could be made to take
the trail, he would certainly find his game, before he
quit it, if not thrown off the scent by the men, horses,
and dogs crossing his course ; but if the blood hound
could not take the scent, they might then adopt the
proposed plan of pursuit, with as much success as at
present. This counsel being adopted, the horses
were ordered into the stable ; and the gentlemen en-
tered the house to take their breakfast, and wait the
arrival of the blood hound.

Nothing wTas said of the mulatto, David, who
seemed to be forgotten — not a word being spoken by
any one of bringing him from the woods. I knew
that he was suffering the most agonizing pains, and
great as were his crimes, his groans and cries of an-
guish still seemed to echo in my ears ; but I was
afraid to make any application in his behalf, lest,
even yet, I might be suspected of some participation
in his offences ; for I knew that the most horrid
punishments were often inflicted upon slaves, merely
on suspicion.

As the morning advanced, the number of men
and horses in front of my master's mansion in-
creased ; and before ten o'clock, I think there were,
at least, fifty of each — the horses standing hitched
and the men conversing in groups without, or as-
sembled together within the house.

At length the owner of the blood hound came,
bringing with him his dog, in a chaise, drawn by

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 253

one horse. The harness was removed from the
horse, its place supplied by a saddle and bridle, and
the whole party set off for the woods. As they rode
away, my master, who was one of the company,
told me to follow them ; but we had proceeded only
a little distance, when the gentlemen stopped, and
my master, after speaking with the owner of the
dog, told the overseer to go back to the house, and
get some piece of the clothes of Hardy, that had
been worn by him lately. The overseer returned,
and we all proceeded forward to the place where
David lay.

We found him where we had left him, greatly
weakened by the loss of blood, and complaining
that the cold air caused his wounds to smart intoler-
ably. When I came near him; he looked at me and
told me I had betrayed him. None of the gentle-
men seemed at all moved by his sufferings, and
when any of them spoke to him, it was with deri-
sion, and every epithet of scorn and contumely. As
it was apparent that he could not escape, no one
proposed to remove him to a place of greater safety )
but several of the horsemen, as they passed, lashed
him with the thongs of their whips ; but I do not
believe he felt these blows — the pain he endured from
his wounds being so great, as to drown the sensation
of such minor afflictions.

The day had already become warm, although the
night had been cold ; the sun shone with great clear-
ness, and many carrion crows, attracted by the scent

22

254 NARRATIVE OF THE

of blood, were perched upon the trees near where we
now were.

When the overseer came up with us, he brought
an old blanket, in which Hardy had slept for some
time, and handed it to the owner of the dog ; who,
having first caused the hound to smell of the blan-
ket, untied the cord in which he had been led, and
turned him into the woods. The dog went from
us fifty or sixty yards, in a right line, then made a
circle around us. again commenced his circular
movement, and pursued it nearly half round. Then
he dropped his nose to the ground, snuffed the taint-
ed surface, and moved off through the woods, slowly,
almost touching the earth with his nose. The
owner of the dog, and twelve or fifteen others fol-
lowed him, whilst the residue of the party dispersed
themselves along the edge of the swamp ; and the
overseer ordered me to stay, and watch the horses of
those who dismounted, going himself on foot in the
pursuit.

When the gentlemen were all gone out of sight, I
went to David, who lay all this time within my view,
for the purpose of asking him if I could render him
any assistance. He begged me to bring him some
wrater, as he was dying of thirst, no less than with
the pain of his wounds. One of the horsemen had
left a large tin horn, hanging on his saddle ; this I
took, and stopping the small end closely with leaves,
filled it with water from the swamp, and gave it to
the wounded man, who drank it, and then turning

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 255

his head towards me, said — " Hardy and I had laid
a plan to have this thing brought upon you, and to
have you hung for it — but you have escaped." He
then asked me if they intended to leave him to die
in the woods, or to take him home and hang him.
I told him I had heard them talk of taking him
home in a cart, but what was to be done with him I
did not know. I felt a horror of the crimes com-
mitted by this man ; was pained by the sight of his
sufferings, and being unable to relieve the one, or to
forgive the other, went to a place where I could nei-
ther see nor hear him, and sat down to await the
return of those who had gone in pursuit of Hardy.

In the circumstances which surrounded me, it
cannot be supposed that my feelings were pleasant,
or that time moved very fleetly ; but painful as my
situation was, I was obliged to bear it for many
hours. From the time the gentlemen left me, I nei-
ther saw nor heard them, until late in the afternoon,
when five or six of them returned, having lost their
companions in the woods.

Toward sundown, I heard a great noise of horns
blown, and of men shouting at a distance in the
forest ; and soon after,, my master, the owner of the
blood hound, and many others returned, bringing
with them. Hardy, whom the hound had followed
ten or twelve miles, through the swamps and thick-
ets ; had at last caught him, and would soon have
killed him, had he not been compelled to relinquish
his prey. When the party had all returned, a kind
of court was held in the woods, where we then were,

256 NARRATIVE OF THE

for the purpose of determining what punishment
should be inflicted upon Hardy and David. All
agreed at once, that an example of the most ter-
rific character ought to be made of such atrocious
villains, and that it would defeat the ends of justice
to deliver these fellows up to the civil authority, to
be hanged like common murderers. The next mea-
sure was, to settle upon the kind of punishment to
be inflicted upon them, and the manner of executing
the sentence.

Hardy was, all this time, sitting on the ground,
covered with blood, and yet bleeding profusely, in
hearing of his inexorable judges. The dog had
mangled both his arms, and hands, in a shocking
manner ; torn a large piece of flesh entirely away
from one side of his breast, and sunk his fangs deep
in the side of his neck. No other human creature
that I have ever seen, presented a more deplorable
spectacle of mingled crime and cruelty.

It was now growing late, and the fate of these
miserable men was to be decided before the company
separated to go to their several homes. One pro-
posed to burn them, another to flay them alive, and
a third to starve them to death, and many other
modes of slowly and tormentingly extinguishing
life, were named ; but that which was finally adopt-
ed, was, of all others, the most horrible. The
wretches were unanimously sentenced to be strip-
ped naked, and bound down securely upon their
backs, on the naked earth, in sight of each other ;
^o have their mouths closely covered with bandages,

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL.

257

to prevent them from making a noise to frighten
away the birds, and in this manner to be left, to be
devoured alive by the carrion crows and buzzards,
which swarm in every part of South Carolina.

The sentence was instantly carried into effect, so
far as its execution depended on us. Hardy, and his
companion, were divested of their clothes, stretched
upon their backs on the ground; their mouths
bandaged with handkerchiefs— their limbs extend-
ed—and these, together with their necks, being
crossed by numerous poles, were kept close to the
earth by forked sticks driven into the ground, so as
to prevent the possibility of moving any part of their
persons ; and in this manner these wicked men
were left to be torn in pieces, by birds of prey. The
buzzards, and carrion crows, always attack dead
bodies by pulling out and consuming the eyes first.
They then tear open the bowels, and feed upon the
intestines.

TV k returned to my master's plantation, and I did

not seej^s pja** Lgain"1 until" be.xneuf . f unda^
\i several of my fellow-slaves went wu *me t0
see the remains of the dead, but we found only
their bones. Great flocks of buzzards, and carrion
crows, were assembled in the trees, giving a dismal
aspect to the woods; and I hastened to aban-
don a place, fraught with so many afflicting recol-
lections.

The lady, who had been the innocent sacrifice of
the brutality of the men, whose bones I had seen
bleaching in the sun, had died on Saturday evening,

22*

OKQ

wo NARRATIVE OP THE

and her corpse was buried on Monday, i„ a irrave
jard on my master's plantation. I have nevef seen
a large cotton plantation, in Carolina, without £

ftZKT*, This buryins ground is ™°$

Priett lfueP m\°{ the femi,y' Wh0 are '«e pro
pr eto s of the estate, but also of many other persons

who have lived in the neighbourhood. Hatf 2

ace, or an acre of ground, is appropriated as!

psfc- side of wu* L **■*» 0af

othe, tl , ^ t0 T aie bU'ied ; Whfl8t the
othei paits of ihe ground are open to strangers

poor people of their vicinity, and, in general o 2

^choose to inter their dead within Is bonnd^

This custom preyails as fer north ^

and tt seems to me to be much more consonant to
the feelings of solitude and tender recollections, which

^ndsWXTia,e Wkh tHe T °f V
h. ends than the practice of promiscuous interment

m a church-yard, where all idea of seclusion I
bamshed by the last .horn* g the dead bem,! 1"
open to the rv<* .jls to ^'*w.^_ ^ U*HJ8 -own
^ . .dted tn .cie intrusions of strarfgt^;'t ~o^JH'ne
niiciity of the sepulchre is treated as a common, ancT
where the grave itself is, in a few years, torn up, or
covered over, to form a temporary resting place for
some new tenant.

The family of the deceased lady, though not very
wealthy, was amongst the most ancient and respec-
table in this part of the counUy ; and, on Sunday,
whilst the dead body lay in my master's house, there
was a continual influx and efflux of visiters, in car-
riages, on horse-back, and on foot. The house was

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 259

open to all who chose to come ; and the best wines,
cakes, sweet-meats and fruits, were handed about to
the company, by the servants ; though I observed
that none remained for dinner, except the relations
of the deceased, those of my master's family, and the
young gentleman who was with me on the island.
The visiters remained but a short time when they
came, and were nearly all in mourning. This was
the first time that I had seen a large number of the
fashionable people of Carolina assembled together,
and their appearance impressed me with an opinion
favourable to their character. I had never seen an
equal number of people anywhere, whose deport-
ment was more orderly and decorous, nor whose
feelings seemed to be more in accordance with the
solemnity of the event, which had brought them
together.

I had been ordered by the overseer, to remain at
the great house until the afternoon, for the purpose,
as I afterwards learned, of bein^ ^een by lnose wno
came to see the corpse; and many ol 2s5 ladies
and gentlemen inquired for me, and when
pointed out to them, commended my condu*
fidelity, in discovering the authors of the mu
condoled with me for having suffered inno
and several gave me money. One old lady
came in a pretty carriage, drawn by two black I
gave me a dollar.

On Monday, the funeral took place, and ?.
hundred persons followed the corpse to the
over which a minister delivered a short sermon.

260 NARRATIVE OF THE

young gentleman who was with me when we found
the deceased on^the island, walked with her mother
to the grave-yard, and the little brother followed,
with a younger sister.

After the interment, wines and refreshments were
handed round to the whole assembly, and, at least
a hundred persons remained for dinner, with my
master's family. At four o'clock in the afternoon,
the carriages and horses were ordered to the door of
the court-yard of the house, and the company
retired. At sundown, the plantation was as quiet
as if its peace had never been disturbed.

CHAPTER XIV.

I have before observed, that the negroes of the cot-
ton plantations are exceedingly superstitious; and
thev are indeed, pror ' "M ot*^ oeonle that I

have ever 1- ^ve in ghosts, and the exist-

% infimte number of supernatural agents
f of a miraculous character, can be too absurd
in credit with them ; and a narrative is not
•s eagerly listened to, nor the more cautiously
•d because it is impossible in its ci-— -
Within, a few weeks after the deaths of the
malefactors, to whose horrible crimes were
ed equally horrible punishments the forest
!d been the scene of these bloody deeds, was
ed and believed to be visited at night by beings
ieaiy make, whose groans, and death-strug.

I*

J

J

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 261

gles, were heard in the darkest recesses of the woods,
amidst the napping of the wings of vultures, the
fluttering of carrion crows, and the dismal croaking
of ravens. In the midst of this nocturnal din, the
noise caused by the tearing of the flesh from the
bones, was heard, and the panting breath of the
agonized sufferer, quivering under the beaks of his
tormentors, as they consumed his vitals, floated au-
dibly upon the evening breeze.

The murdered lady was also seen walking by
moonlight, near the spot where she had been drag-
ged from her horse, wrapped in a blood-stained
mantle ; overhung with gory and dishevelled locks.

The little island in the swamp, was said to present
spactacles too horrible for human eyes to look upon,
and sounds were heard to issue from it, which no
human ear could bear. Terrific and ghastly fires
were seen to burst up, at midnight, amongst the
ever-greens that clad this lonely spot, emitting scents
too suffocating and sickly to be endured ; whilst
demoniac yells, shouts of despair and groans of ago-
ny, mingled their echos in the solitude of the woods.

Whilst I remained in this neighbourhood, no
coloured person ever travelled this road, alone, after
night-fall ; and many white men would have ridden
ten miles round the country, to avoid the passage of
the ridge road, after dark. Generations must pass
away, before the tradition of this place will be forgot-
ten ; and many a year will open and close, before
the last face will be pale, or the last heart beat, as

262

NARRATIVE OF THE

the twilight traveller, skirts the borders of the Mur-
derers' Swamp.

We had allowances of meat distributed to all the
people twice this fall — once when we had finished
the saving of the fodder, and again soon after the
murder of the young lady. The first time we had
beef, such as I had driven from the woods when I
went to the alligator pond ; but now we had two
hogs given to us, which weighed, one a hundred and
thirty, and the other a hundred and fifty-six pounds.
This was very good pork, and I received a pound
and a quarter as my share of it. This was the first
pork that I had tasted in Carolina, and it afforded a
real feast. We had, in our family, full seven pounds
of good fat meat ; and as we now had plenty of
sweet potatoes, both in our gardens and in our weekly
allowance, we had on the Sunday following the
funeral, as good a dinner of stewed pork and potatoes,
as could have been found in all Carolina. We did
not eat all our meat on Sunday, but kept part of it
until Tuesday, when we warmed it in a pot, with an
addition of parsley and other herbs, and had another
very comfortable meal.

I had, by this time, become in some measure, ac-
quainted with the country, and began to lay and
execute plans to procure supplies of such things as
were not allowed me by my master. I understood
various methods of entrapping rackoons, and other
wild animals that abounded in the large swamps of
this country ; and besides the skins, which were
worth something for their furs, I generally procured

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 263

as many rackoons, opossums, and rabbits, as afforded
us two or three meals in a week. The woman with
whom I lived, understood the way of dressing an
opossum, and I was careful to provide one for our
Sunday dinner every week, so long as these animals
continued fat and in good condition.

All the people on the plantation did not live as
well as our family did, for many of the men did not
understand trapping game, and others were too in-
dolent to go far enough from home to find good places
for setting their traps. My principal trapping ground
was three miles from home, and I went three times
a week, always after night, to bring home my game,
and keep my traps in good order. Many of the
families in the quarter caught no game, and had no
meat, except that which we received from the over-
seer, which averaged about six or seven meals in the
year.

Lydia, the woman whom I have mentioned here-
tofore, was one of the women whose husbands pro-
cured little or nothing for the sustenance of their
families, and I often gave her a quarter of a rackoon
or a small opossum, for which she appeared very
thankful. Her health was not good — she had a bad
cough, and often told me, she was feverish and rest-
less at night. It appeared clear to me that this
woman's constitution was broken by hardships, and
sufferings, and that she could not live long in her
present mode of existence. Her husband, a native
of a country far in the interior of Africa, said he had
been a priest in his own nation, and had never been

264 NARRATIVE OF THE

taught to do any kind of labour, being supported by
the contributions of the public ; and he now main-
tained, as far as he could, the same kind of lazy dig-
nity, that he had enjoyed at home. He was compelled
by the overseer to work, with the other hands, in the
field, but as soon as he had come into his cabin, he
took his seat, and refused to give his wife the least
assistance in doing any thing. She was conse-
quently obliged to do the little work that it was ne-
cessary to perform in the cabin ; and also to bear all
the labour of weeding and cultivating the family
patch or garden. The husband was a morose, sul-
len man, and said, he formerly had ten wives in his
own country, who all had to work for, and wait upon
him ; and he thought himself badly off here, in hav-
ing but one woman to do any thing for him. This
man was very irritable, and often beat and otherwise
maltreated his wife, on the slightest provocation, and
the overseer refused to protect her, on the ground,
that he never interfered in the family quarrels of the
black people. I pitied this woman greatly, but as it
was not in my power to remove her from the pres-
ence and authority of her husband, I thought it pru-
dent not to say nor do any thing to provoke him fur-
ther against her. As the winter approached, and
the autumnal rains set in, she was frequently expo-
sed in the field, and was wet for several hours to-
gether : this, joined to the want of warm and com-
fortable woollen clothes, caused her to contract colds,
and hoarseness, which increased the severity of her
cough. A few days before Christmas, her child died,

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 265

after an illness of only three days. I assisted her
and her husband to inter the infant — which was a
little boy — and its father buried with it, a small bow
and several arrows ; a little bag of parched meal ; a
miniature canoe, about a foot long, and a little pad-
dle, (with which he said it would cross the ocean to
his own country) a small stick, with an iron nail,
sharpened, and fastened into one end of it ; and a
piece of white muslin, with several curious and
strange figures painted on it in blue and red, by
which, he said, his relations and countrymen would
know the infant to be his son, and would receive it
accordingly, on its arrival amongst them.

Cruel as this man was to his wife, I could not but
respect the sentiments which inspired his affection for
his child ; though it was the affection of a barbarian.
He cut a lock of hair from his head, threw it upon
the dead infant, and closed the grave with his own
hands. He then told us the God of his country was
looking at him, and was pleased with what he had
done. Thus ended the funeral service.

As we returned home, Lydia told me she was re-
joiced that her child was dead, and out of a world in
which slavery and wretchedness must have been its
only portion. I am now, said she, ready to follow
my child, and the sooner I go, the better for me.
She went with us to the field until the month of
January, when, as we were returning from our work,
one stormy and wet evening, she told me she should
never pick any more cotton — that her strength was
gone, and she could work no more. When we as-

23

266 NARRATIVE OF THE

sembled, at the blowing of the horn, on the following
morning, Lydia did not appear. The overseer, who
had always appeared to dislike this woman, when
he missed her, swore very angrily, and said he sup-
posed she was pretending to be sick, but if she was?
he would soon cure her. He then stepped into his
house and took some copperas from a little bag, and
mixed it with water. I followed him to Lydia's ca-
bin, where he compelled her to drink this solution of
copperas. It caused her to vomit violently, and
made her exceedingly sick. I think to this day,
that this act of the overseer, was the most inhuman
of all those that I have seen perpetrated upon de-
fenceless slaves.

Lydia was removed that same day to the sick
room, in a state of extreme debility and exhaustion.
When she left this room again she was a corpse.
Her disease was a consumption of the lungs, which
terminated her life early in March. I assisted in
carrying her to the grave, which I closed upon her,
and covered with green turf. She sleeps by the side
of her infant, in a corner of the negro grave-yard, of
this plantation. Death was to her a welcome mes-
senger, who came to remove her from toil that she
could not support, and from misery that she could
not sustain.

Her life had been a morning of pleasure, but a
day of bitterness, upon which no sunlight had fallen.
Had she known no other mode of existence than
that which she saw on this plantation, her lot would
have been happiness itself, in comparison with her

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 267

actual destiny. Trained up as she had been in
Maryland, no greater cruelty could have been devi-
sed by the malice of her most cunning enemy, than
to transfer her from the service, and almost com-
panionship, of an indulgent and affectionate mis-
tress, to the condition in which I saw her, and knew
her, in the cotton fields of South Carolina.

In Maryland, it is a custom as widely extended as
the state itself, I believe, to give the slaves a week
of holidays, at Christmas ; and the master, who
should attempt to violate this usage, would become
an object of derision amongst his neighbours. But
I learned, long before Christmas, that the force of
custom was not so binding here, as it is farther north.
In Maryland, Christmas comes at a season of leisure,
when the work of the farm, or the tobacco plantation,
is generally closed for the year ; and, if a good sup-
ply of firewood has been provided, there seems to be
but little for the people to do, and a week lost to the
master, is a matter of little moment, at a period when
the days are short and cold ; but in the cotton coun-
try, the case is very different.

Christmas comes in the very midst of cotton pick-
ing. The richest and best part of the crop has been
secured before this period, it is true ; but large quan-
tities of cotton still remain in the field, and every
pound that can be saved from the winds, or the
plough of the next spring, is a gain of its value, to
the owner of the estate.

For these reasons, which are very powerful on the
side of the master, there is but little Christmas on a

268 NARRATIVE OF THE

large cotton plantation. In lieu of the week of holi-
day, which formerly prevailed even in Carolina, be-
fore cotton was cultivated as a crop, the master now
gives the people a dinner of meat, on Christmas-day,
and distributes amongst them their annual allowance
of winter clothes, on estates where such an allow-
ance is made ; and where it is not, some small gra-
tuity supplies its place.

There are cotton planters who give no clothes to
their slaves, but expect them to supply themselves
with apparel, out of the proceeds of their Sunday la-
bour and nightly earnings. Clothes of a certain
quality were given to the people of the estate on
which I lived, at the time of which I now speak ;
but they were not at all sufficient to keep us warm
and comfortable in the winter ; and the residue, we
had to procure for ourselves. In Georgia, I lived
three years with one master, and the best master,
too, that I ever had in the south, who never gave me
any clothes during that period, except an old great
coat, and a pair of boots. — I shall have occasion to
speak of him hereafter.

As Christmas of the year 1805, approached, we
were all big with hope of obtaining three or four
days, at least, if not a week of holiday ; but when
the day at length arrived, we were sorely disappoint-
ed, for on Christmas eve, when we had come from
the field, with our cotton, the overseer fell into a fu-
rious passion, and swore at us all for our laziness,
and many other bad qualities. He then told us that
he had intended to give us three days, if we had

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 269

worked well, but that we had been so idle, and had
left so much cotton yet to be picked in the field, that
he found it impossible to give us more than one day ;
but that he would go to the house, and endeavour
to procure a meat dinner for us, and a dram in the
morning. Accordingly, on the next morning, we
received a dram of peach brandy, for each person ;
and two hogs, weighing together more than three
hundred, were slaughtered and divided amongst us.

I went to the field and picked cotton all day, for
which I was paid by the overseer, and at night I had
a good dinner of stewed pork and sweet potatoes. —
Such were the beginning and end of my first Christ-
mas, on a cotton plantation. We went to work as
usual the next morning, and continued our labour
through the week, as if Christmas had been stricken
from the calender. I had already saved and laid by
a little more than ten dollars in money, but part of
it had been given to me at the funeral. I was now
much in want of clothes, none having been given
me since I came here. I had, at the commence-
ment of the cold weather, cut up my old blanket,
and, with the aid of Lydia, who was a very good
seamstress, converted it into a pair of trousers, and a
long roundabout jacket ; but this deprived me of my
bed, which was imperfectly supplied by mats, which
I made of rushes. The mats were very comfortable
things to lie upon, but they were by no means equal
to blankets for covering.

A report had been current amongst us, for some
time, that there would be a distribution of clothes, to

23*

270

NARRATIVE OF THE

the people, at new-year's-day ; but how much, or
what kind of clothes we were to get, no one pretend-
ed to know, except that we were to get shoes, in con-
formity to along-established rule of this plantation.
From Christmas to new-year, appeared a long week
to me, and I have no doubt that it appeared yet
longer to some of my fellow-slaves, most of whom
were entirely barefoot. I had made mockasins for
myself, of the skins of squirrels, that I had caught in
my traps, and by this means protected my feet from
the frost, which was sometimes very heavy and
sharp, in the morning.

On the first day of January, when we met at the
blowing of the morning horn, the overseer told us,
we must all proceed to the great house, where we
were to receive our winter clothes ; and surely, no
order was ever more willingly obeyed. When we
arrived at the house, our master was up, and we
were all called into the great court yard in front of
the dwelling. The overseer now told us, that shoes
would be given to all those who were able to go to
the field, to pick cotton. This deprived of shoes, the
children, and several old persons, whose eye-sight
was not sufficiently clear, to enable them to pick
cotton. A new blanket was then given to every one
above seven years of age — children under seven,
received no blanket, being left, to be provided for by
their parents. Children of this age, and under, go
entirely naked, in the day-time, and sleep with their
mothers at night, or are wrapped up together, in
such bedding as the mother may possess. Children

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 271

under seven years of age are of little use in picking
cotton, and it is not supposed that their labour can
repay the expense of clothing them in a manner to
fit them to go to the field — they are, therefore, suffer-
ed to remain in the house or quarter, without clothes,
from October to April. In summer they do not re-
quire clothes, and can perform such work as they are
able to do, as well without garments as with them.
At the time we received our shoes, and blankets,
there was not a good shirt in our quarter — but all
the men, and women, had provided themselves with
some sort of woollen clothes, out of their own sa-
vings. Woollen stuff, for a petticoat and short-
gown, had also been given, before Christmas, to
each of the women who were mothers of small chil-
dren, or in such a condition as to render it certain,
that they must, in a short time, become so. Many
of the women could pick as much cotton as a man ;
and any good hand could earn sixty cents, by pick-
ing cotton on Sunday — the overseer paying us punc-
tually for all the cotton we brought in, on Sunday
evening. Besides this, a good hand could always,
in a fine day. pick more cotton than was required to
be brought home, as a day's work. I could not pick
as much in a day, as some of the others, by four or
five pounds ; but I could generally carry home as
much beyond the day's work, or task, as it is called,
as entitled me to receive from five to ten cents every
evening, from the overseer. This money was punc-
tually paid to me every Saturday night ; and in
some weeks I cleared, in this way, as high as fifty

272 NARRATIVE OF THE

cents, over and above what I earned on Sunday.
One of the men cleared to himself, including his
Sunday work, two dollars a week, for several weeks ;
and his savings, on this entire crop of cotton, were
thirty-one dollars — but he was a first-rate cotton
picker, and worked late and early. One of the
women cleared twenty- six dollars to herself, in the
same way. We were expected to clothe ourselves
with these, and our other extra earnings ; but some
of the people performed no more work, through the
week, than their regular task, and would not work
constantly on Sunday. Such were not able to pro-
vide themselves with good clothes ; and many of
them suffered greatly from the cold, in the course of
the winter. When the weather was mild and pleas-
ant, some of the children, who were not required to
go to the field, to do a day's work, would go out, in
the warmest part of the day, and pick a few pounds
of cotton, for which their parents received pay, and
were obliged, in return, to find the children in bed-
ding for the winter.

A man can plant and cultivate more cotton plants,
than he is afterwards able to pick the wool from, if
the season is good, and no disaster befalls the crop.
Here every effort is made, from the commencement
of the picking season until its close, to procure as
much work as possible from the hands ; and, spite
of all that can be done, much cotton is lost—the peo-
ple not being able to pick it all from the stalks, be-
fore the field is ploughed up to prepare the ground
for the reception of the seeds of a new crop. In such

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 273

cases, every pound that the hands can be induced to
pick, beyond their daily task, is a clear gain to the
master ; and slaves often leave the fields of their
masters, where the cotton is nearly all gathered, and
the picking is poor, to go to the field of some neigh-
bouring planter, where the cotton is more abundant,
to work on Sunday. It is a matter of indifference
to the slave, whether his master gets his cotton all
picked or not ; his object is to get employment jn a
field where he can make the best wages. In such
cases, the masters often direct the overseers to offer
their own slaves one half as much as the cotton is
worth, for each pound they will pick on Sunday —
and this; for the purpose of preventing them from
going to some other field, to work on that day.

The usual price only, is paid for extra cotton, pick-
ed on working days ; for after a hand has picked
his task, he would not have time to go anywhere
else to work ; nor indeed, would he be permitted to
leave his plantation. The slave is a kind of free-
man on Sunday all over the southern country ; and
it is in truth, by the exercise of his liberty on this
day, that he is enabled to provide himself and his
family, with many of the necessaries of life that his
master refuses to supply him with.

It is altogether impossible, to make a person resi-
ding in any of the middle or northern states of the
Union, and who has never been in the south,
throughly acquainted with all the minute particulars
of the life of a slave on a cotton plantation ; or to
give him an idea of the system of parsimonious econ-

274

NARRATIVE OF THE

omy, that the slave is obliged to exercise and main-
tain in his little household. Poor as the slave is, and
dependant at all times upon the arbitrary will of his
master, or yet more fickle caprice of the overseer, his
children look up to him in his little cabin, as their
protector and supporter. There is always in every
cabin, except in times of scarcity, after there has been
a failure of the corn crop, a sufficient supply of either
corn bread or sweet potatoes ; and either of these, is
sufficient to give health and vigour to children, who
are not required to do any work ; but a person who
is grown up, and is obliged to labour hard, finds ei-
ther bread or potatoes, or even both together, quite
inadequate to sustain the body in the full and pow-
erful tone of muscular action, that more generous
food would bestow. A mother will imagine the
painful feelings experienced by a parent, in the ca-
bin of a slave, when a small portion of animal food
is procured, dressed and made ready for the table.
The father and mother know, that it is not only
food, but medicine to them, and their appetites keen-
ly court the precious morsel ; whilst the children,
whose senses are all acute, seem to be indued with
taste and smell in a tenfold degree, and manifest a
ravenous craving for fresh meat, which it is painful
to witness, without being able to gratify it.

During the whole of this fall and winter, we usu-
ally had something to roast, at least twice a week, in
our cabin. These roasts were rackoons, opossums,
and other game — the proceeds of my trapping. All
the time the meat was hanging at the fire, as well as

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 275

while it was on the table, our house was surrounded
by the children of our fellow-slaves ; some begging
for a piece, and all expressing, by their eager coun-
tenances, the keen desire they felt to partake with us
of our dainties. It was idle to think of sharing with
them, the contents of our board ; for they were often
thirty or forty in number ; and the largest rackoon
would scarcely have made a mouthful for each of
them. There was one little boy, four years old, a
very fine little fellow, to whom I had become warmly
attached ; and who used to share with me in all the
good things I possessed. He was of the same age
with my own little son, whom I had left in Mary-
land ; and there was nothing that I possessed in the
world, that I would not have divided with him, even
to my last crust.

It may well be supposed, that in our society, al-
though we were all slaves, and all nominally in a
condition of the most perfect equality, yet there was
in fact a very* great difference in the manner of liv-
ing, in the several families. Indeed, I doubt, if
there is as great a diversity in the modes of life, in the
several families of any white village in New-York,
or Pennsylvania, containing a population of three
hundred persons, as there was in the several house-
holds of our quarter. This may be illustrated by
the following circumstance : Before I came to reside
in the family with whom I lived at this time, they
seldom tasted animal food, or even fish, except on
meat-days, as they were called ; that is, when meat
was given to the people by the overseer, under the

276 NARRATIVE OF THE

orders of our master. The head of the family was

a very quiet, worthy man ; but slothful and inactive

in his habits. When he had come from the field at

night, he seldom thought of leaving the cabin again

before morning. He would, and did, make baskets

and mats, and earned some money by these means ;

he also did his regular day's work on Sunday ; but

all his acquirements were not sufficient to enable

him to provide any kind of meat for his family. All

that his wife and children could do, was to provide

him with work at his baskets and mats ; and they

lived even then better than some of their neighbours.

After I came among them and had acquired some

knowledge of the surrounding country, I made as

many baskets and mats as he did ; and took time

to go twice a week to look at all my traps.

As the winter passed away and spring approached,
the proceeds of my hunting began to diminish. The
game became scarce, and both rackoons and opos-
sums grew poor and worthless. It was necessary
for me to discover some new mode of improving the
allowance allotted to me by the overseer. I had all
my life been accustomed to fishing, in Maryland,
and 1 now resolved to resort to the water for a living ;
the land having ailed to furnish me a comfortable
subsistence. With these views, I set out one Sun-
day morning, early in February, and went to he
river at a d stance of three miles from home. From
the appearance of the stream, I kit confident that it
must contain many fish ; and I went immediately
to work to make a weir. V\ ith the help of an axe

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 277

that I had with me, I had finished, before night, the
frame work of a weir of pine sticks, lashed together
with white oak splits. I had no canoe, but made a
raft of dry logs, upon which I went to a suitable
place in the river, and set my weir. I afterwards
made a small net of twine, that I bought at the
store ; and on next Thursday night I took as many
fish from my weir as filled a half bushel measure.
This was a real treasure — it was the most fortunate
circumstance that had happened with me since I
came to the country.

I was enabled to show my generosity ; but, like
all mankind, even in my liberality, I kept myself in
mind. I gave a large fish to the overseer, and took
three more to the great house. These were the
first fresh fish that had been in the family this sea-
son ; and I was much praised by my master and
young mistresses, for my skill and success in fish-
ing ; but this was all the advantage 1 received from
this effort to court the favour of the great : — I did
not even get a dram. The part I had performed
in the detection of the murderers of the young lady
was forgotten ; or, at least, not mentioned now. I
went away from the house, not only disappointed,
but chagrined, and thought with myself, that if my
master and young mistresses had nothing but words
to give me for my fish, we should not carry on a very
large traffic.

On next Sunday morning, a black boy came
from the house, and told me that our master wish-
ed to see me. This summons was not to be diso-

24

278 NARRATIVE OF THE

beyed. When I returned to the mansion, I went
round to the kitchen, and sent word by one of the
house-slaves, that I had come. The servant re-
turned and told me, that I was to stay in the kitchen
and get my breakfast ; and after that, to come into
the house. A very good breakfast was sent to me
from my masters table, after the family had finished
their morning meal ; and when I had done with
my repast, I went into the parlour. 1 was received
with great affability by my master, who told me he
had sent for me to know if I had been accustomed
to fish in the place I had come from. I informed
him, that I had been employed at a fishery on the
Patuxent, every spring, for several years ; and that
I thought I understood fishing with a seine, as well
as most people. He then asked me, if I could knit
a seine ; to which 1 replied in the affirmative. After
some other questions, he told me, that as the picking
of cotton was nearly over for this season, and the
fields must soon be ploughed up for a new crop, he
had a thought of having a seine made ; and of
placing me at the head of a fishing party, for the
purpose of trying to take a supply of fish for his
hands. No communication could have been more
unexpected than this was, and it was almost as
pleasing to me as it was unexpected by me. I now
began to hope that there would be some respite from
the labours of the cotton field, and that I should not
be doomed to drag out a dull and monotonous exis-
tence, within the confines of the enclosures of the
plantation.

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 279

In Maryland, the fishing season was always one
of hard labour, it is true ; but also a time of joy and
hilarity. We then had, throughout the time of fish-
ing, plenty of bread, and, at least, bacon enough to
fry our fish with. We had also a daily allowance
of whiskey, or brandy, and we always considered
ourselves fortunate when we left the farm to go to
the fishery.

A few days after this, I was again sent for by my
master, who told me, that he had bought twine
and ropes for a seine ; and that I must set to work
and knit it as quickly as possible ; that as he did
not wish the twine to be taken to the quarter, I
must remain with the servants in the kitchen, and
live with them whilst employed in constructing the
seine. I was assisted in making the seine by a
black boy, whom I had taught to work with me ;
and by the end of two weeks we had finished our
job.

While at work on this seine, I lived rather better
than I had formerly done, when residing at the quar-
ter. We received amongst us — twelve in number,
including the people who worked in the garden — the
refuse of our master's table. In this way we pro-
cured a little cold meat every day ; and when there
were many strangers visiting the family, we some-
times procured considerable quantities of cold and
broken meats.

My new employment afforded me a better oppor-
tunity, than I had hitherto possessed, of making cor-
rect observations upon the domestic economy of my

280 NARRATIVE OF THE

master's household, and of learning the habits and
modes of life of the persons who composed it. On
a great cotton plantation, such as this of my mas-
ter's, the field hands, who live in the quarter, are
removed so far from the domestic circle of their mas-
ter's family, by their servile condition and the nature
of their employment, that they know but little more
of the transactions within the walls of the great
house, than if they lived ten miles off. Many a slave
has been born, lived to old age, and died on a plan-
tation, without ever having been within the walls of
his master's domicil.

My master was a widower ; and his house was
in charge of his sister, a maiden lady, apparently of
fifty-five or sixty. He had six children, three sons
and three daughters, and all unmarried ; but only
one of the sons was at home, at the time I came
upon the estate ; the other two were in some of the
northern cities : the one studying medicine, and
the other at college. At the time of knitting the
twine, these young gentlemen had returned, on a
visit, to their relations, and all the brothers and
sisters were now on the place. The young ladies
were all grown up, and marriageable ; their father
was known to be a man of great wealth ; and the
girls were reputed very pretty in Carolina ; one of
them, ihe second of the three, was esteemed a great
beauty.

The reader might deem my young mistress' pretty
face and graceful person, altogether impertinent to
the narrative of my own life ; but they had a most

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 281

material influence upon my fortunes, and changed
the whole tenor of my existence. Had she been less
beautiful, or of a temper less romantic and adventur-
ous, I should still have been a slave in South Caroli-
na, if yet alive, and the world would have been
saved the labour of perusing these pages.

Any one at all acquainted with southern man-
ners, will at once see that my master's house pos-
sessed attractions which would not fail to draw
within it numerous visiters ; and that the head of
such a family as dwelt under its roof was not likely
to be without friends.

I had not been at work upon the seine a week be-
fore I discovered, by listening to the conversation of
my master, and the other members of the family,
that they prided themselves not a little, upon the
antiquity of their house, and the long practice of a
generous hospitality to strangers, and to all respecta-
ble people, wTho chose to visit their homestead. All
circumstances seemed to conspire to render this house
one of the chief seats of the fashion, the beauty, the
wit, and the gallantry of South Carolina. Scarcely
an evening came but it brought a carriage, and ladies
and gentlemen, and their servants ; and every day
brought dashing young planters, mounted on horse-
back, to dine with the family ; but Sunday was the
day of the week on which the house received the
greatest accession of company. My master and
family were members of the Episcopal Church, and
attended service every Sunday, when the weather
was fine, at a church eight miles distant. Each of

24*

282 NARRATIVE OF THE

my young masters and mistresses had a saddle-
horse, and in pleasant weather, they frequently all
went to church on horseback, leaving my old mas-
ter and mistress to occupy the family carriage alone.
I have seen fifteen or twenty young people come to
my master's for dinner, on Sunday from church ;
and very often the parson, a young man of hand-
some appearance, was amongst them. I had ob-
served these things long before, but now I had come
to live at the house, and became more familiar with
them. Three Sundays intervened while I was at
work upon the seine, and on each of these Sundays
more than twenty persons, besides the family, dined
at my master's. During these three weeks, my
young masters were absent far the greater part of
the time ; but I observed that they generally came
home on Sunday for dinner. My young mistresses
were not from home much, and I believe they never
left the plantation unless either their father or some
one of their brothers was with them. Dinner parties
were frequent in my master's house ; and on these
occasions of festivity, a black man, who belonged to
a neighbouring estate, and who played the violin,
was sent for. I observed that whenever this man
was sent for, he came, and sometimes even came
before night, which appeared a little singular to me,
as I knew the difficulty that coloured people had to
encounter in leaving the estate to which they were
attached. I felt curious to ascertain how it happen-
ed, that Peter (that was the name of the fiddler,) en.
joyed such privileges and contrived to become ac-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 283

quainted with him, when he came to get his supper
in the kitchen. He informed me that his master was
always ready to let him go to a ball ; and would per-
mit him to leave the cotton field at any time for that
purpose, and even lend him a horse to ride% I
afterwards learned from this man, that his master
compelled him to give him half the money that he
received as gratuities from the gentlemen for whom
he played at the dinner parties ; but as his master
had enjoined him, under pain of being whipped, not
to divulge this circumstance, I never betrayed the
poor fellow's confidence. Peter's master was a
planter, who owned thirty slaves, and his children
(several of whom were young ladies and gentlemen)
moved in highly respectable circles of society ; but
I believe my master's family did not treat them as
quite their equals ; not so much on account of their
inferiority in point of wealth, as because they were
new in the country, having only been settled here but
a few years, and the master of Peter having, when
a young man, acted as overseer on a rice plantation
near Charleston.

CHAPTER XY.

I have, though always in a very humble station
in life, travelled more, and seen more of the people
in the United States, than some who occupy elevat-
ed ranks, and claim for themselves a knowledge of
the world far greater than I pretend to possess ; but

284 NARRATIVE OF THE

a man's knowledge is to be valued, not by that
which he has imagined, but by that which expe-
rience has taught him ; and in estimating his ability
to give information to others, we are to judge him,
not by what he says he would wish men and the
world to be, but by what he has seen, and by the
just inferences he draws from those actions, that he
has witnessed in the various conditions of human
society, that have passed in review before him. In
this book I do not pretend to discuss systems, or ad-
vance theories. I am content to give facts as I saw
them.

In the northern and middle states, so far as I have
known them, very little respect is paid to family pre-
tensions ; and this disregard of ancestry seems to
me to be the necessary offspring of the condition of
things. In the states of New-York and Pennsyl-
vania, there are so many ways by which men may
and do arrive at distinction, and so many, and such
various means of acquiring wealth, that all claim of
superiority on account of the possession of any par-
ticular kind of property, is prohibited by public
opinion. A great landholder is counterbalanced by
a great manufacturer, and perhaps surpassed by a
great merchant, whilst a successful and skilful me-
chanic is the rival of all these. Family distinction
can obtain no place amongst these men. In the
plantation states, the case is widely different. There,
lands and slaves constitute the only property of the
country that is worthy of being taken into an esti-
mate of public wealth. Cattle and horses, hogs,

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 285

sheep and mules exist, but in numbers so few, and
of qualities so inferior, that the portion of them, pos-
sessed by any individual planter, would compose an
aggregate value of sufficient magnitude only to raise
him barely beyond the lines that divide poverty from
mediocrity of condition.

The mechanic is a sort of journeyman to the
planters, and works about the country as he may
chance to find a job, in building a house, erecting a
cotton-gin, or constructing a horse-mill, if he is a
carpenter or mill-wright ; if he is a tailor, he seeks
employment from house to house, never remaining
longer in one place than to allow himself time to do
the work of the family. The mechanic holds a
kind of half-way rank between the gentleman and
the slave. He is not, and never can be, a gentle-
man, for the reason that he does, and must do his
own work. Hence mechanics and artizans of every
description avoid the southern country ; or, if found
there, they are only sojourners. The country they
are in is not their home : they are there from neces-
sity, or with a hope of acquiring money to establish
themselves in business, in places where their occupa-
tions are held more in honour. Manufacturers are
not in existence in the cotton country, therefore no
comparison can be instituted between them and the
planters.

I believe, from what I saw, that all the commerce
of the cotton country is in the hands of strangers,
and that a large portion of these strangers are
foreigners, The planters deal with them from ne-

286 NARRATIVE OF THE

cessity, as they must have such things as they need,
and must obtain them somewhere, and from some-
body. The store- keeper lives as well, dresses as
well, and often lives in as good a house as the plant-
er— perhaps in one that is better than that of the
planter ; but his wealth is not so material, his means
of subsistence do not strike the eye so powerfully as
a hundred field hands, and three hundred acres of
cotton. The country has no hold on him, and he
has no hold on the country. His habits of life are
not similar to those of his neighbours— -he is not
li one of us."

All the families who visited at my master's were
those of planters ; and the families of the cotton
planters have nothing to do but visit, or read, hunt,
or fish, or run into some vicious amusements, or sit
down and do nothing. Every kind of labour is as
strictly prohibited to the sons and daughters of the
planters, by universal custom, as if a law of the land
made it punishable by fine and imprisonment, and
gave one- half of the fine to a common informer.
The only line that divides the gentleman from the
simple man, is that the latter works for his living,
whilst the former has slaves to work for him. No
man who works with his hands, can or will be re-
ceived into the highest orders of society, on a footing
of equality, nor can he hope to see his family treated
better than himself. This unhappy fiat of public
opinion has done infinite mischief in the south.

Men of fortune will not work, nor permit their
sons to work in the field, because this exemption from

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 287

labour is their badge of gentility, and the circum-
stance that distinguishes them from the less favour-
ed members of the community. As the wealthy, the
great, and the fashionable, are never seen at labour
and as it is known that they hold it to be beneath
the rank of a gentleman to work in the field, those
who are more sparingly endowed with the advanta-
ges of fortune, imbibe an opinion that it is disgrace-
ful to plough, or to dig, and that it is necessary to
lead a life of idleness, to maintain their caste in
society.

No man works in South Carolina, except under
the impulse of necessity. In this state of things,
many men of limited fortunes rear up families of
children without education, and without the means
of supporting an expensive style of living. The
sons, when grown up, of necessity, commingle with
the other young people of the country, and bring
with them into the affairs of the world, nothing
upon which they can pride themselves, except that
they are white men^ and are not obliged to work for
a living.

This false pride has infected the whole mass of the
white population ; and the young man, whose father
has half a dozen children, and an equal number of
slaves, looks with affected disdain upon the son of
his father's neighbour, who owns no slaves, because
the son of the non-slaveholder must work for his
bread, whilst the son of the master of half a dozen
negroes, contrives to support himself in a sort of lazy
poverty, only one remove from actual penury.

288

NARRATIVE OF THE

Every man who is able to procure a subsistence,
without labour, regards himself a gentleman, from
this circumstance alone, if he has nothing else to
sustain his pretensions. These poor gentlemen,
are the worst members of society, and the least pro-
ductive of benefit, either to themselves or their coun-
try. They are prone to horse- racing, cock-fighting,
gambling, and all sorts of vices common to the coun-
try. Having no livelihood, and being engaged in
no pursuit, they hope to distinguish themselves by
running to excess in what they call fashionable
amusements, or sporting exercises. These people
are universally detested by the slaves, and are in-
deed far more tyrannical than the great slave-holders
themselves, or any other portion of the white popu-
lation, the overseers excepted.

A man who is master of only four or five slaves,
is generally the most ready of all to apprehend a
black man, whom he may happen to catch straying
from his plantation ; and generally whips him the
most unmercifully for this offence. The law gives
him the same authority to arrest the person of a slave,
seen travelling without his pass, that it vests in the
owner of five hundred negroes ; and the experience
of all ages, that petty tyrants are the most oppres-
sive, seems fully verified in the cotton country.

A person who has not been in the slave-holding
states, can never fully understand the bonds that
hold society together there, or appreciate the rules
which prescribe the boundaries of the pretensions of
the several orders of men who compose the body po-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 289

litic of those communities ; and after all that I have
written, and all that I shall write, in this book, the
reader who has never resided south of the Potomac,
will never be able to perceive things precisely as they
present themselves to my vision, or to comprehend
the spirit that prevails in a country, where the popu-
lation is divided into three separate classes. Those
will fall into great error, who shall imagine that in
Carolina and Georgia there are but two orders of
men ; and that the artificial distinctions of society
have only classified the people into white and black,
freemen and slaves. It is true, that the distinctions
of colour are the most obvious, and present them-
selves more readily than any others to the inspection
of a stranger ; but he who will take time to exam-
ine into the fundamental organization of society, in
the cotton planting region, will easily discover that
there is a third order of men located there, little
known to the world, but who, nevertheless, hold a
separate station, occupying a place of their own, and
who do not come into direct contrast with either the
master or the slave.

The white man, who has no property, no posses-
sion, and no education, is, in Carolina, in a condition
no better than that to which the slave has been re-
duced ; except only that he is master of his own
person, and of his own time, and may, if he chooses,
emigrate and transfer himself to a country where he
can better his circumstances, whilst the slave is
bound, by invisible chains, to the plantation on
which his master may think proper to plase him.

25

290 NARRATIVE OF THE

In my opinion, there is no order of men in any
part of the United States, with which I have any
acquaintance, who are in a more debased and hu-
miliated state of moral servitude, than are those
white people who inhabit that part of the southern
country, where the landed property is all, or nearly
all, held by the great planters. Many of these
white people live in wretched cabins, not half so good
as the houses which judicious planters provide for
their slaves. Some of these cabins of the white
men are made of mere sticks, or small poles notched,
or rather thatched together, and filled in with mud,
mixed with the leaves, or shats, as they are termed,
of the pine tree. Some fix their residence far in the
pine forest, and gain a scanty subsistence by notch-
ing the trees and gathering the turpentine ; others
are seated upon some poor, and worthless point of
land, near the margin of a river, or creek, and draw
a precarious livelihood from the water, and the bad-
ly cultivated garden that surrounds, or adjoins the
dwelling.

These people do not occupy the place held in the
north by the respectable and useful class of day
labourers, who constitute so considerable a portion of
the numerical population of the country.

In the south, these white cottagers are never em-
ployed to work on the plantations for wages. Two
things forbid this. The white man, however poor
and necessitous he may be, is too proud to go to
work in the same field with the negro slaves by his
side ; and the owner of the slaves is not willing to

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 291

permit white men, of the lowest order, to come
amongst them, lest the morals of the negroes should
be corrupted, and illicit traffic should be carried on,
to the detriment of the master.

The slaves generally believe, that however miser-
able they may be, in their servile station, it is never-
theless preferable to the degraded existence of these
poor white people. This sentiment is cherished by
the slaves, and encouraged by their masters, who
fancy that they subserve their own interests in pro-
moting an opinion amongst the negroes, that they
are better off in the world than are many white
persons, who are free, and have to submit to the
burthen of taking care of, and providing for them-
selves.

I never could learn nor understand how, or by
what means, these poor cottagers came to be settled
in Carolina. They are a separate and distinct race
of men from the planters, and appear to have nothing
in common with them. If it were possible for any
people to occupy a grade in human society below
that of the slaves, on the cotton plantations, cer-
tainly the station would be filled by these white
families, who cannot be said to possess any thing in
the shape of property. The contempt in which
they are held, and the contumely with which they
are treated, by the great planters, to be comprehend-
ed, must be seen.

These observations are applicable in their fullest
extent, only to the lower parts of Georgia and Caro-
lina, and to country places. In the upper country,

292 NARRATIVE OF THE

where slaves are not so numerous, and where less
of cotton and more of grain is cultivated, there is
not so great a difference between the white man,
who holds slaves and a plantation, and another
white man who has neither slaves nor plantation.
In the towns, also, more especially in Charleston
and Savannah, where the number of white men
who have no slaves is very great, they are able, from
their very numbers, to constitute a moral force suffi-
ciently powerful to give them some degree of weight
in the community.

I shall now return to my narrative. Early in
March, or perhaps on one of the last days of Februa-
ry, my seine being now completed, my master told
me I must take with me three other black men, and
go to the river to clear out a fishery. This task of
clearing out a fishery, was a very disagreeable job ;
for it was nothing less than dragging out of the
river, all the old trees and brush that had sunk to
the bottom, within the limits of our intended fishing
ground. My master's eldest son had been down the
river, and had purchased two boats, to be used at
the fishery ; but when I saw them I declared them
to be totally unfit for the purpose. They were old
batteaux, and so leaky, that they would not have
supported the weight of a wet seine, and the men ne-
cessary to lay it out. I advised the building of twro
good canoes, from some of the large yellow pines, in
the woods. My advice was accepted, and together
with five other hands, I went to wTork at the canoes,
which we completed in less than a week.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 293

So far things went pretty well, and I nattered
myself that I should become the head man at this
new fishery, and have the command of the other
hands. I also expected that I should be able to
gain some advantage to myself, by disposing of a
part of the small fish that might be taken at the
fishery. I reckoned without my host.

My master had only purchased this place a short
time before he bought me. Before that time he did
not own any place on the river, fit for the establish-
ment of a fishery. His lands adjoined the river for
more than a mile in extent, along its margin ; but
an impassable morass separated the channel of the
river, from the firm ground, all along his lines. He
had cleared the highest parts of this morass, or
swamp, and had here made his rice fields ; but he
was as entirely cut off from the river, as if an ocean
had separated it from him.

On the day that we launched the canoes into the
river, and while we were engaged in removing some
snags, and old trees that had stuck in the mud, near
the shore, an ill-looking stranger came to us, and
told us that our master had sent him to take charge
of the fishery, and superintend all the work that
was to be done at it. This man, by his contract
with my master, was to receive a part of all the fish
caught, in lieu of wages ; and was invested with
the same authority over us that was exercised by
the overseer in the cotton field.

I soon found that I had cause to regret my removal
from the plantation. It was found quite impossibly

25*

294

NARRATIVE OF THE

to remove the old logs, and other rubbish from the
bottom of the river, without going into the water,
and wrenching them from their places with long
hand-spikes. In performing this work we were obli-
ged to wade up to our shoulders, and often to dip our
very heads under water, in raising the sunken tim-
ber. However, within less than a week, we had
cleared the ground, and now began to haul our seine.
At first, we caught nothing but common river fish :
but, after two or three days, we began to take shad.
Of the common fish, such as pike, perch, suckers,
and others, we had the liberty of keeping as many
as we could eat ; but the misfortune was, that we
had no pork, or fat of any kind, to fry them with ;
and for several days we contented ourselves with
broiling them on the coals, and eating them with our
corn bread, and sweet potatoes. We could have
lived well, if we had been permitted to broil the shad
on the coals, and eat them ; for a fat shad will dress
itself in being broiled, and is very good, without any
oily substance added to it.

All the shad that we caught, were carefully taken
away by a black man, who came three times every
day to the fishery, with a cart.

The master of the fishery had a family that lived
several miles up the river. In the summer time, he
fished with hooks, and small nets, when not engaged
in running turpentine, in the pine woods. In the
winter he went back into the pine forest, and made
tar of the dead pine trees ; but returned to the river
at the opening of the spring, to take advantage of

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 295

the shad fishery. He was supposed to be one of the
most skilful fishermen on the Congaree river, and
my master employed him to superintend his new
fishery, under an expectation, I presume, that as he
was to get a tenth part of all the fish that might be
caught, he would make the most of his situation.
My master had not calculated with accuracy the
force of habit, nor the difficulty which men expe-
rience, in conducting very simple affairs, of which
they have no practical knowledge.

The fish-master did very well for the interest of
his employer, for a few days ; compelling us to work,
in hauling the seine, night and day, and scarcely
permitting us to take rest enough to obtain necessary
sleep. We were compelled to work full sixteen hours
every day, including Sunday ; for in the fishing
season, no respect is paid to Sunday by fishermen,
anywhere. We had our usual quantity of bread
and potatoes, with plenty of common fish ; but no
shad came to our lot ; nor had we any thing to fry
our fish with. A broiled fresh-water fish is not very
good, at best, without salt or oil ; and after we had
eaten them every day, for a week, we cared very
little for them.

By this time, our fish-master began to relax in his
discipline ; not that he became more kind to us, or
required us to do less work ; but to compel us to
work all night, it was necessary for him to sit up all
night and watch us. This was a degree of toil and
privation to which he could not long submit ; and
one evening soon after dark, he called me to him and

296 NARRATIVE OF THE

told me. that he intended to make me overseer of the
fishery that night ; and he had no doubt, I would
keep the hands at work, and attend to the business
as well without him as with him. He then went
into his cabin, and went to bed ; whilst I went and
laid out the seine, and made a very good haul. We
took more than two hundred shad at this draught;
and followed up our work with great industry all
night, only taking time to eat our accustomed meal
at midnight.

Every fisherman knows that the night is the best
time for taking shad ; and the little rest that had
been allowed us, since we began to fish, had always
been from eight o'clock in the morning, until four in
the afternoon ; unless within that period there was
an appearance of a school of fish in the river ; when
we had to rise, and lay out the seine, no matter at
what hour of the day. The fish-master had been
very severe with the hands, since he came amongst
us ; and had made very free use of a long hickory
gad that he sometimes carried about with him ;
though at times he would relax his austerity, and
talk quite familiarly with us : especially with me,
whom he perceived to have some knowledge of the
business in which we were engaged. The truth
was, that this man knew nothing of fishing with a
seine, and I had been obliged from the beginning to
direct the operations of laying out and drawing in
the seine ; though the master was always very loud
and boisterous in giving his commands, and directs

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 297

ing us in what part of the river we should let down
the seine.

Having never been accustomed to regular work,
or to the pursuit of any constant course of personal
application, the master was incapable of long contin-
ued exertion ; and I feel certain, that he could not
have been prevailed upon to labour twelve hours
each day, for a year, if in return he had been cer-
tain of receiving ten thousand dollars. Notwith-
standing this, he was capable of rousing himself, and
of undergoing any degree of fatigue or privation, for
a short time ; even for a few days. He had not
been trained to habits of industry, and could not bear
the restraints of uniform labour.

We worked hard all night, the first night of my
superintendence, and when the sun rose the next
morning, the master had not risen from his bed. As
it wTas now the usual time of dividing the fish, I call-
ed to him to come and see this business fairly done ;
but as he did not come down immediately to the
landing, I proceeded to make the division myself, in
as equitable a manner as I could : giving, however,
a full share of large fish to the master. When he
came down to us, and overlooked both the piles of
fish — his own and that of my master — he was so
well satisfied with what T had done, that he said, if
he had known that 1 would do so well for him, he
would not have risen. I was glad to hear this, as
it led me to hope, that I should be able to induce
him to stay in his cabin during the greater part of

298

NARRATIVE OF THE

the time ; to do which, I was well assured, he felt
disposed.

When the night came, the master again told me
he should go to bed. not being well ; and desired me
to do as I had done the night before. This night
we cooked as many shad as we could all eat ; but
were careful to carry, far out into the river, the scales
and entrails of the stolen fish. In the morning I
made a division of the fish before I called the mas-
ter, and then went and asked him to come and see
what I had done. He was again well pleased, and
now proposed to us all, that if we would not let the
affair be known to our master, he would leave us to
manage the fishery at night according to our discre-
tion. To this proposal we all readily agreed, and I
received authority to keep the other hands at work,
until the master would go and get his breakfast. I
had now accomplished the object that I had held
very near my heart, ever since we began to fish at
this place.

From this time, to the end of the fishing season,
we all lived well, and did not perform more work
than we were able to bear. I was in no fear of be-
ing punished by the fish-master ; for he was now at
least as much in my power, as I was in his ; for if
my master had known the agreement, that he had
made with us, for the purpose of enabling himself to
sleep all night in his cabin, he would have been de-
prived of his situation, and all the profits of his share
of the fishery.

There never can be any affinity of feeling between

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL, 299

master and slave, except in some few isolated cases,
where the master has treated his slave in such a
manner, as to have excited in him strong feelings of
gratitude ; or where the slave entertains apprehen-
sions, that by the death of his master, or by being
separated from him in any other way, he may fall
under the power of a more tyrannical ruler, or may
in some shape be worsted by the change. I was
never acquainted with a slave who believed, that he
violated any rule of morality by appropriating to
himself any thing that belonged to his master, if it was
necessary to his comfort. The master might call it
theft, and brand it with the name of crime ; but the
slave reasoned differently, when he took a portion
of his master's goods, to satisfy his hunger, keep
himself warm, or to gratify his passion for luxurious
enjoyment.

The slave sees his master residing in a spacious
mansion, riding in a fine carriage, and dressed in
costly clothes, and attributes the possession of all
these enjoyments to his own labour ; whilst he who
is the cause of so much gratification and pleasure to
another, is himself deprived of even the necessary
accommodations of human life. Ignorant men do
not and cannot reason logically ; and in tracing
things from cause to effect, the slave attributes all
that he sees in possession of his master, to his own
toil, without taking the trouble to examine, how far
the skill, judgment, and economy of his master may
have contributed to the accumulation of the wealth
by which his residence is surrounded. There is, in

300 NARRATIVE OP THE

fact, a mutual dependence between the master and
his slave. The former could not acquire any thing
without the labour of the latter, and the latter would
always remain in poverty, without the judgment of
the former in directing labour to a definite and profit-
able result.

After I had obtained the virtual command of the
fishery, I was careful to awaken the master every
morning at sunrise, that he might be present when
the division of the fish was made ; and when the
morning cart arrived, that the carter might not re-
port to my master, that the fish-master was in bed.
I had now become interested in preserving the good
opinion of my master in favour of his agent.

Since my arrival in Carolina I had never enjoyed
a full meal of bacon ; and now determined, if possi-
ble, to procure such a supply of that luxury, as
would enable me and all my fellow-slaves at the
fishery to regale ourselves at pleasure. At this sea-
son of the year, boats frequently passed up the river,
laden with merchandise and goods of various kinds,
amongst which were generally large quantities of
salt, intended for curing fish, and for other purposes on
the plantations. These boats also carried bacon and
salted pork up the river, for sale ; but as they never
moved at night, confining their navigation to day-
light, and as none of them had hitherto stopped near
our landing, we had not met with an opportunity of
entering into a traffic with any of the boat masters.
We were not always to be so unfortunate. One
evening, in the second week of the fishing season, a

Adventures of charles ball. 301

large keel-boat was seen working up the river about
sundown ; and shortly after, came to for the night,
on the opposite side of the river, directly against our
landing. We had at the fishery a small canoe call-
ed a punt, about twelve feet long ; and when we
went to lay out the seine, for the first haul after
night, I attached the punt to the side of the canoe,
and when we had finished letting down the seine, I
left the other hands to work it toward the shore, and
ran over in the punt to the keel-boat. Upon inqui-
ring of the captain if he had any bacon that he
would exchange for shad, he said, he had a little ;
but, as the risk he would run in dealing with a slave
was great, I must expect to pay him more than the
usual price. He at length proposed to give me a
hundred pounds of bacon for three hundred shad.
This was at least twice as much as the bacon was
worth ; but we did not bargain as men generally do,
where half of the bargain is on each side ; for here
the captain of the keel-boat settled the terms for both
parties. However, he ran the hazard of being pro-
secuted for dealing with slaves, which is a very high
offence in Carolina ; and I was selling that which,
in point of law, did not belong to me ; but to which,
nevertheless, I felt in my conscience that 1 had a
better right than any other person. In support of
the right, which I felt to be on my side in this case,
came a keen appetite for the bacon, which settled
the controversy, upon the question of the morality of
this traffic, in my favour. It so happened, that we
made a good haul with our seine this evening, and

26

302 NARRATIVE OF THE

at the time I returned to the landing, the men were all
on shore, engaged in drawing in the seine. As soon
as we had taken out the fish, we placed three hun-
dred of them in one of our canoes, and pushed over
to the keel-boat, where the fish were counted out,
and the bacon was received into our craft with all
possible despatch. One part of this small trade ex-
hibited a trait of human character which I think
worthy of being noticed. The captain of the boat was
a middle-aged, thin, sallow man, with long bushy-
hair ; and he looked like one who valued the opin-
ions of men but little. I expected that he would not
be scrupulous in giving me my full hundred pounds
of bacon ; but in this I was mistaken ; for he weigh-
ed the flitches with great exactness, in a pair of large
steelyards, and gave me good weight. When the
business was ended, and the bacon in my canoe, he
told me, he hoped I was satisfied writh him ; and as-
sured me, that I should find the bacon excellent.
When I was about pushing from the boat, he told
me in a low voice, though there was no one who
could hear us, except his own people — that he should
be down the river again in about two weeks, when
he should be very glad to buy any produce that I
had for sale ; adding, " I will give you half as much
for cotton as it is worth in Charleston, and pay you
either in money or groceries, as you may choose.
Take care, and do not betray yourself, and I shall
be honest with you."

I was so much rejoiced, at being in possession of a
hundred pounds of good flitch bacon, that I had no

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 303

room in either my head or my heart, for the consid-
eration of this man's notions of honesty, at the pre-
sent time ; but paddled with all strength for our
landing, where we took the bacon from the canoe,
stowed it away in an old salt barrel, and safely de-
posited it in a hole, dug for the purpose in the floor
of my cabin.

About this time, our allowance of sweet potatoes
was withheld from us altogether, in consequence of
the high price paid for this article by the captains of
the keel-boats ; for the purpose, as I heard, of send-
ing them to New- York and Philadelphia. Ever since
Christmas, we had been permitted to draw, on each
Sunday evening, either a peck of corn, as usual, or
half a peck, of corn, and half a bushel of sweet pota-
toes, at our discretion. The half a peck of corn,
and the half a bushel of potatoes was worth much
more than a peck of corn ; but potatoes were so
abundant this year, that they were of little value,
and the saving of corn was an object worth attend-
ing to by a large planter. The boatmen now offered
half a dollar a bushel for potatoes, and we were again
restricted to our corn ration.

Notwithstanding the privation of our potatoes,
we at the fishery lived sumptuously ; although our
master certainly believed, that our fare consisted of
corn bread and river fish, cooked without lard or
butter. It was necessary to be exceedingly cau-
tious in the use of our bacon ; and to prevent the
suspicions of the master and others, who frequented
our landing, I enjoined our people never to fry any

304 NARRATIVE OF THE

of the meat, but to boil it all. No one can smell
boiled bacon far ; but fried flitch cau be smelled a
mile by a good nose.

We had two meals every night, one of bacon and
the other of fried shad ; which nearly deprived us of
all appetite for the breakfasts and dinners that we
prepared in the daytime ; consisting of cold corn
bread without salt, and broiled freshwater fish, with-
out any sort of seasoning. We spent more than
two weeks in this happy mode of life, unmolested
by our master, his son, or the master of the fishery ;
except when the latter complained, rather than
threatened us, because we sometimes suffered our
seine to float too far down the river, and get entan-
gled amongst some roots and brush that lay on the
bottom, immediately below our fishing ground. We
now expected, every evening, to see the return of
the boatman who had sold us the bacon ; and the
man 'who wTas with me in the canoe, at the time
we received it. had not forgotten the invitation of the
captain to trade with him in cotton on his return.
My fellow-slave was a native of Virginia, as he told
me and had been sold and brought to Carolina about
ten years before this time. He was a good natured,
kind hearted man, and did many acts of benevo-
lence to me, such as one slave is able to perform
for another, and I felt a real affection for him ; but
he had adopted the too common rule of moral action,
that there is no harm in a slave robbing his master.
The reader may suppose, from my account of the
bacon, that I, too, had adopted this rule as a part of

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 305

my creed ; but I solemnly declare, that this was not
the case, and that I never deprived any one of all
the masters that I have served, of any thing against
his consent, unless it was some kind of food ; and
that of all I ever took, I am confident, I have given
away more than the half to my fellow-slaves, whom
I knew to be equally needy with myself.

The man who had been with me at the keel-
boat told me one day, that he had laid a plan by
which we could get thirty or forty dollars, if I would
join him in the execution of his project. Thirty or
forty dollars was a large sum of money to me. I
had never possessed so much money at one time in
my life ; and I told him that I was willing to do any
thing by which we could obtain such a treasure.
He then told me, that he knew where the mule and
cart that were used by the man who carried away our
fish, were kept at night ; and that he intended to
set out, on the first dark night, and go to the planta-
tion— harness the mule to the cart — go to the cotton-
gin house — put two bags of cotton into the cart — -
bring (hem to a thicket of small pines that grew on
the river bank, a short distance below the fishery,
and leave them there until the keel-boat should re-
turn. All that he desired of me was, to make some
excuse for his absence, to the other hands ; and as-
sist him to get his cotton into the canoe, at the coming
of the boat.

I disliked the whole scheme, both on account of
its iniquity, and of the danger which attended it ;
but my companion was not to be discouraged by all

26*

306 NARRATIVE OF THE

the arguments which I could use against it. and
said, if I would not participate in it, he was deter-
mined to undertake it alone : provided 1 would not
inform against him. To this I said nothing ; but
he had so often heard me express my detestation of
one slave betraying another, that I presume he felt
easy on that score. The next night but one after
this conversation, was very dark ; and when we
went to lay out the seine after night, Nero was mis-
sing. The other people inquired of me, if I knew
where he was, and when I replied in the negative,
little more was said on the subject ; it being com-
mon for the slaves to absent themselves from their
habitations at night, and if the matter is not dis-
covered by the overseer or master, nothing is ever
said of it by the slaves. The other people sup-
posed that, in this instance, Nero had gone to see a
woman whom he lived with as his wife, on a plan-
tation a few miles down the river ; and were willing
to work a little harder to permit him to enjoy the
pleasure of seeing his family. He returned before
day. and said he had been to see his wife, which sa-
tisfied the curiosity of our companions. The very
next evening after Nero's absence, the keel-boat de-
scended the river, came down on our side, hailed us
at the fishery, and, drawing in to the shore below our
landing, made her ropes fast among the young pines
of which I have spoken above. After we made our
first haul, I missed Nero ; but he returned to us be-
fore w7e had laid out the seine, and told us that he
had been in the woods to collect some light-wood—

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 307

dry, resinous pine, — which he brought on his shoul-
der. When the morning came, the keel-boat was
gone, and every thing wore the ordinary aspect
about our fishery ; but when the man came with
the mule and the cart, to take away the fish, he told
us that there was great trouble on the plantation.
The overseer had discovered, that some one had sto-
len two bags of cotton the last night, and all the
hands were undergoing an examination on the sub-
ject. The slaves on the plantation, one and all, de-
nied having any knowledge of the matter, and, as
there was no evidence against any one, the overseer
threatened, at the time he left the quarter, to whip
every hand on the estate, for the purpose of making
them discover who the thief was.

The slaves on the plantation differed in opinion as
to the perpetrator of this theft ; but the greater num-
ber concurred in charging it upon a free negro man,
named Ishmael, who lived in a place called the
White Oak Woods, and followed making ploughs
and harrow frames. He also made handles for hoes,
and the frame work of cart bodies.

This man was generally reputed a thief for a
great distance round the country, and the black peo-
ple charged him with stealing the cotton on no other
evidence than his general bad character. The
overseer, on the other hand, expressed his opinion
without hesitation ; which was, that the cotton had
been stolen by some of the people of the plantation,
and sold to a poor white man, who resided at the
distance of three miles back in the pine woods, and

308 NARRATIVE OP THE

was believed to have dealt with slave?, as a receiver
of their stolen goods, for many years.

This white man was one of the class of poor cot-
tagers to whom I have heretofore referred, in this
narrative. The house, or cabin, in which he re-
sided, was built of small poles of the yellow pine,
with the bark remaining on them ; the roof was of
clap-boards of pine, and the chimney was made of
sticks and mud, raised to the height of eight or ten
feet. The appearance of the man and his wife
was such as one might expect to find in such a
dwelling. The lowest poverty had, through life,
been the companion of these poor people, of which
their clayey complexions, haggard figures, and tat-
tered garments, gave the strongest proof. It appeared
to me, that the state of destitution in which these
people lived, afforded very convincing evidence that
they were not in possession of the proceeds of the
stolen goods of any person. 1 had often been at
the cabin of this man, in my trapping expeditions,
the previous autumn and winter ; and I believe
the overseer regarded the circumstance, that black
people often called at his house, as conclusive evi-
dence that he held criminal intercourse with them.
However this might be, the overseer determined
to search the premises of this harmless forester,
whom he resolved, beforehand, to treat as a guilty
man.

It being known that I was well acquainted with
the woods, in the neighbourhood of the cabin, I wras
sent for, to leave the fishery, and come to assist in

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 309

making search for the lost bags of cotton — perhaps
it was also believed, that I was in the secrets of the
suspected house. It was not thought prudent to
trust any of the hands on the plantation in making
the intended search, as they were considered the
principal thieves ; whilst we, of the fishery, against
whom no suspicion had arisen, were required to
give our assistance, in ferreting out the perpetrators
of an offence of the highest trrade that can be com-
mitted by a slave, on a cotton estate.

Before leaving the fishery, I advised the master
to be very careful not to let the overseer, or my mas-
ter know, that he had left us to manage the fishery
at night, by ourselves ; since, as a theft had been
committed, it mightpossibly be charged upon him, if it
were known that he had allowed us so much liberty.
I said this to put the master on his guard against
surprise ; and to prevent him from saying any thing
that might turn the attention of the overseer to the
hands at the fishery ; for I knew that if punishment
were to fail amongst us, it would be quite as likely
to reach the innocent as the guilty — besides, though
I was innocent of the bags of cotton, I was guilty of
the bacon, and, however I might make distinctions
between the moral turpitude of the two cases, I
knew that if discovered, they would both be treated
alike.

When I arrived at the quarter, whither I repaired,
in obedience to the orders I received, I found the
overseer with my masters eldest son, and a young
white man, who had been employed to repair the

310 NARRATIVE OF THE

cotton-gin, waiting for me. I observed when I came
near the overseer, that he looked at me very atten-
tively, and afterwards called my young master aside,
and spoke to him in a tone of voice too low to be
heard by me. The white gentlemen then mounted
their horses, and set off by the road for the cabin of
the white man. I had orders to take a short route,
through the woods and across a swamp, by which
I could reach the cabin as soon as the overseer.

The attentive examination that the overseer had
given me, caused me to feel uneasy, although I could
not divine the cause of his scrutiny, nor of the sub-
ject of the short conversation between him and my
young master. By travelling at a rapid pace, I ar-
rived at the cabin of the suspected man before the
gentlemen, but thought it prudent not to approach it
before they came up, lest it might be imagined that
I had gone in to give information to the occupants
of the danger that threatened them.

Here I had a hard struggle with my conscience,
which seemed to say to me, that I ought at once to
disclose all I knew concerning the lost bags of cot-
ton, for the purpose of saving these poor people from
the terror that they must necessarily feel at the sight
of those who were coming to accuse them of a great
crime, perhaps from the afflictions and sufferings
attendant upon a prosecution in a court of justice.
These reflections were cut short by the arrival of the
party of gentlemen, who passed me where I sat, at
the side of the path, with no other notice than a
simple command of the overseer to come on, I fol-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 311

lowed them inlo the cabin, where we found the man
and his wife, with two little children, eating roasted
potatoes.

The overseer saluted this family by telling them
that we had come to search the house for stolen cot-
ton. That it was well known that he had long
been dealing wTith negroes, and they were now de-
termined to bring him to punishment. I was then
ordered to tear up the floor of the cabin, whilst the
overseer mounted into the loft. I found nothing un-
der the floor, and the overseer had no better success
above. The wife was then advised to confess where
her husband had concealed the cotton, to save her-
self from being brought in as a party to the affair;
but this poor woman protested with tears that they
were totally ignorant of the whole matter. Whilst
the wife was interrogated, the father stood without
his own door, trembling with fear, but, as I could
perceive, indignant with rage.

The overseer, who was fluent in the use of pro-
fane language, exerted the highest degree of his vul-
gar eloquence upon these harmless people, whose
only crime was their poverty, and whose weakness
alone had invited the ruthless aggression of their
powerful and rich neighbours.

Finding nothing in the house, the gentlemen set
out to scour the woods around the cabin, and com-
manded me to take the lead in tracing out tree tops
and thickets, where it was most likely that the stolen
cotton might be found. Our search was in vain, as
I knew it would be beforehand ; but when weary of

312 NARRATIVE OF THE

ranging in the woods, the gentlemen again returned
to the cabin, which we now found without inhabi-
tants. The alarm caused by our visit, and the man-
ner in which the gentlemen had treated this lonely
family, had caused them to abandon their dwelling,
and seek safety in flight. The door of the house
was closed and fastened with a string to a nail in the
post of the door. After calling several times for the
fugitives, and receiving no answer, the door was
kicked open by my young master ; the few articles
of miserable furniture that the cabin contained, in-
cluding a bed, made of flags, were thrown into a
heap in the corner, and fire was set to the dwelling
by the overseer.

We remained until the flames had reached the
roof of the cabin, when the gentlemen mounted their
horses and set off for home, ordering me to return by
the way that I had come. When we again reach-
ed the house of my master, several gentlemen of the
neighbourhood had assembled, drawn together by
common interest that is felt amongst the planters to
punish theft, and particularly a theft of cotton in the
bag. My young master related to his neighbours,
with great apparent satisfaction, the exploits of the
morning ; said he had routed one receiver of stolen
goods out of the country, and that all others of his
character ought to be dealt with in the same man-
ner. In this opinion all the gentlemen present con-
curred, and after much conversation on the subject,
it was agreed to call a general meeting for the pur-
pose of devising the best, surest, and most peaceful

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 313

method of removing from the country the many
white men who, residing in the district without pro-
perty, or without interest in preserving the morals of
the slaves, were believed to carry on an unlawful
and criminal traffic with the negroes, to the great
injury of the planters in general, and of the mas-
ters of the slaves who dealt with the offenders in par-
ticular.

I was present at this preliminary consultation,
which took place at my master's cotton-gin, whither
the gentlemen had repaired for the purpose of look-
ing at the place where the cotton had been removed.
So many cases of this forbidden traffic between the
slaves and these '-white negro dealers," as they
were termed, were here related by the different gen-
tlemen, and so many white men were referred to by
name as being concerned in this criminal business,
that Lbegan to suppose the losses of the planters in
this way must be immense. This conference con-
tinued until I had totally forgotten the scrutinizing
look that I had received from our overseer at the
time I came up from the fishery in the morning ;
but the period had now come when I again was to
be reminded of this circumstance, for on a sudden
the overseer called me to come forward and let the
gentlemen see me. I again felt a sort of vague and
under! liable apprehension that no good was to grow
out of this examination of my person, but a com-
mand of our overseer was not to be disobeyed. After
looking at my face, with a kind of leer or side glance,
one of the gentlemen, who was an entire stranger to

27

314

NARRATIVE OF THE

me, and whom I had never before seen, said, " Boy,

you appear to live well ; how much meat does your

master allow you in a week ? " I was almost totally

confounded at the name of meat, and felt the blood

rush to my heart, but nevertheless forced a sort of

smile upon my face, and replied, l- My master has

been very kind to all his people of late, but has not

allowed us any meat for some weeks. We have

plenty of good bread, and abundance of river fish,

which, together with the heads and roes of the shad

that we have salted at the landing, makes a very

excellent living for us; though if master would

please to give us a little meat now and then, we

should be very thankful for it."

This speech, which contained all the eloquence I
was master of at the time, seemed to produce some
effect in my favour, for the gentleman said nothing
in reply, until the overseer, rising from a board on
which he had been sitting, came close up to me and
said, " Charles, you need not tell lies about it ; you
have been eating meat, I know you have, no negro
could look as fat, and sleek, and black, and greasy,
as you, if he had nothing to eat but corn bread and
river chubs. You do not look at all as you did be-
fore you went to the fishery ; and all the hands on
the plantation have had as many chubs and other
river fish as they could eat, as well as you, and yet
they are as poor as snakes in comparison with you.
Come, tell us the truth, let us know where you get the
meat that you have been eating, and you shall not
be whipped." I begged the overseer and the other

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 315

gentlemen not to ridicule or make sport of me, be-
cause I was a poor slave, and was obliged to live on
bread and fresh water fish ; and concluded this sec-
ond harangue by expressing my thankfulness to
God Almighty, for giving me such good health and
strength as to enable me to do my work, and look so
well as I did upon such poor fare ; adding, that if I
only had as much bacon as I could eat, they would
soon see a man of a different appearance from that
which I now exhibited. " None of your palaver,"
rejoined the overseer — " Why, I smell the meat in
you this moment. Do I not see the grease as it runs
out of your face V I was by this time in a profuse
sweat, caused by the anxiety of my feelings, and
simply said, " Master sees me sweat, I suppose."

All the gentlemen present then declared, with one
accord, that I must have been living on meat for a
long time, as no negro, who had no meat to eat,
could look as I did ; and one of the company advised
the overseer to whip me, and compel me to confess
the truth. I have no doubt but this advice would
have been practically followed, had it not been for a
happy, though dangerous suggestion of my own
mind, at this moment. It was no other than a pro-
posal on my part, that I should be taken to the
landing, and if all the people there did not look as
well, and as much like meat-eaters as I did, then I
would agree to be whipped in any way the gentle-
men should deem expedient. This offer on my part
was instantly accepted by the gentlemen, and it
was agreed amongst them that they would all go to

316 NARRATIVE OF THE

the landing with the overseer, partly for the purpose
of seeing me condemned by the judgment to which
I had voluntarily chosen to submit myself, and
partly for the purpose of seeing my masters new
fishery.

We were quickly at the landing, though four
miles distant ; and I now felt confident that I should
escape the dangers that beset me. provided the mas-
ter of the fishery did not betray his own negligence,
and lead himself, as well as us, into new troubles.

Though on foot, I was at the landing as soon as
the gentlemen, and was first to announce to the mas-
ter the feats we had performed in the course of the
day, adding, with great emphasis, and even confi-
dence in my manner, " You know, master fish-mas-
ter, whether wTe have had any meat to eat here or
not. If we had meat here, would not you see it ?
You have been up with us every night, and know
that we have not been allowed to take even shad,
let alone having meat to eat." The fish-master
supported me in all I said ; declared we had been
good boys— had worked night and day, of his cer-
tain knowledge, as he had been with us all night
and every night since we began to fish. That he
had not allowed us to eat any thing but fresh water
fish, and the heads and roes of the shad that were
salted at the landing. As to meat, he said he was
willing to be qualified on a cart load of testaments
that there had not been a pound at the landing
since the commencement of the season, except that
which he had in his own cabin. I had now acquir*

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 317

ed confidence, and desired the gentlemen to look at
Nero and the other hands, all of whom had as
much the appearance of bacon eaters as myself.
This was the truth, especially with regard to one of
the men, who was much fatter than I was.

The gentlemen now began to doubt the evidence
of their own senses, which they had held infallible
heretofore. I showed the fine fish that we had to
eat: cat, perch, mullets, and especially two large
pikes, that had been caught to-day, and assured
them that upon such fare as this men must needs
get fat. I now perceived that victory was with me
for once. All the gentlemen faltered, hesitated, and
began to talk of other affairs, except the overseer,
who still ran about the landing, swearing and
scratching his head, and saying it was strange that
we were so fat, whilst the hands on the plantation
were as lean as sand-hill cranes. He was obliged
to give the affair over. He was no longer supported
by my young master and his companions, all of
whom congratulated themselves upon a discovery
so useful and valuable to the planting interest ; and
all determined to provide, as soon as possible, a pro-
per supply of fresh river fish for their hands.

The two bales of cotton were never once named,
and, I suppose, were not thought of by the gentle-
men, when at the landing ; and this was well for
Nero ; for such was the consternation and terror in-
to which he was thrown, by the presence of the gen-
tlemen, and their inquiries concerning our eating of
meat, that the sweat rolled off him like rain from

27*

318 NARRATIVE OF THE

the plant never-wet ; his countenance was wild and
haggard, and his knees shook like the wooden spring
of a wheat-fan. I believe, that if they had charged
him at once with stealing the cotton, he would have
confessed the deed.

CHAPTER XVI.

After this, the fishing season passed off without
any thing having happened, worthy of being noticed
here. When we left the fishery, and returned to
the plantation, which was after the middle of April,
the corn and cotton had all been planted, and the
latter had been replanted. 1 was set to plough,
with two mules for my team ; and having never
been accustomed to ploughing with these animals, I
had much trouble with them at first. My master
owned more than forty mules, and at this season of
the year, they were all at work in the cotton field,
used instead of horses for drawing ploughs. Some
of the largest were hitched single to a plough ; but
the smallest were coupled together.

On the whole, the fishery had been a losing affair
with me ; for although I had lived better at the
landing, than I usually did at the plantation, yet I
had been compelled to work all the time, by night
and by day, including Sunday, for my master ; by
which I had lost all that I could have earned for my
own benefit, had I been on the plantation. I had"
now become so well acquainted with the rules of the

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 319

plantation, and the customs of the country where I
lived, that I experienced less distress than I did at
my first coming to the south.

We now received a shad every Sunday even-
ing with our peck of corn. The fish were those
that I had caught in the spring ; and were tolera-
bly preserved. In addition to all this, each one of
the hands now received a pint of vinegar, every
week. This vinegar was a great comfort to me.
As the weather became hot, I gathered lettuce,
and other salads, from my garden in the woods ;
which, with the vinegar and bread, furnished me
many a cheerful meal. The vinegar had been fur-
nished to us by our master, more out of regard to
our health, than to our comfort ; but it greatly pro-
moted both.

The affairs of the plantation now went on quiet-
ly, until after the cotton had been ploughed, and
hoed the first time, after replanting. The working
of the cotton crop is not disagreeable labour — no
more so than the culture of corn — but we were called
upon to perform a kind of labour, than which none
can be more toilsome to the body, or dangerous to
the health.

I have elsewhere informed the reader, that my
master was a cultivator of rice, as well as of cotton.
Whilst I was at the fishery in the spring, thirty
acres of swamp land had been cleared off, ploughed,
and planted in rice. The water had now been turned
off the plants, and the field was to be ploughed
and. hoed. When we were taken to the rice field,

320 NARRATIVE OP THE

the weather was very hot, and the ground was
yet muddy and wet. The ploughs were to be drag-
ged through the wet soil, and the young rice had to
be cleaned of weeds, by the hand, and hilled up with
the hoe.

It is the common opinion, that no stranger can
work a week in a rice swamp, at this season of the
year, without becoming sick ; and all the new
hands, three in number, besides myself, were taken
ill within the first five days, after we had entered
this field. The other three were removed to the
sick room ; but I did not go there, choosing rather
to remain at the quarter, where I was my own mas-
ter, except that the doctor, who called to see me, took
a large quantity of blood from my arm, and com-
pelled me to take a dose of some sort of medicine
that made me very sick, and caused me to vomit
violently. This happened on the second day of my
illness, and from this time I recovered slowly, but
was not able to go to the field again for more than a
week. Here it is but justice to my master to say,
that during all the time of my illness, some one came
from the great house, every day, to inquire after me,
and to offer me some kind of light and cool refresh-
ment. I might have gone to the sick room at any
time, if 1 had chosen to do so.

An opinion generally prevails, amongst the people
of both colours, that the drug copperas is very
poisonous — and perhaps it may be so, if taken in
large quantities — but the circumstance, that it is
used in medicine, seems to forbid the notion of its

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 321

poisonous qualities. I believe copperas was mingled
with the potion the doctor gave to me. Some over-
seers keep copperas by them, as a medicine, to be
administered to the hands whenever they become
sick ; but this I take to be a bad practice ; for although,
in some cases, this drug may be very efficacious,
it certainly should be administered by a more skilful
hand than that of an overseer. It, however, has the
effect of deterring the people from complaining of
illness, until they are no longer able to work ; for it
is the most nauseous and sickening medicine that
was ever taken into the stomach. Ignorant, or ma-
licious overseers may, and often do, misapply it ; as
was the case with our overseer, when he compelled
poor Lydia to take a draught of its solution. After
the restoration of my health, I resumed my accus-
tomed labour in the field, and continued it without
intermission, until I left this plantation.

We had, this year, as a part of our crop, ten acres
of indigo. This plant is worked nearly after the
manner of rice, except, that it is planted on high
and dry ground, whilst the rice is always cultivated
in low swamps, where the ground may be inundated
with water ; but notwithstanding its location on dry
ground, the culture of indigo is not less unpleasant
than that of rice. When the rice is ripe, and ready
for the sickle, it is no longer disagreeable ; but when
the indigo is ripe and ready to cut, the troubles at-
tendant upon it have only commenced.

The indigo plant bears more resemblance to the
weed called wild indigo, which is common in the

322 NARRATIVE OF THE

woods of Pennsylvania, than to any other herb with
which I am acquainted.

The root of the indigo plant is long and slender,
and emits a scent somewhat like that of parsley.
From the root issues a single stem, straight, hard,
and slender, covered with a bark, a little cracked on
its surface, of a gray colour towards the bottom,
green in the middle, reddish at the extremity, and
without the appearance of pith in the inside. The
leaves ranged in pairs around the stalk, are of an
oval form, — smooth, soft to the touch, furrowed
above, and of a deep green on the under side. The
upper parts of the plant are loaded with small flow-
ers, destitute of smell. Each flower changes into a
pod, enclosing seed.

This plant thrives best in a rich, moist soil. The
seeds are black, very small, and sowed in straight
drills. This crop requires very careful culture, and
must be kept free from every kind of weeds and
grass. It ripens within less than three months from
the time it is sown. When it begins to flower, the
top is cut off, and, as new flowers appear, the plant
is again pruned, until the end of the season.

Indigo impoverishes land more rapidly than al-
most any other crop, and the plant must be gathered
in with great caution, for fear of shaking off the va-
luable farina that lies in the leaves. When ga-
thered, it is thrown into the steeping vat — a large
tub filled with water — here it undergoes a fermenta-
tion, which, in twenty-four hours, at farthest, is
completed. A cock is then turned to let the water

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 323

run into the second tub, called the mortar, or pound-
ing tub : the steeping vat is then cleaned out, that
fresh plants may be thrown in ; and thus the work
is continued, without interruption. The water in
the pounding tub is stirred with wooden buckets,
with holes in their bottoms, for several days ; and,
after the sediment contained in the water, has set-
tled to the bottom of the tub, the water is let off, and
the sediment, which is the indigo of commerce, is
gathered into bags, and hung up to drain. It is af-
terwards pressed, and laid away to dry in cakes, and
then packed in chests for market.

Washing at the tubs is exceedingly unpleasant,
both on account of the filth and the stench, arising
from the decomposition of the plants.

In the early part of June, our shad, that each one
had been used to receive, was withheld from us, and
we no longer received any thing but the peck of
corn, and pint of vinegar. ■ This circumstance, in a
community less severely disciplined than ours, might
have procured murmurs; but to us it was only an-
nounced by the fact of the fish not being distributed
to us on Sunday evening.

This was considered a fortunate season by our
people. There had been no exemplary punishment
inflicted amongst us, for several months ; we had
escaped entirely upon the occasion of the stolen bags
of cotton, though nothing less was to have been look-
ed for, on that occurrence, than a general whipping
of the whole gang.

There was more or less of whipping amongst

324 NARRATIVE OP THE

us, every week ; frequently, one was flogged every
evening, over and above the punishments that fol-
lowed on each settlement day ; but these chastise-
ments, which seldom exceeded ten or twenty lash-
es, were of little import. I was careful, for my
own part, to conform to all the regulations of the
plantation.

When I no longer received my fish from the over-
seer, I found it necessary again to resort to my own
expedients, for the purpose of procuring something
in the shape of animal food, to add to my bread and
greens.

I had, by this time, become well acquainted with
the woods and swamps, for several miles round our
plantation ; and this being the season when the tur-
tles came upon the land, to deposite their eggs, I
availed myself of it, and going out one Sunday
morning, caught, in the course of the day,, by trav-
elling cautiously around the edges of the swamps,
ten snapping turtles, four of which were very large.
As I caught these creatures, I tied each one with
hickory bark, and hung it up to the bough of a
tree, so that I could come and carry it home at my
leisure.

I afterwards carried my turtles home, and put
them into a hole that I dug in the ground, four or
five feet deep, and secured the sides by driving
small pieces of split timber into the ground, quite
round the circumference of the hole, the upper ends
of the timber standing out above the ground. Into

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 325

this hole I poured water at pleasure, and kept my
turtles uutil I needed them.

On the next Sunday, I again went to the swamps
to search for turtles ; but as the period of laying
their eggs had nearly passed, I had poor success to
day, only taking two turtles of the species called
skill-pots — a kind of large terrapin, with a speckled
back and red belly.

This day, when I was three or four miles from
home, in a very solitary part of the swamps, I heard
the sound of bells, similar to those which wagoners
place on the shoulders of their horses. At first, the
noise of bells of this kind, in a place where they
were so unexpected, alarmed me, as I could not
imagine who or what it was that was causing these
bells to ring. I was standing near a pond of water,
and listening attentively ; I thought the bells were
moving in the woods, and coming toward me. I
therefore crouched down upon the ground, under cov-
er of a cluster of small bushes that were near me,
and lay, not free from disquietude, to await the near
approach of these mysterious bells.

Sometimes they were quite silent for a minute or
more at a time, and then again would jingle quick,
but not loud. They were evidently approaching
me ; and at length I heard footsteps distinctly in
the leaves, which lay dry upon the ground. A feel-
ing of horror seized me at this moment, for I now
recollected that I was on the verge of the swamp,
near which the vultures and carrion crows had
mangled the living .bodies of the two murderers ;

28

326 NARRATIVE OF THE

and my terror was not abated, when, a moment af-
ter, I saw come from behind a large tree, the form of
a brawny, famished-looking black man, entirely na-
ked, with his hair matted and shaggy, his eyes wild
and rolling, and bearing over his head something in
the form of an arch, elevated three feet above his
hair, beneath the top of which were suspended the
bells, three in number, whose sound had first attract-
ed my attention. Upon a closer examination of this
frightful figure, I perceived that it wore a collar of iron
about its neck, with, a large padlock pendent from
behind, and carried in its hand a long staff, with an
iron spear in one end. The staff, like every thing
else belonging to this strange spectre, was black.
It slowly approached within ten paces of me, and
stood still*

The sun was now down, and the early twilight
produced by the gloom of the heavy forest, in the
midst of which I was, added approaching darkness
to heighten my dismay. My heart was in my
mouth ; all the hairs of my head started from their
sockets ; I seemed to be rising from my hiding place
into the open air, in spite of myself, and I gasped
for breath.

The black apparition moved past me, went to the
water and kneeled down. The forest re-echoed
with the sound of the bells, and their dreadful peals
filled the deepest recesses of the swamps, as their
bearer, drank the wTater of the pond, in which I
thought I heard his irons hiss, when they came in
contact with it. I felt confident that I was now in

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 327

the immediate presence of an inhabitant of a nether
and fiery world, who had been permitted to escape,
for a time, from the place of his torment, and come
to revisit the scenes of his former crimes. I now
gave myself up for lost, without other aid than my
own, and began to pray aloud to heaven to protect
me. At the sound of my voice, the supposed evil one
appeared to be scarcely less alarmed than I was.
He sprang to his feet, and, at a single bound, rushed
middeep into the water, then turning, he besought
me in a suppliant and piteous tone of voice, to have
mercy upon him, and not carry him back to his
master.

The suddenness with which we pass from the ex-
treme of one passion, to the utmost bounds of an-
other, is inconceivable, and must be assigned to the
catalogue of unknown causes and effects, unless we
suppose the human frame to be an involuntary ma-
chine, operated upon by surrounding objects which
give it different and contrary impulses, as a ball is
driven to and fro by the batons of boys, when they
play in troops upon a common. I had no sooner
heard a human voice than all my fears fled, as a
spark that ascends from a heap of burning charcoal,
and vanishes to nothing.

I at once perceived, that the object that had well
nigh deprived rne of my reason, so far from having
either the will or the power to injure me, was only a
poor destitute African negro, still more wretched and
helpless than myself.

Rising from the bushes, I now advanced to the

328 NARRATIVE OF THE

water side, and desired him to come out without fear,
and to be assured that if I could render him any as-
sistance, I would do it most cheerfully. As to car-
rying him back to his master, I was more ready to
ask help to deliver me from my own, than to give
aid to any one in forcing him back to his.

We now went to a place in the forest, where the
ground was, for some distance, clear of trees, and
where the light of the sun was yet so strong, that
every object could be seen. My new friend now de-
sired me to look at his back, which was seamed and
ridged with scars of the whip, and the hickory, from
the pole of his neck to the lower extremity of the
spine. The natural colour of the skin had disap-
peared, and was succeeded by a streaked and speck-
led appearance of dusky white and pale flesh col-
our, scarcely any of the original black remaining.
The skin of this man's back had been again and
again cut away by the thong, and renewed by the
hand of nature, until it was grown fast to the flesh,
and felt hard and turbid.

He told me his name was Paul ; that he' was a
native of Congo, in Africa, and had been a slave five
years ; that he had left an aged mother, a widow,
at home, as also a wife and four children ; that it
had been his misfortune to fall into the hands of a
master, who was frequently drunk, and whose tem-
per was so savage, that his chief delight appeared to
consist in whipping and torturing his slaves, of
whom he owned near twenty ; but through some
unaccountable caprice, he had contracted a particu-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 329

lar dislike against Paul, whose life he now declared
to me, was insupportable. He had then been wan-
dering in the woods, more than three weeks, with
no other subsistence than the land tortoises, frogs,
and other reptiles that he had taken in the woods,
and along the shores of the ponds, with the aid of
his spear. He had not been able to take any of the
turtles in the laying season, because the noise of his
bells frightened them, and they always escaped to
the water before he could catch them. He had found
many eggs, which he had eaten raw. having no fire,
nor any means of making fire, to cook his food.
He had been afraid to travel much in the middle of
the day, lest the sound of his bells should be heard
by some one, who would make his master acquaint-
ed with the place of his concealment. The only pe-
riods when he ventured to go in search of food, were
early in the morning, before people could have time
to leave their homes and reach the swamp ; or late
in the evening, after those who were in pursuit of
him had gone to their dwellings for the night.

This man spoke our language imperfectly, but
possessed a sound and vigorous understanding ; and
reasoned with me upon the propriety of destroying a
life which was doomed to continual distress. He in-
formed me that he had first run away from his mas-
ter more than two years ago, after being whipped,
with long hickory switches, until he fainted. That
he concealed himself in a swamp, at that time, ten
or fifteen miles from this place, for more than six
months, but was finally betrayed by a woman whom

28*

330 NARRATIVE OF THE

he sometimes visited ; that when taken, he was
again whipped until he was not able to stand, and
had a heavy block of wood chained to one foot,
which he was obliged to drag after him at his daily
labour, for more than three months, when he found
an old file, with which he cut the irons from his an-
cle, and again escaped to the woods, but was retaken
within little more than a week after his flight, by
two men who were looking for their cattle, and came
upon him in the woods where he was asleep.

On being returned to his master, he was again
whipped ; and then the iron collar that he now wore,
with the iron rod, extending from one shoulder over
his head to the other, with the bells fastened at the
top of the arch, were put upon him. Of these irons
he could not divest himself, and wore them constant-
ly from that time to the present.

1 had no instruments with me, to enable me to
release Paul from his manacles, and all I could do
for him was to desire him to go with me to the place
where I had left my terrapins, which I gave to him,
together with all the eggs that I had found to-day.
I also caused him to lie down, and having furnished
myself with a flint-stone, (many of which lay in the
sand near the edge of the pond) and a handful of
dry moss, I succeeded in striking fire from the iron
collar, and made a fire of sticks, upon which he could
roast the terrapins and the eggs. It was now quite
dark, and I was full two miles from my road, with
no path to guide me towards home, but the small
traces made in the woods by the cattle.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 331

I advised Paul to bear his misfortunes as well as
he could, until the next Sunday, when I would re-
turn and bring with me a file, and other things ne-
cessary to the removal of his fetters.

I now set out alone, to make my way home, not
without some little feeling of trepidation, as I passed
along in the dark shade of the pine trees, and
thought of the terrific deeds that had been done in
these woods.

This was the period of the full moon, which now
rose, and cast her brilliant rays through the tops of
the trees that overhung my way, and enveloped my
path in a gloom more cheerless than the obscurity of
total darkness. The path I travelled led by sinuosi-
ties around the margin of the swamp, and finally
ended at the extremity of the cart-road terminating
at the spot where David and Hardy had been given
alive for food to vultures ; and over this ground I was
now obliged to pass, unless I chose to turn far to the
left, through the pathless forest, and make my way
to the high road near the spot where the lady had
been torn from her horse. I hated the idea of ac-
knowledging to my own heart, that I was a coward,
and dared not look upon the bones of a murderer at
midnight ; and there was little less of awe attached
to the notion of visiting the ground where the ghost
of the murdered woman wTas reported to wander in
the moonbeams, than in visiting the scene where
diabolical crimes had been visited by fiend-like pun-
ishment.

My opinion is, that there is no one who is not at

332 NARRATIVE OP THE

times subject to a sensation approaching fear, when
placed in situations similar to that in which I found
myself this night. I did not believe that those who
had passed the dark line, which separates the living
from the dead, could again return to the earth, ei-
ther for good or for evil ; but that solemn foreboding
of the heart which directs the minds of all men to a
contemplation of the just judgment, which a supe-
rior, and unknown power, holds in reservation for
the deeds of this life, filled my soul with a dread
conception of the unutterable woes which a righteous
and unerring tribunal must award to the blood-stain-
ed spirits of the two men whose lives had been closed
in such unspeakable torment by the side of the path
I was now treading.

The moon had risen high above the trees, and
shone with a clear and cloudless light ; the whole
firmament of heaven was radiant with the lustre of
a mild and balmy summer evening. Save only the
droppings of the early dew from the lofty branches
of the trees into the water, which lay in shallow pools
on my right, and the light trampling of my own
footsteps ; the stillness of night pervaded the lonely
wastes around me. But there is a deep melancholy
in the sound of the heavy drop as it meets the bosom
of the wave in a dense forest at night, that revives in
the memory the recollection of the clays of other
years, and fills the heart with sadness.

I was now approaching the unhallowed ground
where lay the remains of the remorseless and guilty
dead, who had gone to their final account, reeking in

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 333

their sins, unatoned, unblest, and unwept. Already
I saw the bones, whitened by the rain, and bleach-
ed in the sun, lying scattered and dispersed, a leg
here and an arm there, whilst a scull with the un-
der jaw in its place, retaining allits teeth, grinned a
ghastly laugh, with its front full in the beams of the
moon, which, falling into the vacant sockets of the
eye-balls, reflected a pale shadow from these desert-
ed caverns, and played in twinkling lustre upon the
bald, and skinless forehead.

In a moment, the night-breeze agitated the leaves
of the wood and moaned in dreary sighs through the
lofty pine tops ; the gale shook the forest in the depth
of its solitudes : a cloud swept across the moon, and
her light disappeared ; a flock of carrion crows dis-
turbed in their roosts, flapped their wings and flutter-
ed over my head ; and a wolf, who had been gnaw-
ing the dry bones, greeted the darkness with a long
and dismal howl.

I felt the blood chill in my veins, and all my joints
shuddered, as if I had been smitten by electricity.
At least a minute elapsed before I recovered the
power of self-government. I hastened to fly from a
place devoted to crime, where an evil genius presided
in darkness over a fell assembly of howling wolves,
and blood-snuffing vultures.

When I arrived at the quarter, all was quiet.
The inhabitants of this mock-village were wrapped
in forgetfulness ; and I stole silently into my little
loft, and joined my neighbours in their repose. Ex-
perience had made me so well acquainted with the

334 NARRATIVE OF THE

dangers that beset the life of a slave, that I determin-
ed, as a matter of prudence, to say nothing to any-
one, of the adventures of this Sunday ; but went to
work on Monday morning, at the summons of the
overseer's horn, as if nothing unusual had occurred.
In the course of the week, I often thought of the for-
lorn and desponding African, who had so terrified me
in the woods, and who seemed so grateful for the
succour I gave him. I felt anxious to become bet-
ter acquainted with this man, who possessed knowl-
edge superior to the common race of slaves, and
manifested a moral courage in the conversation
that I had with him, worthy of a better fate than
that to which fortune had consigned him. On the
following Sunday, having provided myself with a
large file, which I procured from the blacksmith's
shop, belonging to the plantation, I again repaired to
the place, at the side of the swamp, where I had first
seen the figure of this ill-fated man. I expected that
he would be in waiting for me at the appointed
place, as I had promised him that I would certainly
come again, at this time ; but on arriving at the spot
where I had left him, I saw no sign of any person.
The remains of the fire that I had kindled were
here, and it seemed that the fire had been kept up
for several days, by the quantity of ashes that lay in
a heap, surrounded by numerous small brands.
The impressions of human feet, were thickly dispo-
sed around this decayed fire : and the bones of the
terrapins that I had given to Paul, as well as the
skeletons of many frogs, were scattered upon the

ADVENTURES 0# CHARLE3 BALL. 335

ground; but there was nothing that showed that
any one had visited this spot, since the fall of the last
rain, which I now recollected had taken place on the
previous Thursday. From this circumstance I con-
cluded, that Paul had relieved himself of his irons,
and gone to seek concealment in some other place ;
or that his master had discovered his retreat, and
carried him back to the plantation.

Whilst standing at the ashes I heard the croaking
of ravens at some distance in the woods, and imme-
diately afterwards a turkey-buzzard passed over me
pursued by an eagle, coming from the quarter in
which I had just heard the ravens. I knew that the
eagle never pursued the buzzard for the purpose of
preying upon him, but only to compel him to dis-
gorge himself of his own prey for the benefit of the
king of birds. I therefore concluded that there was
some dead animal in my neighbourhood that had
called all these ravenous fowls together. It might be
that Paul had killed a cow by knocking her down
with a pine knot, and that he had removed his resi-
dence to this slaughtered animal. Curiosity was
aroused in me, and I proceeded to examine the
woods.

1 had not advanced more than two hundred yards
when I felt oppressed by a most sickening stench,
and saw the trees swarming with birds of prey, buz-
zards perched upon their branches, ravens sailing
amongst their boughs, and clouds of carrion crows
flitting about, and poising themselves in the air in a
stationary position, after the manner of that most

336 NARRATIVE OF THE

nauseous of all birds, when it perceives, or thinks it
perceives, some object of prey. Proceeding onward,
I came in view of a large sassafras tree, around the
top of which was congregated a cloud of crows,
some on the bougHs and others on the wing, whilst
numerous buzzards were sailing low and nearly
skimming the ground. This sassafras tree had
many low horizontal branches, attached to one of
which I now saw the cause of so vast an assembly
of the obscene fowls of the air. The lifeless and
putrid body of the unhappy Paul hung suspended
by a cord made of twisted hickory bark, passed in
the form of a halter round the neck, and firmly
bound to a limb of the tree.

It was manifest that he had climbed the tree,
fastened the cord to the branch, and then sprung
off. The smell that assailed my nostrils was too
overwhelming to permit me to remain long in view
of the dead body, which was much mangled and
torn, though its identity was beyond question, for
the iron collar, and the bells with the arch that bore
them, were still in their place. The bells had pre-
served the corpse from being devoured ; for whilst I
looked at it I observed a crow descend upon it, and
make a stroke at the face with its beak, but the mo-
tion that this gave to the bells caused them to rattle,
and the bird took to flight.

Seeing that I could no longer render assistance to
Paul, who wras now beyond the reach of his mas-
ter's tyranny, as wTell as of my pity, I returned with-
out delay to my master's house, and going into the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 337

kitchen, related to the household servants that I had
found a black man hung in the woods with bells
upon him. This intelligence was soon communi-
cated to my master, who sent for me to come into the
house to relate the circumstance to him. I was
careful not to tell that 1 had seen Paul before his
death; and when I had finished my narrative,
my master observed to a gentleman who was with
him, that this was a heavy loss to the owner, and
told me to go.

The body of Paul was never taken down, but re-
mained hanging where I had seen it until the flesh
fell from the bones, or was torn off by the birds. I
saw the bones hanging in the sassafras tree more
than two months afterwards, and the last time that
I was ever in these swamps.

CHAPTER XVII.

An affair was now in progress, which, though the
persons who were actors in it were far removed from
me, had in its effects a great influence upon the for-
tunes of my life. I have informed the reader that my
master had three daughters, and that the second of
the sisters was deemed a great beauty. The eldest
of the three was married about the time of which I
now write, to a planter of great wealth, who resided
near Columbia ; but the second had formed an
attachment to a young gentleman whom she had

29

338 NARRATIVE OF THE

frequently s$en at the church attended by my mas-
ter's family. As this young man, either from want
of wealth, or proper persons to introduce him, had
never been at my master's house, my young mis-
tress had no opportunity of communicating to him
the sentiments she entertained towards him, without
violating the rules of modesty in which she had been
educated. Before she would attempt any thing
which might be deemed a violation of the decorum
of her sex, she determined to take a new method of
obtaining a husband. She communicated to her
father, my master, a knowledge of the whole affair,
with a desire that he would invite the gentleman of
her choice to his house. This the father resolutely
opposed, upon the ground that the young man upon
whom his daughter had fixed her heart was without
property, and consequently destitute of the means of
supporting his daughter in a style suitable to the
rank she occupied in society. A woman in love is
not easily foiled in her purposes; my young mis-
tress, by continual entreaties, so far prevailed over
the affections, or more probably the fears of her
father, that he introduced the young man to his
family, and about two months afterwards my young
mistress was a bride ; but it had been agreed
amongst all the parties, as I understood, before the
marriage, that as the son-in-law had no land or
slaves of his own, he should remove with his wife to
a large tract of land that my master owned in the
new purchase in the state of Georgia.

In the month of September, 1806, my master

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 339

came to the quarter one evening, at the time of our
return from the field, in company with his son-in-law,
and informed me that he had given me, with a num-
ber of others of his slaves, to his daughter ; and that
I, with eight other men and two or three women,
must set out on the next Sunday with my new mas-
ter, for his estate in Georgia, whither we were to go,
to clear land, build houses, and make other im-
provements, necessary for the reception of the newly-
married lady, in the following spring.

I was much pleased with the appearance and
manners of my new master, who was a young man
apparently about twenty-seven or eight years old,
and of good figure. We were to take with us, in
our expedition to Georgia, a wagon, to be drawn by
six mules, and I was appointed to drive the team.
Before Ave set off my young mistress came in person
to the quarter, and told us that all those who were
going to the new settlement must come to the house,
where she furnished each of us with two full suits of
clothes, one of coarse woollen, and the other of
hempen cloth. She also gave a hat to each of us,
and two pairs of shoes, with a trifle in money, and
enjoined us to be good boys and girls, and get things
ready for her, and that when she should come to live
with us we should not be forgotten. The conduct
of this young lady wTas so different from that which
I had been accustomed to witness since I came to
Carolina, that I considered myself highly fortunate
in becoming her slave, and now congratulated my-
self with the idea that I should, in future, have a

340 NARRATIVE OF THE

mistress who would treat me kindly, and if I behav-
ed well, would not permit me to want.

At the time appointed we set out for Georgia, with
all the tools and implements necessary to the prose-
cution of a new settlement. My young master ac-
companied us, and travelled slowly for several days
to enable me to keep up with him. We continued
our march in this order until we reached the Savan-
nah river at the town of Augusta, where my mas-
ter told me that he was so well satisfied with my
conduct, that he intended to leave me with the team
to bring on the goods and the women and children ;
but that he would take the men and push on, as fast
as possible, to the new settlement, and go to work
until the time of my arrival. He gave me directions
to follow on and inquire for Morgan county Court
House, and said that he would have a person ready
there on my arrival to guide me to him and the peo-
ple with him. He then gave me twenty dollars to
buy food for the mules and provisions for myself and
those with me, and left me on the high road master
of myself and the team. I was resolved that this
striking proof of confidence on the part of my master
should not be a subject of regret to him, and pursued
my route with the greatest diligence, taking care to
lay out as little money as possible for such things as
I had to buy. On the sixth day, in the morning, I
arrived at our new settlement in the middle of a
heavy forest of such timber as is common to that
country, with three dollars and twenty-five cents in
my pocket, part of the money given to me at Au-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 341

gusta. This I offered to return, but my master re-
fused to take it, and told me to keep it for my good
conduct. I now felt assured that all my troubles in
this world were ended, and that, in future, I might
look forward to a life of happiness and ease ; for I
did not consider labour any hardship, if I was well
provided with good food and clothes, and my other
wants properly regarded.

My master, and the people who were with him,
had, before our arrival with the wagon, put up the
logs of two cabins, and were engaged, when we
came, in covering one of them with clapboards. In
the course of the next day we completed both these
cabins, with puncheon floors and small glass win-
dows, the sash and glass for which I had brought in
the wagon. We put up two other cabins, and a
stable for the mules, and then began to clear land.
After a few days, my master told me be meant to go
down into the settlements to buy provisions for the
winter, and that he should leave me to oversee the
hands, and carry on the work in his absence. He
accordingly left us, taking with him the wagon and
two boys, one to drive the team, and another to
drive cattle and hogs, which he intended to buy and
drive to our settlement. I now felt myself almost
proprietor of our new establishment, and believe the
men left under my charge did not consider me a
very lenient overseer. I in truth compelled them to
work very hard, as I did myself. At the end of a
week my master returned with a heavy load of meal
and bacon, with salt and other things that we need*-

29*

342 NARRATIVE OF THE

ed, and the day following a white man drove to our
station several cows, and more than twenty hogs,
the greater part of which were breeders. At this
season of the year neither the hogs nor the cattle re-
quired any feeding at our hands. The woods were
full of nuts, and the grass was abundant; but we
gave salt to our stock, and kept the hogs in a pen,
two or three days, to accustom them to the place.

We now lived very differently from what we did
on my old master^ plantation. We had as much
bacon every day as we could eat ; which, together
with bread and sweet potatoes, which we had at will,
constituted our fare. My master remained with us
more than two months ; within which time we had
cleared forty acres of ground, ready for the plough ;
but, a few days before Christmas, an event took
place, which, in its consequences, destroyed all my
prospects of happiness, and totally changed the fu-
ture path of my life. A messenger one day came to
our settlement, with a letter, which had been for-
warded in this manner, by the postmaster at the
Court House, where the post-office was kept. This
letter contained intelligence of the sudden death of
my old master ; and that difficulties had arisen in
the family which required the immediate attention
of my young one. The letter was written by my
mistress. My master, forthwith, took an account of
the stock of provisions, and other things that he had
on hand, and putting the whole under my charge,
gave me directions to attend to the work, and set off
on horseback that evening; promising to return

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 343

within one month at furthest. We never saw him
again, and heard nothing of him until late in the
month of January, 1807, when the eldest son of my
late master came to our settlement, in company with
a strange gentleman. The son of my late master
informed me, to my surprise and sorrow, that my
young master, who had brought us to Georgia, was
dead ; and that he, and the gentleman with him,
were administrators of the deceased, and had come
to Georgia for the purpose of letting out on lease, for
the period of seven years, our place, with all the peo-
ple on it, including me.

To me, the most distressing part of this news,
was the death of my young master ; and I was still
more sorry when I learned, that he had been killed
in a duel. My young mistress, whose beauty had
drawn around her numerous suiters, many of whom
were men of base minds and cowardly hearts, had
chosen her husband, in the manner I have related ;
and his former rivals, after his return from Georgia,
confederated together, for the dastardly purpose of re-
venging themselves, of both husband and wife, by
the murder of the former.

In all parts of the cotton country, there are nu-
merous taverns, which answer the double purpose of
drinking and gambling houses. These places are
kept by men who are willing to abandon all preten-
sions to the character and standing of gentlemen, for
the hope of sordid gain ; and are frequented by all
classes of planters ; though it is not to be understood,
that all the planters resort to these houses. There

344 NARRATIVE OF THE

are men of high and honourable virtue amongst the
planters, who equally detest the mean cupidity of
the men who keep these houses, and the silly wick-
edness of those who support them. Billiards is the
game regarded as the most polite, amongst men of
education and fashion ; but cards, dice, and every
kind of game, whether of skill or of hazard, are
openly played in these sinks of iniquity. So far as
my knowledge extends, there is not a single district
of ten miles square, in all the cotton region, without
at least one of these vile ordinaries, as they are fre-
quently and justly termed. The keeping of these
houses is a means of subsistence resorted to by men of
desperate reputation, or reckless character ; and they
invite, as guests, all the profligate, the drunken, the
idle, and the unwary of the surrounding country.
In a community, where the white man never works,
except at the expense of forfeiting all claim to the
rank of a gentleman, and where it is beneath the
dignity of a man, to oversee the labour of his own
plantation, the number of those who frequent these
gaming houses, may be imagined.

My young master, fortunately for his own honour,
was of those who kept aloof from the precincts of the
tavern, unless compelled by necessary business to go
there ; but the band of conspirators, who had resold
ed on his destruction, invited him through one of
their number, who pretended to wish to treat with
him concerning his property, to meet them at an or-
dinary, one evening. Here a quarrel was sought

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 345

with him, and he was challenged to fight with pis-
tols, over the table around which they sat.

My master, who, it appears, was unable to bear
the reproach of cowardice, even amongst fools,
agreed to fight ; and as he had no pistols with him,
was presented with a pair belonging to one of the
gang; and accepted their owner, as his friend, or
second in the business. The result was as might
have been expected. My master was killed, at the
first fire, by a ball which passed through his breast,
whilst his antagonist escaped unharmed.

A servant was immediately despatched, with a let-
ter to my mistress, informing her of the death of her
husband. She was awakened in the night, to read
the letter, the bearer having informed her maid that
it was necessary for her to see it immediately. The
shock drove her into a feverish delirium, from which
she never recovered. At periods, her reason resumed
its dominion; but in the summer following, she be-
came a mother, and died in child-bed, of puerperal
fever. I obtained this account from the mouth of a
black man, who was the travelling servant of the
eldest son of my old master, and who was with his
master at the time he came to visit the tenant, to
whom he let his sister's estate in Georgia, in the
year 1807.

The estate to which I was now attached, was ad-
vertised to be rented for the term of seven years, with
all the stock of mules, cattle, and so forth, upon it —
together with seventeen slaves, six of whom were
too young to be able to work at present. The price

346 NARRATIVE OF THE

asked, was one thousand dollars for the first year,
and two thousand dollars for each of the six succeed-
ing years ; the tenant to be bound to clear thirty
acres of land annually.

Before the day on which the estate was to be let,
by the terms of the advertisement, a man came up
from the neighbourhood of Savannah, and agreed to
take the new plantation, on the terms asked. He
was immediately put intop ossession of the premises,
and from this moment, I became his slave for the
term of seven years.

Fortune had now thrown me into the power of a
new master, of whom, when I considered the part
of the country from whence he came, which had al-
ways been represented to me, as distinguished for
the cruelty with wThich slaves were treated in it, I
had no reason to expect much that was good. I had
indeed, from the moment I saw this new master, and
had learned the place of his former residence, made
up my mind to prepare myself for a harsh servitude;
but as we are often disappointed for the worse, so it
sometimes happens, that we are deceived for the bet-
ter. This man was by no means so bad as I wras
prepared to find him ; and yet, 1 experienced all the
evils in his service, that I had ever apprehended :
but I could never find in my heart, to entertain a re-
vengeful feeling towards him, for he was as much a
slave as I was ; and I believe of the two, the greater
sufferer. Perhaps the evils he endured himself,
made him more compassionate of the sorrows of
others ; but notwithstanding the injustice that was

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 347

done me while with him, 1 could never look upon
him as a bad man.

At the time he took possession of the estate, he
was alone, and did not let us know that he had a
wife, until after he had been with us, at least two
weeks. One day, however, he called us together,
and told us that he was going down the country, to
bring up his family — that he wished us to go on
with the work on the place in the manner he point-
ed out ; and telling the rest of the hands that they
must obey my orders, he left us. He was gone full
two weeks ; and when he returned, I had all the
cleared land planted in cotton, corn, and sweet pota-
toes, and had progressed with the business of the
plantation so much to his satisfaction, that he gave
me a dollar, with which I bought a pair of new trou-
sers— my old ones having been worn out in clearing
the new land, and burning logs.

My master's family, a wife and one child, came
with him ; and my new mistress soon caused me to
regret the death of my former young master, for other
reasons, than those of affection and esteem.

This woman (though she was my mistress, I can-
not call her lady) was the daughter of a very wealthy
planter, who resided near Milledgeville, and had sev-
eral children, besides my mistress. My master was
a native of North Carolina — had removed to Georgia
several years before this — had acquired some proper-
ty, and was married to my mistress more than two
years, when I became his slave, for a term of years
as I have stated. I saw many families, and was

348 NARRATIVE OF THE

acquainted with the moral character of many ladies,
while I lived in the south ; but I must, in justice to
the country, say, that my new mistress was the
worst woman I ever saw amongst the southern peo-
ple. Her temper was as bad as that of a speckled
viper ; and her language, when she was enraged,
was a mere vocabulary of profanity and virulence.

My master and mistress brought with them when
they came, twelve slaves, great and small, seven of
whom were able to do field work. We now had on
our new place, a very respectable force ; and my
master was a man, who understood the means of
procuring a good day's work from his hands, as well
as any of his neighbours. He was also a man who,
when left to pursue his own inclinations, was kind
and humane in his temper, and conduct towards his
people ; and if he had possessed courage enough, to
whip his wife two or three times, as he sometimes
whipped his slaves, and to compel her to observe a
rule of conduct befitting her sex, I should have had
a tolerable time of my servitude with him ; and
should, in all probability, have been a slave in Geor-
gia until this day. Before my mistress came, we
had meat in abundance ; for my master had left his
keys with me, and I dealt out the provisions to the
people.

Lest my master should complain of me at his
return, or suspect that I had not been faithful to my
trust, I had only allowed ourselves (for I fared in
common with the others) one meal of meat in each
day. We had several cows, that supplied us with

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 349

milk, and a barrel of molasses was amongst the
stores of provisions. We had mush, sweet potatoes,
milk, molasses, and sometimes butter for breakfast
and supper, and meat for dinner. Had we been
permitted to enjoy this fine fare, after the arrival of
our mistress, and had she been a woman of kindly
disposition, and lady-like manners, I should have
considered myself well off in the world ; for 1 was
now living in as good a country as I ever saw ; and
I much doubt if there is a better one anywhere.

Our mistress gave us a specimen of her character,
on the first morning after her arrival amongst us, by
beating severely, with a raw cow-hide, the black girl
who nursed the infant, because the child cried, and
could not be kept silent. I perceived by this, that
my mistress possessed no control over her passions ;
and that, when enraged, she would find some victim
to pour her fury upon, without regard to justice or
mercy.

When we were called to dinner to-day, we had no
meat, and a very short supply of bread ; our meal
being composed of badly cooked sweet potatoes,
some bread, and a very small quantity of sour milk.
From this time our allowance of meat was with-
drawn from us altogether, and we had to live upon
our bread, potatoes, and the little milk that our mis-
tress permitted us to have. The most vexatious part
of the new discipline, was the distinction that was
made between us, who were on the plantation before
our mistress came to it, and the slaves that she
brought with her. To these latter, she gave the best

30

350 NARRATIVE OF THE

part of the sour milk, all the buttermilk, and I be-
lieve, frequently rations of meat.

We were not on our part (I mean us of the old
stock) wholly without meat, for our master some-
times gave us a whole flitch of bacon at once ; this
he had stolen from his own smoke-house — I say
stolen, because he took it without the knowledge of
my mistress, and always charged us in the most so-
lemn manner not to let her know that we had re-
ceived it. She was as negligent, of the duties of a
good housewife, as she was arrogant in assuming the
control of things not within the sphere of her domes-
tic duties, and never missed the bacon that our mas-
ter gave to us, because she had not taken the trouble
of examining the state of the meat-house. Obtain-
ing all the meat we ate by stealth, through our mas-
ter, our supplies were not regular, coming once or
twice a-week, according to circumstances. How-
ever, as I was satisfied of the good intentions of my
master towards me, I felt interested in his welfare,
and in a short time became warmly attached to
him. He fared but little better at the hands of my
mistress than I did, except that as he ate at the
same table with her, he always had enough of com-
fortable food ; but in the matter of ill language, I
believe my master and I might safely have put our
goods together as a joint stock in trade, without
either the one or the other being greatly the loser.
I had secured the good opinion of my master, and
it was perceivable by any one that he had more

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 351

confidence in me than in any of his other slaves, and
often treated me as the foreman of his people.

This aroused the indignation of my mistress, who,
with all her ill qualities, retained a sort of selfish
esteem for the slaves who had come with her from
her father's estate. She seldom saw me without
giving me her customary salutation of profanity ;
and she exceeded all other persons that I have ever
known in the quickness and sarcasm of the jibes
and jeers with which she seasoned her oaths. To
form any fair conception of her volubility and scur-
rilous wit, it was necessary to hear her, 'more espe-
cially on Sunday morning or a rainy day, when the
people were all loitering about the kitchens, which
stood close round her dwelling. She treated my
master with no more ceremony than she did me.
Misery loves company, it is said, and I verily believe
that my master and I felt a mutual attachment on
account of our mutual sufferings.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The country I now lived in was new, and abound-
ed with every sort of game common to a new settle-
ment. Wages were high, and I could sometimes
earn a dollar and a half a day by doing job work
on Sunday. The price of a day's work here was a
dollar. My master paid me regularly and fairly for
all the work I did for him on Sunday, and I never

352 NARRATIVE OF THE

went anywhere else to procure work. All his other
hands were treated in the same way. He also gave
me an old gun that had seen much hard service,
for the stock was quite shattered to pieces, and the
lock would not strike fire. I took my gun to a
blacksmith in the neighbourhood, and he repaired
the lock, so that my musket was as sure fire as any
piece need be. I found upon trial, that though the
stock and lock had been worn out. the barrel was
none the worse for the service it had undergone.

I now, for the first time in my life, became a
hunter, in the proper sense of the word ; and gene-
rally managed my affairs in such a way as to get
the half of Saturday to myself. This I did by pre-
vailing on my master to set my task for the week on
Monday morning.

Saturday was appropriated to hunting, if I was
not obliged to work all day, and I soon became pretty
expert in the use of my gun. I made salt licks in
the woods, to which the deer came, at night, and I
shot them from a seat of clapboards that was placed
on the branches of a tree. Rackcons abounded
here, and were of a large size, and fat at all seasons.
In the month of April I saw the ground thickly
strewed with nuts, the growth of the last year. I
now began to live well, notwithstanding the perse-
cution that my mistress still directed against me, and
to feel myself, in some measure, an independent
man.

Serpents of various kinds swarmed in this coun-
try. I have killed more than twenty rattle-snakes

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 353

in a day, and copper-heads were innumerable ; but
the snake that I most dreaded was the moccason,
which is quite as venomous as the copper-head or
rattle-snake, and much more active and malicious.
Vipers and other poisonous reptiles were innumera-
ble; and in the swamps was a monstrous serpent,
though of rare occurrence, which was really danger-
ous on account of its prodigious size. This snake
is of a brown colour, with ashy w7hite spots distribut-
ed over its body. It lives by catching rabbits and
squirrels, rackoons and other animals. I have no
doubt that some of this species would attack and
swallow children several years old. I once shot one
of these snakes that was more than eight feet long,
and as thick as the leg of an ordinary man. When
coiled up it appeared as large as a small calf lying
in its resting place. Panthers, wolves, and other
beasts of prey, were common in the woods.

I had always observed that snakes congregate,
either in large groups or in pairs ; and that if one
snake is killed, another is soon after seen near the
same place. I one day killed an enormous rattle-
snake in the cotton field near my master's house,
This snake was full six feet in length, of a corres-
ponding thickness, and had fangs an inch and three-
quarters in length. When dead, I skinned it, and
stretched the skin on a board. A few days after, hav-
ing occasion to cross a fence near where I had killed
the large snake, and jumping from the top of the fence
upon the ground, without looking down, I alighted
close beside another rattle-snake, quite as large as the

30*

354 NARRATIVE OF THE

one I had killed. This one was lying at full length,
and I was surprised that it. did not attempt to bite me,
nor even to throw itself into coil. It only sounded
its rattles, making a noise sufficiently loud to be
heard a hundred yards. I killed this snake also,
and seeing it appear to be full of something that it
had eaten, I ripped it open with my knife, and found
the whole cavity of its body stuffed full of corn meal
that it had eaten in the house where my master kept
his stores, to which it had found access through some
aperture in the logs of the house. The snake was
so full of meal that it could not coil itself, and thus
saved my life, for the bite of such a snake as this
was, is almost certain death. I knew a white man,
some time afterwards, who was bitten by one of
these large rattle-snakes in the hand, as he was try-
ing to punch it to death with a stick in a hollow
stump, and he died before he could be taken to his
own h iuse, which was little more than a mile from
the place where he was bitten.

A neighbour of my master was one day hunting
deer in the woods with hounds ; and hearing one of
his hounds cry out as if hurt by something, the gen-
tleman proceeded to the spot, and found his dog
lying in the agonies of death, and a great rattle-
snake near him. On examining the dog it was
found that the snake had struck him with its fangs
in the side, and cut a deep gash in the skin. The
dog being heated with running, death ensued almost
instantly.

I had a dog of my own which I had brought with

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 355

me from Carolina, and which was an excellent
hunting dog. He would tree rackoons and bears,
and chase deer, and was so faithful, that I thought
he would lose his life, if necessary, in my defence ;
but dogs, like men, have a certain limit, beyond
which their friendship will not carry them, at least
it was so with my dog.

Being in the woods one Sunday, at a place called
the goose-pond, a shallow pool of water to which
wild geese resorted, my dog came out of the cane to
me, with his bristles raised, and showing by his
conduct that he had seen something in the canes of
which he was afraid. I had gone to the pond that
day for the purpose of cutting and putting into the
water some sticks of a tree that grows in that part
of Georgia, of which very good ropes can be made.
The timber is cut and thrown into the water until
the bark becomes soft and loose, and it is then peel-
ed off, beaten, and split to pieces ; and of this bark
ropes can be made nearly equal to hempen ropes.
I got a good deal of money by making ropes of this
bark and selling them. At the time I speak of, I
had my axe with me, but was without my gun. I
endeavoured in vain to induce my dog to enter into
the cane-brake, and started on my wray home, my
dog keeping a little in advance of me. and frequently
looking back. I had not proceeded far before the
cause of my dog's alarm became manifest. Look-
ing behind me, I saw a huge panther creeping along
the path after me, in the manner that a cat creeps
when stealing upon her prey. I felt myself in dan-

356 NARRATIVE OF THE

ger, and again endeavoured to urge my dog to at-
tack the panther, but I could not prevail on him to
place himself between me and the wild beast. I
stood still for some time, and the panther lay down
on the ground, still, however, looking attentively
at me. When I again moved forward, the panther
moved after me ; and when I stopped and turned
round, it stopped also. In this way I proceeded,
alternately advancing and halting, with the pan-
ther sometimes within twenty steps of me, until I
came in view of my master's clearing, when the
panther turned off into the woods, and I saw it no
more. I do not know whether this panther was in
pursuit of me or my dog ; but whether of the one or
the other, it showed but little fear of both of us ; and
I believe that, if alone, it would not have hesitated
to attack either of us. As soon as the panther dis-
appeared I went home and told my master of my
adventure. He sent immediately to the house of a
gentleman who lived two miles distant, who came,
and brought his dogs with him. These dogs, when
joined to my master's made five in number. I vent
to the woods, and showed the place where the pan-
ther had left me, and the dogs immediately scented
the trail. It was then late in the evening, and the
chase was continued until near day-break the next
morning, when the panther was forced to take a
tree ten miles from my master's house. It was shot
by my master with his rifle, and after it was dead,
we measured it, from the end of the nose to the tip

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 357

of the tail, and found the whole length to be eleven
feet and ten inches.

In the fall of this year I went with my master to
the Indian country, to purchase and bring to the
settlement cattle and Indian horses. We travelled
a hundred miles from the residence of my master,
nearly west, before we came to any Indian village.

The country where the Indians lived was similar
in soil and productions to that in which my master
had settled ; and I saw several fields of corn amongst
the Indians of excellent quality, and well enclosed
with substantial fences. I also saw amongst these
people several log-houses, with square hewn logs.
Some cotton was growing in small patches in the
fields, but this plant was not extensively cultivated.
Large herds of cattle were ranging in the woods,
and cost their owners nothing for their keeping, ex-
cept, a small quantity of salt. These cattle were of
the Spanish breed, generally speckled, but often of
a dun or mouse colour, and sometimes of a leaden
gray. They universally had long horns, and dark
muzzles, and stood high on their legs, with elevated
and bold fronts. When ranging in droves in the
woods, they were the finest cattle in appearance that
I ever saw. They make excellent working oxen,
but their quarters are not so heavy and fleshy as
those of the English cattle. The cows do not give
large quantities of milk.

The Indian horses run at large in the woods like
the cattle, and receive no feed from their owners, un-
less on some very extraordinary occasion. They are

358 NARRATIVE OF THE

small, but very handsome little horses. I do not
know that I ever saw one of these horses more than
fourteen hands high ; but they are very strong and
active, and when brought upon the plantation, and
broken to work, they are hardy and docile, and keep
fat on very little food. The prevailing colour of these
horses is black ; but many of them are beautiful
grays, with flowing manes and tails, and, of their
size, are fine horses.

My master bought fifty horses, and more than a
hundred of the cattle ; and hired seven Indians, to
help us to drive them into the settlement. Vie
had only a path to travel in — no road having been
opened to the Indian country, of width sufficient for
wagons to pass upon it ; and I was often surprised
at the agility of the Indians, in riding the unbroken
horses along this path, and through the cane-brakes,
which lined it on either side, in pursuit of the cattle,
when any of them attempted to leave the drove.
With the horses we had but little trouble, after we
had them once started on the path ; but the cattle were
much inclined to separate and wander in the woods,
for several days after we set out from the Nation, —
but the greatest trouble was experienced at the time
we halted in the evening, for the night. Some of
the cattle, and many of the horses, would wander
off from the fire, to a great distance in the woods, if
not prevented ; and might attempt to return to the
Indian country. To obviate this, as soon as the fire
was kindled, and the Indians had taken their supper,
they would take off into the woods in all directions,

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 359

and, stationing themselves at the distance of about
half a quarter of a mile from the fire, would set up such
a horrible yelling and whooping, that the whole forest
appeared to be full of demons, come to devour us
and our drove too. This noise never failed to cause
both horse and cattle to keep within the circle formed
by the Indians ; and I believe we did not lose a sin-
gle beast on the whole journey.

My master kept many of the cattle, and several
of the horses, which he used on the plantation, in-
stead of mules. The residue he sold among the
planters, and I believe the expedition )'ielded him a
handsome profit in the end ; it also afforded me an
opportunity of seeing the Cherokee Indians in their
own country, and of contrasting the immense differ-
ence that exists between man in a state of civiliza-
tion and industry, and man in a state of barbarism
and indolence.

Ever since I had been in the southern country,
vast numbers of African negroes had been yearly
imported ; but this year the business ceased altoge-
ther, and I did not see any African who was landed
in the United States after this date.

I shall here submit to the reader, the results of the
observations 1 have made on the regulations of
southern society. It is my opinion, that the white
people in general, are not nearly so well informed
in the southern states, as they are in those lying
farther north. The cause of this may not be
obvious to strangers ; but to a man who has resided
amongst the cotton plantations, it is quite plain.

360

NARRATIVE OF THE

There is a great scarcity of schools, throughout all
the cotton country, that I have seen ; because the
white population is so thinly scattered over the coun-
try, and the families live so far apart, that it is not
easy to get a sufficient number of children together
to constitute a school. The young men of the coun-
try, who have received educations proper to qualify
them for the profession of teachers, are too proud to
submit to this kind of occupation ; and strangers,
who come from the north, will not engage in a ser-
vice that is held in contempt, unless they can procure
large salaries from individuals, or get a great number
of pupils to attend their instructions, whose united
contributions may amount, in the aggregate, to a
large sum.

Great numbers of the young men of fortune are
sent abroad to be educated : but thousands of the
sons of land and slave-holders receive very little edu-
cation, and pass their lives in ignorant idleness. The
poor white children are not educated at all. It is
my opinion, that the women are not better educated
than the men.

A few of the great families live in a style of luxu-
ry and magnificence on their estates, that people
in the north are not accustomed to witness ; but
this splendour is made up of crowds of slaves, em-
ployed as household servants, and a gaudy show of
silver plate, rather than in good houses, or convenient
furniture. Good beef and good mutton, such as are
seen in Philadelphia and New-York, are not known
on the cotton plantations. Good butter is also a

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 361

rarity ; and, in the summer time, sweet flour, or
sweet wheaten bread, is scarcely to be looked for.
The flour is imported from the north, or west;
and in the hot, damp climate of the southern sum-
mer, it cannot be kept from souring, more than four
or five weeks.

The temper of my mistress grew worse daily— if
that could grow worse, which was already as bad as
it could be — and her enmity against me increased,
the more she observed that my master confided in
me. To enhance my misfortunes, the health of my
master began, about this time, visibly to decline, and
towards the latter end of the autumn of this year, he
one day told me, that he believed he should not live
long; as he already felt the symptoms of approaching
decay and death.

This was a source of much anxiety and trouble to
me ; for I clearly foresaw, that if ever I fell under
the unbridled dominion of my mistress, I should re-
gret the worst period of my servitude in South Caro-
lina. I was much afraid, as the winter came on,
that my master might grow worse, and pass to the
grave in the spring, for his disease was a consump-
tion of the lungs ; and it is well known, that the
spring of the year, which brings joy, gladness, and
vitality, to all creation, animate and inanimate, ex-
cept the victim of consumption, is often the season
that consigns him to the grave.

31

362 NARRATIVE OF THE

CHAPTER XIX.

We passed this winter in clearing land, after we
had secured the crops of cotton and corn, and
nothing happened on our plantation, to disturb the
usual monotony of the life of a slave, except, that in
the month of January, my master informed me, that
he intended to go to Savannah for the purpose of
purchasing groceries, and such other supplies as
might be required on the plantation, in the follow-
ing season ; and that he intended to take down a
load of cotton with our wagon and team ; and that
I must prepare to be the driver. This intelligence
was not disagreeable to me, as the trip to Savan-
nah would, in the first place, release me for a short
time, from the tyranny of my mistress ; and, in the
second, would give me an opportunity of seeing a
great deal of strange country. I derived a third
advantage, in after times, from this journey ; but
which did not enter into my estimate of this affair, at
that time.

My master had not yet erected a cotton-gin on his
place — the land not being his own— and we hauled
our cotton, in the seed, nearly three miles to be gin-
ned, for which we had to give one-fourth to the
owner of the gin.

When the time of my departure came, I loaded
my wagon with ten bales of cotton, and set out with
the same team of six mules that 1 had driven from
South Carolina. Nothing of moment happened to

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 363

me until the evening of the fourth day, when we
were one hundred miles from home. My master
stopped to-night (for he travelled with me on his horse)
at the house of an old friend of his ; and I heard my
master, in conversation with this gentleman, (for
such he certainly was) give me a very good charac-
ter, and tell him, that I was the most faithful and
trusty negro that he had ever owned. He also said
that if he lived to see the expiration of the seven
years for which he had leased me, he intended to
buy me. He said much more of me ; and T thought
I heard him tell his friend something about my mis-
tress, but this was spoken in a low tone of voice, and
I could not distinctly understand it. When I was
going away in the morning with my team, this gen-
tleman came out to the wagon, and ordered one of
his own slaves to help me to put the harness on
my mules. At parting, he told me to stop at his
house on my return, and stay all night ; and said,
I should always be welcome to the use of his kit-
chen, if it should ever be my lot to travel that way
again.

I mention these trifles to show, that if there are
hard and cruel masters in the south, there are also
others of a contrary character. The slave-holders are
neither more nor less than men, some of whom are
good, and very many are bad. My master and this
gentleman, were certainly of the number of the good ;
but the contrast between them and some others that
I have seen, was, unhappily for many of the slaves,
very great. I shall, hereafter, refer to this gentle-

364 NARRATIVE OF THE

man, at whose house I now was ; and shall never
name him without honour, nor think of him without
gratitude.

As I travelled through the country with my team,
my chief employment, beyond my duty of a team-
ster, was to observe the condition of the slaves on
the various plantations by which we passed en our
journey, and to compare things in Georgia, as I now
saw them, with similar things in Carolina, as I had
heretofore seen them.

There is as much sameness amongst the various
cotton plantations, in Georgia, as there is amongst
the various farms in New- York, or New- Jersey. He
who has seen one cotton field, has seen all other
cotton fields, bating the difference that naturally
results from good and bad soils, or good and bad cul-
ture ; but the contrast that prevails in the treatment
of the slaves, on different plantations, is very remark-
able. We travelled a road that was not well provided
with public houses, and we frequently stopped for
the night at the private dwellings of the planters :
and I observed that my master was received as a
visiter, and treated as a friend in the family, whilst I
was always left at the road with my wagon, my mas-
ter supplying me with money to buy food for myself
and my mules.

It was my practice, when we remained all night
at these gentlemen's houses, to go to the kitchen in
the evening, after I had fed my mules and eaten my
supper, and pass some time in conversation with the
black people I might chance to find there. One

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 365

evening, we halted before sundown, and I unhitch-
ed my mules at the road, about two hundred yards
from the house of a planter, to which my master
went to claim hospitality for himself.

After I had disposed of my team for the night,
and taken my supper, I went as usual to see the
people of colour in the kitchen, belonging to this
plantation. The sun had just set when I reached
the kitchen, and soon afterwards, a black boy came
in and told the woman who was the only person in
the kitchen when I came to it. that she must go
down to the overseer's house. She immediately
started, in obedience to this order, and not choosing
to remain alone in a strange house, I concluded to
follow the woman, and see the other people of
this estate. When we reached the house of the
overseer, the coloured people were coming in from
the field, and with them came the overseer, and
another man, better dressed than overseers usually
are.

I stood at some distance from these gentlemen, not
thinking it prudent to be too forward amongst
strangers. The black people were all called toge-
ther, and the overseer told them, that some one of
them had stolen a fat hog from the pen, carried it to
the woods, and there killed and dressed it ; that he*
had 'that day found the place where the hog had
been slaughtered, and that if they did not confess,
and tell who the perpetrators of this theft were, they
would all be whipped in the severest manner. To
this threat, no other reply was made than a univer-

31*

366 NARRATIVE OF THE

sal assertion of the innocence of the accused. They
were ail then ordered to lie down upon the ground,
and expose their backs, to which the overseer ap-
plied the thong of his long whip, by turns, until he
was weary. It was fortunate for these people, that
they were more than twenty in number, which pre-
vented the overseer from inflicting many lashes on
any one of them.

When the whole number had received, each in
turn, a share of the lash, the overseer returned to the
man, to wThom he had first applied the whip, and
told him he was certain that he knew who stole the
hog ; and that if he did not tell who the thief was,
he would whip him all night. He then again ap-
plied the whip to the back of this man, until the blood
flowed copiously ; but the sufferer hid his face in his
hands, and said not a word. The other gentleman
then asked the overseer, if he was confident this man
had stolen the pig ; and, receiving an affirmative
answer, he said he would make the fellow confess
the truth, if he would follow his directions. He then
asked the overseer if he had ever tried cat- hauling,
upon an obstinate negro ; and was told that this
punishment had been heard of, but never practised
on this plantation.

* A boy was then ordered to get up, run to the
house, and bring a cat, which was soon produced.
The cat, which was a large gray tom-cat, was then
taken by the well-dressed gentleman, and placed
upon the bare back of the prostrate black man, near
the shoulder, and forcibly dragged by the tail down

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 367

the back, and along the bare thighs of the sufferer.
The cat sunk his nails into the flesh, and tore off
pieces of the skin with his teeth. The man roared
with the pain of this punishment, and would have
rolled along the ground, had he not been held in his
place by the force of four other slaves, each one of
whom confined a hand or a foot. As soon as the
cat was drawn from him, the man said he would
tell who stole the hog, and confessed that he and
several others, three of whom were then holding him,
had stolen the hog — killed, dressed, and eaten it. In
return for this confession, the overseer said he should
have another touch of the cat, which was again
drawn along his back, not as before, from the head
downwards, but from below the hips to the head.
The man was then permitted to rise, and each of
those who had been named by him as a participator
in stealing the hog, was compelled to lie down, and
have the cat twice drawn along his back ; first down-
wards, and then upwards. After the termination of
this punishment, each of the sufferers was washed
with salt water, by a black woman, and they wej£
then all dismissed. This was the most excruciating
punishment that I ever saw inflicted on black peo-
ple, and, in my opinion, it is very dangerous ; for
the claws of the cat are poisonous, and wounds made
by them are very subject to inflammation.

During all this time, I had remained at the dis-
tance of fifty yards from the place of punishment,
fearing either to advance or retreat, lest I too, might
excite the indignation of these sanguinary judges.

36S NARRATIVE OF THE

After the business was over, and my feelings became
a little more composed, I thought the voice of the
gentleman, in good clothes, was familiar to me ; but
I could not recollect who he was, nor where I had
heard his voice, until the gentlemen at length left
this place, and went towards the great house, and
as they passed me, I recognized in the companion of
the overseer, my old master, the negro trader, who
had bought me in Maryland, and brought me to
Carolina.

I afterwards learned from my master, that this
man had formerly been engaged in the African
slave-trade, which he had given up some years be-
fore, for the safer and less arduous business of buying
negroes in the north, and bringing them to the south,
as articles of merchandise, in which he had acquired
a very respectable fortune — had lately married in a
wealthy family, in this part of the country, and was
a great planter.

Two days after this, we reached Savannah,
where my master sold his cotton, and purchased a
wagon load of sugar, molasses, coffee, shoes, dry
goods, and such articles as we stood in need of at
home ; and on the next day after I entered the city,
I again left it, and directed my course up the coun-
try. In Savannah I saw many black men, who
were slaves, and who yet acted as freemen so far,
that they went out to work, where and with whom
they pleased, received their own wages, and provided
their own subsistence ; but were obliged to pay a
certain sum at the end of each week to their masters.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 369

One of these men toid me, that he paid six dollars
on every Saturday evening, to his master ; and yet
he was comfortably dressed, and appeared to live
well. Savannah was a very busy place, and I saw
vast quantities of cotton, piled up on the wharves ;
but the appearance of the town itself, was not much
in favour of the people who lived in it.

On my way home I travelled for several days,
by a road different from that which we had pursued
in coming down ; and at the distance of fifty or sixty
miles from Savannah, I passed by the largest plan-
tation that I had ever seen. I think I saw at least
a thousand acres of cotton in one field, which was
all as level as a bowling-green. There were, as I
was told, three hundred and fifty hands at work in
this field, picking the last of the cotton from the
burs ; and these were the most miserable looking
slaves that I had seen in all my travels.

It was now the depth of winter, and although the
weather was not cold, yet it was the winter of this
climate ; and a man who lives on the Savannah
river a few years, will find himself almost as much
oppressed with cold, in winter there, as he would be
in the same season of the year, on the banks of the
Potomac, if he had always resided there.

These people were, as far as I could see, totally
without shoes ; and there was no such garment as
a hat of any kind amongst them. Each person had
a coarse blanket, which had holes cut for the arms
to pass through, andd the top was drawn up round
the neck, so as to form a sort of loose frock, tied be-

370 NARRATIVE OF THE

fore with strings. The arms, when the people were
at work, were naked, and some of them had very
little clothing of any kind, besides this blanket frock.
The appearance of these people, afforded the most
conclusive evidence that they were not eaters of
pork; and that lent lasted with them throughout
the year.

I again staid all night, as I went home, with the
gentleman whom I have before noticed, as the friend
of my master, who had left me soon after we quitted
Savannah, and I saw him no more, until I reached
home.

Soon after my return from Savannah, an affair
of a very melancholy character took place in the
neighbourhood of my master's plantation. About
two miles from our residence, lived a gentleman who
was a bachelor, and who had for his housekeeper a
mulatto woman. The master was a young man,
not more than twenty-five years old, and the house-
keeper must have been at least forty. She had
children grown up, one of whom had been sold by
her master, the father of the bachelor, since I lived
here., and carried away to the west. This woman
had acquired a most unaccountable influence over
her young master, who lived with her as his wife,
and gave her the entire command of his house, and
of every thing about it. Before he came to live
where he now did, and whilst he still resided with
his father, to whom the woman then belonged, the
old gentleman perceiving the attachment of his son
to this female, had sold her to a trader, who was on

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 371

his way to the Mississippi river, in the absence of the
young man ; but when the latter returned home,
and learned what had been done> he immediately set
off in pursuit of the purchaser, overtook him some-
where in the Indian territory, and bought the woman
of him, at an advanced price. He then brought her
back, and put her, as his housekeeper, on the place
where he now lived ; left his father, and came to re-
side in person with the woman.

On a plantation adjoining that of the gentleman
bachelor, lived a planter, who owned a young mu-
latto man, named Frank, not more than twenty-four
or five years old, a very smart, as well as handsome
fellow. Frank had become as much enamoured of
this woman, who was old enough to have been his
mother, as her master, the bachelor was ; and she
returned Frank's attachment, to the prejudice of her
owner. Frank was in the practice of visiting his
mistress at night, a circumstance of which her mas-
ter was suspicious ; and he forbade Frank from com-
ing to the house. This only heightened the flame
that was burning in the bosoms of the lovers ; and
they resolved, after many and long deliberations, to
destroy the master. She projected the plot, and fur-
nished the means for the murder, by taking her mas-
ter's gun from the place where he usually kept it,
and giving it to Frank, who came to the house in
the evening, when the gentleman was taking his
supper alone.

Lucy always waited upon her master at his
meals, and knowing his usual place of sitting, had

372 NARRATIVE OF THE

made a hole between two of the logs of the house,
towards which, she knew his back would be at sup-
per. At a given signal, Frank came quietly up to
the house, levelled the gun through the hole prepared
for him, and discharged a load of buck-shot between
the shoulders of the unsuspecting master, who sprang
from his seat and fell dead beside the table. This
murder was not known in the neighbourhood until
the next morning, when the woman herself went to
a house on an adjoining plantation, and told it.

The murdered gentleman had several other slaves,
none of whom were at home at the time of his death,
except one man ; and he was so terrified that he was
afraid to run and alarm the neighbourhood. I
knew this man well, and believe he was afraid of
the woman and her accomplice. I never had any
doubt of his innocence, though he suffered a punish-
ment, upon no other evidence than mere suspicion,
far more terrible than any ordinary form of death.

As soon as the murder was known to the neigh-
bouring gentlemen, the)?- hastened to visit the dead
body, and were no less expeditious in instituting in-
quiries after those who had done the bloody deed.
My master was amongst the first who arrived at the
house of the deceased ; and in a short time, half the
slaves of the neighbouring plantations were arrested,
and brought to the late dwelling of the dead man.
For my own part, from the moment I heard of the
murder, I had no doubt of its author.

Silence is a great virtue when it is dangerous to
speak ; and I had long since determined never to

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 373

advance opinions, uncalled for, in controversies be-
tween the white people and the slaves. Many wit-
nesses were examined by a justice of the peace, be-
fore the coroner arrived, but after the coming of the
latter, a jury was called ; and more than half a day
was spent in asking questions of various black people,
without the disclosure of any circumstance, which
tended to fix the guilt of the murder upon any one.
My master, who was present all this time, at last de-
sired them to examine me, if it was thought that my
testimony could be of any service in the matter, as
he wished me to go home to attend to my work. I
was sworn on the testament to tell the whole truth ;
and stated at the commencement of my testimony,
that I believed Frank and Lucy to be the murderers,
and proceeded to assign the reasons upon which my
opinion was founded. Frank had not been present
at this examination, and Lucy who had been sworn,
had said she knew nothing of the matter ; that at
the time her master was shot, she had gone into the
kitchen for some milk for his supper, and that on
hearing the gun, she had come into the room, at the
moment he fell to the floor and expired ; but when
she opened the door and looked out, she could nei-
ther hear nor see any one.

When Frank was brought in and made to touch
the dead body, which he was compelled to do, be-
cause some said that if he was the murderer, the
corpse would bleed at his touch, he trembled so
much, that I thought he would fall ; but no blood is-
sued from the wound of the dead man. This com-

32

374 NARRATIVE OF THE

pulsory touching of the dead had, however, in this
instance, a much more powerful effect, in the convic-
tion of the criminal, than the flowing of any quan-
tity of blood could have had ; for as soon as Frank
had withdrawn his hand from the touch of the dead,
the coroner asked him, in a peremptory tone, as if
conscious of the fact, why he had done this. Frank
was so confounded with fear, and overwhelmed by
this interrogatory, that he lost all self-possession, and
cried out in a voice of despair, that Lucy had made
him do it.

Lucy, who had left the room when Frank was
brought in, was now recalled, and confronted with
her partner in guilt ; but nothing could wring a
word of confession from her. She persisted, that if
Frank had murdered her master, he had done it of
his own accord, and without her knowledge or ad-
vice. Some one now, for the first time, thought of
making search for the gun of the dead man, which
was not found in the place where he usually had
kept it. Frank said he had committed the crime
with this gun, which had been placed in his hands
by Lucy. Frank, Lucy, and Billy, a black man,
against whom there was no evidence, nor cause of
suspicion, except that he was in the kitchen at the
time of the murder, were committed to prison in a
new log-house on an adjoining plantation, closely
confined in irons, and kept there a little more than
two weeks, when they were all tried before some gen-
tlemen of the neighbourhood, who held a court for
that purpose. Lucy and Frank were condemned to

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 375

be hung ; but Billy was found not guilty ; although
he was not released, but kept in confinement until
the execution of x his companions, which took place
ten days after the trial.

On the morning of the execution, my master told
me, and all the rest of the people, that we must go to
the hanging, as it was termed by him as well as
others. The place of punishment was only two
miles from my master's residence, and I was there in
time to get a good stand, near the gallows' tree, by
which I was enabled to see all the proceedings con-
nected with this solemn affair. It was estimated by
my master, that there were at least fifteen thousand
people present at this scene, more than half of whom
were blacks ; all the masters, for a great distance
round the country, having permitted, or compelled,
their people to come to this hanging.

Billy was brought to the gallows with Lucy and
Frank, but was permitted to walk beside the cart
in which they rode. Under the gallows, after the
rope was around her neck, Lucy confessed that the
murder had been designed by her, in the first place,
and that Frank had only perpetrated it at her in-
stance. She said she had at first intended to apply
to Billy to assist her in the undertaking, but had
afterwards communicated her designs to Frank,
who offered to shoot her master, if she would supply
him with a gun, and let no other person be in the
secret.

A long sermon was preached by a white man un^
der the gallows, which was only the limb of a tree?

376 NARRATIVE OF THE

and afterwards an exhortation was delivered by a
black man. The two convicts were hung together,
and after they were quite dead, a consultation was
held among the gentlemen as to the future disposi-
tion of Billy, who, having been in the house when
his master was murdered, and not having given
immediate information of the fact, was held to be
guilty of concealing the death, and was accordingly
sentenced to receive five hundred lashes. I was in
the branches of a tree close by the place where the
court was held, and distinctly heard its proceedings
and judgment. Some went to the woods to cut
hickories, whilst others stripped Billy and tied him
to a tree. More than twenty long switches, some of
them six or seven feet in length, had been procured,
and two men applied the rods at the same time, one
standing on each side of the culprit, one of them
using his left hand.

I had often seen black men whipped, and had
always, when the lash was applied with great
severity, heard the sufferer cry out and beg for mer-
cy ; but in this case, the pain inflicted by the double
blows of the hickory was so intense, that Billy never
uttered so much as a groan ; and I do not believe
he breathed for the space of two minutes after he
received the first strokes. He shrank his body close
to the trunk of the tree, around which his arms and
legs were lashed, drew his shoulders up to his head
like a dying man, and trembled, or rather shivered,
in all his members. The blood flowed from the
commencement, and in a few minutes lay in small

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 377

puddles at the root of the tree. 1 saw flakes of flesh
as long as my finger fall out of the gashes in his
back ; and I believe he was insensible during all the
time that he was receiving the last two hundred
lashes. When the whole five hundred lashes had
been counted by the person appointed to perform
this duty, the half dead body was unbound and laid
in the shade of the tree upon which I sat. The
gentlemen who had done the whipping, eight or ten
in number, being joined by their friends, then came
under the tree and drank punch until their dinner
was made ready, under a booth of green boughs at
a short distance.

After dinner, Billy, who had been groaning on
the ground where he was laid, was taken up, placed
in the cart in which Lucy and Frank had been
brought to the gallows, and conveyed to the dwelling
of his late master, where he was confined to the
house and his bed more than three months, and was
never worth much afterwards while I remained in
Georgia.

Lucy and Frank, after they had been half an
hour upon the gallows, were cut down, and suffered
to drop into a deep hole that had been dug under
them whilst they were suspended. As they fell, so
the earth was thrown upon them, and the grave
closed over them for ever.

They were hung on Thursday, and the vast
assemblage of people that had convened to witness
their death did not leave the place altogether until
the next Monday morning. Wagons, carts, and

32*

378 NARRATIVE OF THE

carriages had been brought upon the ground ; booths
and tents erected for the convenience and accommo-
dation of the multitude ; and the terrible spectacles
that I have just described were succeeded by music,
dancing, trading in horses, gambling, drinking,
fighting, and every other species of amusement
and excess to which the southern people are ad-
dicted.

1 had to work in the day-time, but went every
night to witness this funereal carnival, the numbers
that joined in which appeared to increase, rather
than diminish, during the Friday and Saturday that
followed the execution. It was not until Sunday
afternoon that the crowd began sensibly to diminish ;
and on Monday morning, after breakfast time, the
last wagons left the ground, now trampled into
dust as dry and as light as ashes, and the grave of
the murderers was left to the solitude of the woods.

Certainly those who were hanged well deserved
their punishment ; but it was a very arbitrary exer-
cise of power to whip a man until he was insensi-
ble, because he did not prevent a murder which was
committed without his knowledge ; and I could not
understand the right of punishing him, because he
was so weak or timorous as to refrain from the dis-
closure of the crime the moment it came to his
knowledge.

It is necessary for the southern people to be vigi-
lant in guarding the moral condition of their slaves,
and even to punish the intention to commit crimes,
when that intention can be clearly proved ; for such

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 379

is the natural relation of master and slave, in by far
the greater number of cases, that no cordiality of
feeling can ever exist between them ; and the sen-
timents that bind together the different members of
society in a state of freedom and social equality,
being absent, the master must resort to principles of
physical restraint, and rules of mental coercion, un-
known in another and a different condition of the
social compact.

It is a mistake to suppose that the southern plan-
ters could ever retain their property, or live amongst
their slaves, if those slaves were not kept in terror of
the punishment that would follow acts of violence
and disorder. There is no difference between the
feelings of the different races of men, so far as their
personal rights are concerned. The black man is as
anxious to possess and to enjoy liberty as the white
one would be, were he deprived of this inestimable
blessing. It is not for me to say that the one is as
well qualified for the enjoyment of liberty as the
other. Low ignorance, moral degradation of char-
acter, and mental depravity, are inseparable com-
panions ; and in the breast of an ignorant man,
the passions of envy and revenge hold unbridled
dominion.

It was in the month of April that I witnessed the
painful spectacle of two fellow-creatures being launch-
ed into the abyss of eternity, and a third, being tor-
tured beyond the sufferings of mere death, not for
his crimes, but as a terror to others ; and this, not to
deter others from the commission of crimes, but to

380 NARRATIVE OF THE

stimulate them to a more active and devoted per-
formance of their duties to their owners. My spirits
had not recovered from the depression produced by
that scene, in which my feelings had been awakened
. in the cause of others, when I was called to a nearer
and more immediate apprehension of sufferings,
which, I now too clearly saw, were in preparation
for myself.

My master's health became worse continually,
and I expected he would not survive this summer.
In this, however, I was disappointed ; but he was so
ill that he was seldom able to come to the field, and
paid but little attention to his plantation, or the cul-
ture of his crops. He left the care of the cotton field
to me after the month of June, and was not again
out on the plantation before the following October ;
when he one day came out on a little Indian pony
that he had used as his hackney, before he was so
far reduced as to decline the practice of riding. I
suffered very much this summer for want of good
and substantial provisions, my master being no long-
er able to supply me, with his usual liberality, from
his own meat house. I was obliged to lay out
nearly all my other earnings, in the course of the
summer, for bacon, to enable me to bear the hard-
ship and toil to which I was exposed. My master
often sent for me to come to the house, and talked to
me in a very kind manner ; and I believe that no
hired overseer could have carried on the business
more industriously than I did, until the crop was
secured the next winter.

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 381

Soon after my master was in the field, in October,
he sent for me to come to him one day, and gave
me, on parting", a pretty good great coat of strong
drab cloth, almost new, which he said would be of
service to me in the coming winter. He also gave
me at the same time a pair of boots which he had
worn half out, but the legs of which were quite good.
This great coat and these boots were afterwards of
great service to me.

As the winter came on my master grew worse,
and though he still continued to walk about the
house in good weather, it was manifest that he was
approaching the close of his earthly existence. I
worked very hard this winter. The crop of cotton
was heavy, and we did not get it all out of the field
until some time after Christmas, which compelled
me to work hard myself, and cause my fellow-slaves
to work hard too, in clearing the land that my mas-
ter was bound to clear every year on this place. He
desired me to get as much of the land cleared in
time for cotton as I could, and to plant the rest with
corn when cleared off.

As I was now entrusted with the entire superin-
tendence of the plantation by my master, who never
left his house, it became necessary for me to assume
the authority of an overseer of my fellow-slaves, and
I not unfrequently found it proper to punish them
with stripes to compel them to perform their work.
At first I felt much repugnance against the use of
the hickory, the only instrument with which I pun-
ished offenders, but the longer I was accustomed to

382 NARRATIVE OF THE

this practice, the more familiar and less offensive it
became to me ; and I believe that a few years of
perseverance and experience would have made me
as inveterate a negro-driver as any in Georgia,
though I feel conscious that I never should have be-
come so hardened as to strip a person for the purpose
of whipping, nor should I ever have consented to
compel people to work without a sufficiency of good
food, if I had it in my power to supply them with
enough of this first of comforts.

In the month of February, my master became so
weak, and his cough was so distressing, that he took
to his bed, from which he never again departed, save
only once, before the time when he was removed to
be wrapped in his winding-sheet. In the month of
March, two of the brothers of my mistress came to
see her, and remained with her until after the death
of my master.

When they had been with their sister about three
weeks, they came to the kitchen one day when I
had come in for my dinner, and told me that they
were going to whip me. I asked them what they
were going to Avhip me for? to which they replied,
that they thought a good whipping would be good
for me, and that at any rate, I must prepare to take
it. My mistress now joined us, and after swearing
at me in the most furious manner, for a space of
several minutes, and bestowing upon me a multi-
tude of the coarsest epithets, told me that she had
long owed me a whipping, and that I should now
get it,

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 383

She then ordered me to take off my shirt, (the
only garment I had on, except a pair of old tow linen
trowsers,) and the two brothers backed the com-
mand of their sister, the one by presenting a pistol at
my breast, and the other by drawing a large club
over his head in the attitude of striking me. Resis-
tance was vain, and I was forced to yield. My
shirt being off, I was tied by the hands with a stout
bed-cord, and being led to a tree, called the Pride of
China, that grew in the yard, my hands were drawn
by the rope, being passed over a limb, until my feet
no longer touched the ground. Being thus suspend-
ed in the air by the rope, and my whole weight
hanging on my wrists, I was unable to move any
part of my person, except my feet and legs. I had
never been whipped since I was a boy, and felt the
injustice of the present proceeding with the utmost
keenness ; but neither justice nor my feelings had
any influence upon the hearts of my mistress and
her brothers, two men as cruel in temper and as
savage in manners as herself.

The first strokes of the hickory produced a sen-
sation that I can only liken to streams of scalding
water, running along my back ; but after a hun-
dred, or hundred and fifty lashes had been show
ered upon me, the pain became less acute and
piercing, but was succeeded by a dead and painful
aching, which seemed to extend to my very back-
bone.

As I hung by the rope, the moving of my legs
sometimes caused me to turn round, and soon after

384 NARRATIVE OF THE

they began to beat me I saw the pale and death-
like figure of my master standing at the door, when
my face was turned toward the house, and heard
him, in a faint voice, scarcely louder than a. strong
breathing, commanding his brothers-in-law to let
me go. These commands were disregarded, until
I had received full three hundred lashes ; and doubt-
lessly more would have been inflicted upon me, had
not my master, with an effort beyond his strength,
by the aid of a stick on which he supported himself/
made his way to me, and placing his skeleton form
beside me as I hung, told his brothers-in-law that if
they struck another stroke, he would send for a
lawyer and have them both prosecuted at law. This
interposition stopped the progress of my punishment,
and after cutting me down, they carried my master
again into the house. I was yet able to walk, and
went into the kitchen, whither my mistress followed,
and compelled me to submit to be washed in brine
by a black woman, who acted as her cook. I was
then permitted to put my shirt on, and to go to my
bed.

This was Saturday, and on the next day, when
I awoke late in the morning, I found myself unable
to turn over or to rise. I felt too indignant at the
barbarity with which I had been treated to call for
help from any one, and lay in my bed made of corn
husks until after twelve o'clock, when my mistress
came to me and asked me how I was. A slave
must not manifest feelings of resentment, and I an-
swered with humility, that I was very sore and un-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL, 385

able to get up. She then called a man and a woman,
who came and raised me up ; but I now found that
my shirt was as fast to my back as if it had grown
there. The blood and bruised flesh having become
incorporated with the substance of the linen, it
formed only the outer coat of the great scab that
covered my back.

After I was down stairs, my mistress had me
washed in warm water, and warm grease was rub-
bed over my back and sides, until the shirt was
saturated with oil, and becoming soft, was at length
separated from my back. My mistress then had
my back washed and greased, and put upon me one
of my master's old linen shirts. She had become
alarmed, and was fearful either that I should die, or
would not be able to work again for a long time. As
it was, she lost a month of my labour at this time,
and in the end, she lost myself, in consequence of
this whipping.

As soon as I was able to walk, my master sent
for me to come to his bed-side, and told me that he
was very sorrow for what had happened ; that it
was not his fault, and that if he had been well I
should never have been touched. Tears came in
his eyes as he talked to me, and said that as he could
not live long, he hoped I would continue faithful to
him whilst he did live. This I promised to do, for
I really loved my master ; but I had already deter-
mined, that as soon as he was in his grave, I
would attempt to escape from Georgia and the cot-

33

386 NARRATIVE OF THE

ton country, if my life should be the forfeiture of the
attempt.

As soon as I had recovered of my wounds, I again
went to work, not in my former situation of super-
intendent of my master's plantation, for this place
was now occupied by one of the brothers of my
mistress, but in the woods, where my mistress had
determined to clear a new field. After this time, I
did nothing but grub and clear land, while I re-
mained in Georgia, but I was always making
preparations for my departure from that country.

My master was an officer of militia, and had a
sword which he wore on parade days, and at other
times he hung it up in the room where he slept. I
conceived an idea that this sword would be of ser-
vice to me in the long journey that I intended to
undertake. One evening, when I had gone in to
see my master, and had remained standing at his
bed-side some time, he closed his eyes as if going
to sleep, and it being twilight, I slipped the sword
from the place where it hung, and dropped it out
of the window. I knew my master could never
need this weapon again, but yet I felt some com-
punction of conscience at the thought of robbing so
good a man. When I left the room, I took up the
sword, and afterwards secreted it in a hollow tree
in the woods^ near the place at which I worked
daily.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 387

CHAPTER XX.

My master died in the month of May, and I
followed him to his grave with a heavy heart, for
I felt that I had lost the only friend I had in the
world, who possessed at once the power and the
inclination to protect me against the tyranny and
oppression to which slaves on a cotton plantation are
subject.

Had he lived, I should have remained with him,
and never have left him, for he had promised to
purchase the residue of my time of my owners in
Carolina ; but when he was gone, I felt the parting
of the last tie that bound me to the place where I
then was, and my heart yearned for my wife and
children, from whom I had now been separated more
than four years.

I held my life in small estimation, if it was to be
worn out under the dominion of my mistress and
her brothers, though since the death of my master she
had greatly meliorated my condition by giving me
frequent allowances of meat and other necessaries.
I believe she entertained some vague apprehensions
that I might run away, and betake myself to the
woods for a living, perhaps go to the Indians ; but
I do not think she ever suspected that I would haz-
ard the untried undertaking of attempting to make
my way back to Maryland. My purpose was fixed,
and now nothing could shake it. I only waited for
a proper season of the year to commence my toil-

388 NARRATIVE OF THE

some and dangerous journey. As I must of ne-
cessity procure my own subsistence on my march,
it behoved«me to pay regard to the time at which I
took it up.

I furnished myself with a fire-box, as it is called,
that is, a tin case containing flints, steel, and tinder,
this I considered indispensable. I took the great
coat that my master had given me, and with a
coarse needle and thread quilted a scabbard of old
cloth in one side of it, in which I could put my
sword and carry it with safety. I also procured a
small bag of linen that held more than a peck. This
bag I filled with the meal of parched corn, grinding
the corn after it was parched in the woods where I
worked at the mill at night. These operations, ex-
cept the grinding of the corn, I carried on in a small
conical cabin that I had built in the woods. The
boots that my master gave me, I had repaired by a
Spaniard who lived in the neighbourhood, and fol-
lowed the business of a cobbler.

Before the first of August I had all my prepara-
tions completed, and had matured them with so
much secrecy, that no one in the country, white or
black, suspected me of entertaining any extraordi-
nary design. I only waited for the corn to be ripe,
and fit to be roasted, which time I had fixed as the
period of my departure. I watched the progress of
the corn daily, and on the eighth of August I per-
ceived, on examining my mistress' field, that nearly
half of the ears were so far grown, that by roasting
them, a man could easily subsist himself; and as I

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL, 389

knew that this corn had been planted later than the
most of the corn in the country, I resolved to take
leave of the plantation and its tenants, for ever, on
the next day.

I had a faithful dog, called Trueman, and this
poor animal had been my constant companion for
more than four years, without ever showing cow-
ardice or infidelity, but once, and that was when the
panther followed us from the woods. I was accord-
ingly anxious to bring my dog with me ; but as I
knew the success of my undertaking depended on
secrecy and silence, I thought it safest to abandon
my last friend, and engage in my perilous enterprise
alone. On the morning of the ninth, I went to
work as usual, carrying my dinner with me, and
worked diligently at grubbing until about one o'clock
in the day. I now sat down and took my last din-
ner as the slave of my mistress, dividing the con-
tents of my basket with my dog. After I had fin-
ished, I tied my dog with a rope to a small tree ; I
set my gun against it, for I thought I should be bet-
ter without the gun than with it ; tied my knapsack
with my bag of meal on my shoulders, and then
turned to take a last farewell of my poor dog, that
stood by the tree to which he was bound, looking
wistfully at me. When I approached him, he lick-
ed my hands, and then rising on his hind feet, and
placing his fore paws on my breast, he uttered a long
howl, which thrilled through my heart, as if he had
said, " My master, do not leave me behind you."
AH the affection that the poor animal had testified

33*

390 NARRATIVE "OF THE

for me in the course of his life, now rose fresh in my
memory. 1 recollected that he had always been
ready to lay down his life for me ; that when I was
tied and bound to the tree to be whipped, they were
forced to compel me to order my dog to be quiet, to
prevent him from attacking my executioner in my
defence ; and even when he fled from the panther,
he had not left me, only advancing a few feet before
me, and beckoning me to fly from an enemy whose
strength was too great for us to contend against with
hope of success ; and I now felt assured, that had
the panther attacked me, my dog would have con-
quered at my side, or have died in defending me.
This was the first time that I had ever tied him. I
had often left him for a whole day to guard my
coat, my basket, or my gun, which he never desert-
ed ; and he now seemed to feel that I charged him
with ingratitude and infidelity, when I bound him
to a charge which I had never known him to for-
sake.

As I was now leaving my dog for ever, I talked
to him as to a creature that understood language,
and was sensible of the dangers I was going to
meet.

" Poor Trueman, faithful Trueman, fare thee
well. Thou hast been an honest dog, and sure
friend to thy master in all his shades of fortune.
When my basket was well filled, how cheerfully we
have partaken together of its contents. I did not
then upbraid thee, that thou atest in idleness the
proceeds of my labour, for I knew that thy heart

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 391

was devoted to thy protector. In the day of my ad-
versity, when all the world had forsaken me, when
my master was dead, and I had no friend to protect
me, still, poor Trueman, thou wert the same. Thou
laidest thyself down at my feet when the world had
united to oppress me. How often, when I was sick,
and the fever raged in my veins, didst thou come at
the going down of the sun, and lick my feet in token
of thy faith ; and how patiently didst thou watch
with thy poor master through the long and lonely
night.

a When I had no crumbs in my basket to give
thee, nor crust in my pocket to divide with thee* thy
faithful heart failed not ; and a glance from the eye
of thy hungry master filled thee with gratitude and
joy. Poor dog, I must bid thee farewell. To-mor-
row they will come and release thee. Perhaps they
will hate thee for my sake, and persecute thee as
they have persecuted me ; but I leave thee my gun
to secure thee protection at the hands of those who
will be the arbiters of thy fate when I am gone. It
is all the legacy I can give thee ; and surely they
will not kill so good a dog when they see him pos-
sessed of so true a gun. Man is selfish and heartless
— the richest of them all are as wretched slaves as I
am, and are only minions of fear and avarice. Could
pride and ambition witness thy fidelity and grati-
tude to thy forsaken master, and learn humility from
thy example, how many tears would be wiped from
the eyes of sorrow. Follow the new master who

392 NARRATIVE OF THE

shall possess my gun, and may he be as kind to thee
as thou hast been faithful to me."

I now took to the forest, keeping-, as nearly as I
could, a north course all the afternoon. Night over-
took me, before I reached any watercourse, or any
other object worthy of being noticed ; and T lay
down and slept soundly, without kindling a fire, or
eating any thing. I was awake before day, and as
soon as there was light enough to enable me to see
my way, I resumed my journey and walked on,
until about eight o'clock, when 1 came to a river,
which 1 knew must be the Appalachie. I sat down
on the bank of the river, opened my bag of meal,
and made my breakfast of a part of its contents. I
used my meal very sparingly, it being the most va-
luable treasure that I how possessed : though I had
in my pocket three Spanish dollars ; but in my situ-
ation, this money could not avail me any thing, as
I was resolved not to show myself to any person,
either white or black. After taking my breakfast, I
prepared to cross the river, which was here about a
hundred yards wide, with a sluggish and deep cur-
rent. The morning was sultry, and the thickets
along the margin of the river teemed with insects
and reptiles. By sounding the river with a pole, I
found the stream too deep to be waded, and I therefore
prepared to swim it. For this purpose, I stripped
myself, and bound my clothes on the top of my
knapsack, and my bag of meal on the top of my
clothes ; then drawing my knapsack close up to my
head, I threw myself into the river, In my youth

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 393

I had learned to swim in the Patuxent, and have
seldom met with any person who was more at ease
in deep water than myself. I kept a straight line
from the place of my entrance into the Appalachie.
to the opposite side, and when 1 had reached it, step-
ped on the margin of the land, and turned round to
view the place from which I had set out on my
aquatic passage ; but my eye was arrested by an ob-
ject nearer to me than the opposite shore. Within
twenty feet of me, in the very line that I had pur-
sued in crossing the river, a large alligator was
moving in full pursuit of me, with his nose just
above the surface, in the position that creature takes
when he gives chase to his intended prey in the wa-
ter. The alligator can swim more than twice as
fast as a man, for he can overtake young ducks on
the water ; and had I been ten seconds longer in the
river, I should have been dragged to the bottom, and
never again been heard of.

Seeing that 1 had gained the shore, my pursuer
turned, made two or three circles in the water close
by me, and then disappeared.

I received this admonition as a warning of the
dangers that I must encounter in my journey to the
north. After adjusting my clothes, I again took to
the woods, and bore a little to the east of north ; it
now being my determination to turn down the
country, so as to gain the line of the roads by which
I had come to the south. I travelled all day in the
woods : but a short time before sundown, came
within view of an opening in the forest, which I took

394 NARRATIVE OP THE

to be cleared fields, but upon a closer examination,
finding no fences or other enclosures around it, I ad-
vanced into it and found it to be an open savannah,
with a small stream of water creeping slowly through
it. At the lower side of the open space, were the
remains of an old beaver dam, the central part of
which had been broken away by the current of the
stream at the time of some flood. Around the mar-
gin of this former pond, I observed several decayed
beaver lodges, and numerous stumps of small trees,
that had been cut down for the food or fortifications
of this industrious little nation, which had fled at the
approach of the white man, and all its people were
now, like me, seeking refuge in the deepest solitudes
of the forest, from ths glance of every human eye.
As it was growing late, and 1 believed I must now
be near the settlements, I determined to encamp
for the night, beside this old beaver dam. I again
took my supper from my bag of meal, and made my
bed for the night, amongst the canes that grew in
the place. This night I slept but little : for it seem-
ed as if all the owls in the country had assembled
in my neighbourhood to perform a grand musical
concert. Their hooting and chattering commenced
soon after dark, and continued until the dawn of day.
In all parts of the southern country, the owls are
very numerous, especially along the margins of
streams, and in the low grounds, with which the
waters are universally bordered ; but since I had
been in the country, although I had passed many
nights in the woods, at all seasons of the year, I had

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 395

never before heard so clamorous and deafening a
chorus of nocturnal music. With the coming of
the morning, I arose from my couch, and proceeded
warily along the woods, keeping a continual look-
out for plantations, and listening attentively to every
noise that I heard in the trees, or amongst the cane-
brakes. When the sun had been up two or three
hours, 1 saw an appearance of blue sky at a distance,
through the trees, which proved that the forest had
been removed from a spot somewhere before me,
and at no great distance from me ; and, as I cau-
tiously advanced, I heard the voices of people in
loud conversation. Sitting down amongst the
palmetto plants, that grew around me in great
numbers, I soon perceived that the people whose con-
versation I heard, were coming nearer to me. I
now heard the sound of horses' feet, and immedi-
ately afterwards, saw two men on horseback, with
rifles on their shoulders, riding through the woods,
and moving on a line that led them past me, at a
distance of about fifty or sixty yards. Perceiving
that these men were equipped as hunters, I remain-
ed almost breathless, for the purpose of hearing their
conversation. When they came so near that I
could distinguish their words, they were talking of
the best place to take a stand, for the purpose of
seeing the deer ; from which I inferred, that they
had sent men to some other point, for the purpose of
rousing the deer with dogs. After they had passed
that point of their way that was nearest to me, and
were beginning to recede from me, one of them ask-

396 NARRATIVE OF THE

ed the other, if he had heard that a negro had
run away the day before yesterday, in Morgan
county ; to which his companion answered in the
negative. The first then said, he had seen an ad-
vertisement at the store, which offered a hundred
dollars reward for the runaway, whose name was
Charles.

The conversation of these horsemen was now
interrupted by the cry of hounds, at a distance in
the woods, and heightening the speed of their horsea,
they were soon out of my sight and hearing.

Information of the state of the country through
which I was travelling, was of the highest value to
me ; and nothing could more nearly interest me than
a knowledge of the fact, that my flight was known
to the white people, who resided round about, and
before me. It was now necessary for me to become
doubly vigilant, and to concert with myself measures
of the highest moment.

The first resolution that I took was, that I would
travel no more in the day-time. This was the sea-
son of hunting deer, and knowing that the hunters
were under the necessity of being as silent as possi-
ble in the woods, I saw at a glance that they would
be at least as likely to discover me in the forest,
before I could see them, as I should be to see them,
before I myself could be seen.

I was now very hungry, but exceedingly loath to
make any further breaches on my bag of meal, ex-
cept in extreme necessity. Feeling confident that
there was a plantation within a few rods of me, I

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 397

was anxious to have a view of it, in hope that I
might find a corn-field upon it, from which I could
obtain a supply of roasting ears. Fearful to stand
upright, I crept along through the low ground,
where I then was, at times raising myself to my
knees, for the purpose of obtaining a better view
of things about me. In this way I advanced until
I came in view of a high fence, and beyond this
saw cotton, tall and flourishing, but no sign of
corn. I crept up close to the fence, where I found
the trunk of a large tree, that had been felled in
clearing the field. Standing upon this, and look-
ing over the plantation, I saw the tassels of corn, at
the distance of half a mile, growing in a field which
was bordered on one side by the wood, in which I
stood.

It was now nine or ten o'clock in the morning,
and as I had slept but little the night before, 1 crept
into the bushes, great numbers of which grew in
and about the top of the fallen tree, and, hungry as
I was, fell asleep. When I awoke, it appeared to
me from the position of the sun, which I had care-
fully noted, before I lay down, to be about one or
two o'clock. As this was the time of the day, when
the heat is most oppressive, and when every one was
most likely to be absent from the forest, I again
moved, and taking a circuitous route at some dis-
tance from the fields, reached the fence opposite
the corn-field, without having met with any thing
to alarm me. Having cautiously examined every
thing around me, as well by the eye as by the ear,

34

398 NARRATIVE OP THE

and finding all quiet, I ventured to cross the fence and
pluck from the standing stalks, about a dozen good
ears of corn, with which I stole back to the thicket in
safety. This corn was of no use to me without fire
to roast it ; and it was equally dangerous to kindle
fire by night, as by day, the light at one lime, and
the smoke at another, might betray me to those
who I knew were ever ready to pursue and arrest
me. " Hunger eats through stone walls," says the
proverb ; and an empty stomach is a petitioner,
whose solicitations cannot be refused, if there is any
thing to satisfy them with.

Having regained the woods in safety, I ventured
to go as far as the side of a swamp, which I knew
to be at the distance of two or three hundred yards,
by the appearance of the timber. When in the
swamp, I felt pretty secure, but determined that I
would never again attempt to travel in the neigh-
bourhood of a plantation in the daytime.

When in the swamp a quarter of a mile, I collected
some dry wood, and lighted it with the aid of my
tinder-box, flint, and steel. This was the first fire
that I kindled on my journey, and I was careful to
burn none but dry wood, to prevent the formation of
smoke. Here I roasted my corn, and ate as much
of it as I could. After my dinner, I lay down and
slept for three or four hours. When I awoke, the
sun was scarcely visible through the tree tops. It
was evening, and prudence required me to Jeave the
swamp before dark, lest I should not be able to find
my way out.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 399

Approaching the edge of the swamp, I watched
the going down of the sun, and noted the stars
as they appeared in the heavens. I had long since
learned toj distinguish the north-star, from all the
other small luminaries of the night ; and the seven
pointers were familiar to me. These heavenly bo-
dies "were all the guides I had to direct me on my
way, and as soon as the night had set in, I commen-
ced my march through the woods, bearing as nearly
due east as 1 could.

I took this course for the purpose of getting down
the country, as far as the road leading from Au-
gusta to Morgan County, with the intention of pur-
suing the route by which I had come out from
South Carolina ; deeming it more safe to travel the
high road by night, than to attempt to make my way
at random over the country, guided only by the
stars. I travelled all night, keeping the north-star
on my left hand as nearly as I could, and passing
many plantations, taking care to keep at a great
distance from the houses. I think I travelled at
least twenty-five miles to-night, without passing
any road that appeared so wide, or so much beaten,
as tViat which I had travelled when I came from
South Carolina. This night I passed through a
peach orchard, laden with fine ripe fruit, with which
1 filled my pockets and hat ; and before day, in
crossing a corn-field, I pulled a supply of roasting-
ears, with which and my peaches, I retired at break
of day to a large wood, into which I travelled more
than a mile before I halted. Here, in the midst of

400 NARRATIVE OF THE

a thicket of high whortleberry bushes, I encamped
for the day. I made my breakfast upon roasted
corn and peaches, and then lay down and slept, un-
molested, until after twelve o'clock, when I awoke
and rose up for the purpose of taking a better view
of my quarters ; but I was scarcely on my feet,
when I was attacked by a swarm of hornets, that
issued from a large nest that hung on the limb of a
tree, within twenty or thirty feet of me.

I knew that the best means of making peace with
my hostile neighbours, was to lie down with my
face to the ground ; and this attitude I quickly took,
not however before I had been stung by several of
my assailants, which kept humming through the air
about me for a long time, and prevented me from
leaving this spot until after sundown, and after they
had retired to rest for the night. I now commenced
the attack on my part, and taking a handful of dry
leaves, approached the nest, which was full as large
as a half bushel, and thrusting the leaves into the
hole at the bottom of the nest, through which its te-
nants passed in and out, secured the whole garrison
prisoners in their own citadel. I now cut off the
branch upon which the nest hung, and threw it,
with its contents, into my evening fire, over which I
roasted a supply of corn, for my night's journey.

Commencing my march this evening, soon after
nightfall, I travelled until about one o'clock in the
morning, as nearly as I could estimate the time, by
the appearance of the stars, when I came upon a
road, which from its width, and beaten appearance,

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL.

I took to be the road leading to Augusta, and<
mined to pursue it.

I travelled on this road until I saw the appearanb^^p" T -^
of daylight, when I turned into the woods, and went
full a mile before I ventured to stop for the day. I
concealed myself to-day in a thicket of young pine
trees, that had sprung up round about an old pen of
logs, which had formerly been used, either as a wolf
or turkey trap. In this retreat nothing disturbed
me this day, and at dark I again returned to the
road, which I travelled in silence, treading as lightly
as possible with my feet, and listening most atten-
tively to every sound that I heard. After being on
the road more than an hour, I heard the sound of
the feet of horses, and immediately stepped aside,
and took my place behind the trunk of a large tree.
Within a minute or two, several horses with men on
them, passed me. The men were talking to each
other, and one of them asked another, in my hear-
ing, if it was not about five miles to the Oconee.
The reply was too low to be understood by me ; but
I was now satisfied that I was on the high road,
leading down the country, on the Savannah side of
Oconee.

Waiting until these horsemen were out of hearing,
I followed them at a brisk walk, and within less than
an hour, came to the side of a river, the width of
which I could not ascertain, by reason of the dark-
ness of the night, some fog having risen from the
water.

X had no doubt that this stream was the Oconee ;

34*

402 NARRATIVE OP THE

and as I had heretofore forded that river with a wag-
on and team, I procured a long stick from the shore,
and entered the river with all my clothes on me, ex-
cept my great coat and pantaloons, which 1 carried
on my back. The river proved shallow, not being
more than four feet deep in the deepest part ; and I
had proceeded in safety beyond the middle of the
stream, when I heard the noise produced by horses'
feet in front of me, and within two or three minutes
several horsemen rode into the river directly before
me, and advanced towards me. I now stooped down
into the water, so as to leave nothing but my head,
and the upper part of my pack above its surface, and
waited the passage of the strangers, who, after riding
into the river until the water washed the bellies of
their horses, stopped to permit the animals to drink ;
two of them being, at this time, not more than ten
yards from me. Here the)7 entered into conversation
with each other, and one said, it was his opinion that
" that fellow had not come this way at all." The
other then asked what his name was, and the first
replied that he was called Charles, in the advertise-
ments, but that he would no doubt call himself by
some other name ; as runaway negroes always took
some false name, and assumed a false character. I
now7 knew that I was within a few feet of a party,
who were patrolling the country in search of me, and
that nothing could save me from falling into their
hands, but the obscurity produced by the fog.

There were no clouds, and if the fog had not been
in the air, they must have perceived my head, on

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 403

the smooth surface of the water, and have known
that it was no stump or log of wood. After a few
minutes of pause, these gentlemen all rode on to the
side of the river from which I had come, and in a
short time were out of hearing.

Notwithstanding they were gone, I remained in
the water full a quarter of an hour, until I was cer-
tain that no other persons were moving along the
road near me. These were the same gentlemen who
had passed me, early in the night, and from whom I
learned the distance to the river. From these people
I had gained intelligence, which I considered of
much value to me. It was now certain, that the
whole country had been advised of my flight ; but
it was equally certain that no one had any knowl-
edge of the course I had taken, nor of the point I
was endeavouring to reach. To prevent any one
from acquiring a knowledge of my route, was a pri-
mary object with me ; and I determined from this
moment, so to regulate my movements, as to wrap
my very existence, in a veil of impenetrable secrecy.
After leaving the river one or two miles, I turned
aside from the road, and wrung the water from my
clothes, which were all wet. This occupied some
time, and after being again equipped for my journey,
I made all haste to gain as much distance this night,
as possible. The fog extended only a few miles
from the river, and from the top of an eminence
which I gained, an hour after wringing my clothes,
the stars were distinctly visible. Here I discovered
that the road I was travelling bore nearly east, and

404 NARRATIVE OF THE

was not likely to take me to the Savannah river, for
a long time. Nevertheless, I travelled hard until
daylight appeared before me, which was my signal
for turning into the woods, and seeking a place of
safety for the day.

The country in which I now was, appeared high
and dry, without any swamps or low grounds, in
which an asylum might be found ; I therefore deter-
mined to go to the top of a hill, that extended on my
right for some distance either way. The summit of
this ridge was gained before there was enough of
daylight to enable me to see objects clearly ; but, as
soon as a view of the place could be had, I discover-
ed, that it was a thicket of pine trees ; and that the
road which I had left, led through a plantation that
lay within sight : the house and other buildings on
which, appeared to be such as I had before seen ;
but I could not at once recollect wliere, or at what
time I had seen them.

Going to an open space in the thicket, from which
I could scan the plantation at leisure, I became satis-
fied, after the sun had risen, and thrown his light
upon the earth, that this was no other than the resi-
dence of the gentleman, who had so kindly enter-
tained my master and me, as we went to, and re-
turned from, Savannah with the wagon. I now re-
membered, that this gentleman was the friend of my
late master, and that he had told me, to come and
see him if ever I passed this way again ; but I knew
that he was a slave-holder and a planter ; and that
when he gave me liberty to visit his plantation, he

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 405

expected that my visits would always be the visits of
a slave, and not the clandestine calls of a runaway
negro.

It seemed to me, that this gentleman was too bene-
volent a man, to arrest and send me back to my cruel
mistress ; and yet, how could I expect, or even hope,
that a cotton planter would see a runaway slave on
his premises, and not cause him to be taken up, and
sent home ? Failing to seize a runaway slave, when
he has him in his power, is held to be one of the
most dishonourable acts, to which a southern plant-
er can subject himself. Nor should the people of
the north be surprised at this. Slaves are regarded,
in the south, as the most precious of all earthly pos-
sessions ; and at the same time, as a precarious and
hazardous kind of property, in the enjoyment of
which the master is not safe. The planters may
well be compared to the inhabitants of a national
frontier, which is exposed to the inroads of hostile in-
vading tribes. Where all are in like danger, and
subject to like fears, it is expected that all will be
governed by like sentiments, and act upon like prin-
ciples.

I stood and looked at the house of this good plant-
er, for more than an hour after the sun had risen,
and saw all the movements which usually take
place on a cotton plantation in the morning. Long
before the sun was up, the overseer had proceeded to
the field, at the head of the hands ; the black women
who attended to the cattle, and milked the cows,
had gone to the cow-pen with their pails ; and the

406 NARRATIVE OF THE

smoke ascended from the chimney of the kitchen,
before the doors of the great house were opened, or
any of the members of the family were seen abroad.
At length, two young ladies opened the door, and
stood in the freshness of the morning air. These
were soon joined by a brother ; and at last, I saw the
gentleman himself leave the house, and walk to-
wards the stables, that stood at some distance from
the house, on my left. I think even now, that it
was a foolish resolution that emboldened me to show
myself to this gentleman. It was like throwing
one's self in the way of a lion who is known some-
times to spare those whom he might destroy ; but 1
resolved to go and meet this planter at his stables,
and tell him my whole story. Issuing from the
woods, I crossed the fields unperceived by the people
at the house, and going directly to the stables, pre-
sented myself to their proprietor, as he stood looking
at a fine horse, in one of the yards. At first, he did
not know me, and asked me whose man I was. I
then asked him if he did not remember me ; and
named the time when I had been at his house. I
then told at once, that I was a runaway : that my
master was dead, and my mistress so cruel, that I
could not live with her : not omitting to show the
scars on my back, and to give a full account of the
manner in which they had been made. The gen-
tleman stood and looked at me more than a minute,
without uttering a word, and then said, " Charles, I
will not betray you, but you must not stay here. It
must not be known that you were on this plantation,

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 407

and that I saw and conversed with you. However,
as I suppose you are hungry, you may go to the
kitchen and get your breakfast with my house ser-
vants."

He then set off for the house, and I followed, but
turning into the kitchen, as he ordered me, I was
soon supplied with a good breakfast of cold meat,
warm bread, and as much new butter-milk as I
chose to drink. Before I sat down to breakfast, the
Jady of the house came into the kitchen, with her
two daughters, and gave me a dram of peach bran-
dy. I drank this brandy, and was very thankful for
it ; but I am fully convinced now that it did me
much more harm than good ; and that this part of
the kindness of this most excellent family, was alto-
gether misplaced.

Whilst I was taking my breakfast, a black man
came into the kitchen, and gave me a dollar that he
said his master had sent me, at the same time lay-
ing on the table before me a package of bread
and meat, weighing at least ten pounds, wrapped
up in a cloth. On delivering these things, the
black man told me that his master desired me to
quit his premises as soon as 1 had finished my
breakfast.

This injunction I obeyed ; and within less than
an hour after 1 entered this truly hospitable house,
I quitted it forever, but not without leaving behind
me my holiest blessings upon the heads of its in-
habitants. It was yet early in the morning when I

408 NARRATIVE OF THE

regained the woods on the opposite side of the plan-
tation, from that by which I had entered it.

CHAPTER XXI.

I could not believe it possible that the white peo-
ple whom I had just left, would give information of
the route I had taken ; but as it was possible that all
who dwelt on this plantation might not be so pure of
heart as were they who possessed it, I thought it pru-
dent to travel some distance in the woods, before
I stopped for the day, notwithstanding the risk of
moving about in the open light. For the purpose
of precluding the possibility of being betrayed, 1 now
determined to quit this road, and travel altogether in
the woods, or through open fields, for twro or three
nights, guiding my march by the stars. In pursu-
ance of this resolution, I bore away to the left of
the high road, and travelled five or six miles before I
stopped, going round all the fields that I saw in
my way, and keeping them at a good distance
from me.

In the afternoon of this day, it rained, and I had
no other shelter than the boughs and leaves of a
large magnolia tree ; but this kept me tolerably dry,
and as it cleared away in the evening, I was able to
continue my journey by starlight. I have no defi-
nite idea of the distance that I travelled in the course
of this and the two succeeding nights, as I had no

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 409

road to guide me, and was much perplexed by the
plantations and houses, the latter of which I most
carefully eschewed ; but on the third night after this,
I encountered a danger, which was very nearly fatal
to me.

At the time of which I now speak, the moon
having changed lately, shone until about eleven
o'clock. I had been on my way two or three hours
this evening, and all the world seemed to be quiet,
when I entered a plantation that lay quite across my
way. In passing through these fields, I at last saw
the houses, and other improvements, and about a
hundred yards from the house, a peach orchard,
which I could distinguish by the faint light of the
moon. This orchard was but little out of my way,
and a quarter of a mile, as nearly as I could judge,
from the woods. I resolved to examine these peach
trees, and see what fruit was on them. Coming
amongst them, I found the fruit of the kind called
Indian peaches, in Georgia.

These Indian peaches are much the largest and
finest peaches that I have ever seen, one of them
oftentimes being as large as a common quince. I
had filled all my pockets, and was filling my hand-
kerchief with this delicious fruit, which is of deep
red, when I heard the loud growl of a dog toward
the house, the roof of which I could see. I stood
as still as a stone, but yet the dog growled on, and
at length barked out. I presume he smelled me,
for he could not hear me. In a short time I found
that the dog was coming towards me, and I then

35

410 NARRATIVE OF THE

started and ran as fast as I could for the woods. He
now barked louder, and was followed by another
dog, both making a terrible noise. I was then pret-
ty light of foot, and was already close by the woods
when the first dog overtook me. I carried a good
stick in my hand, and with this I kept the dogs at
bay, until I gained the fence, and escaped into the
woods ; but now I heard the shouts of men encour-
aging the dogs, both of which were now up with
me. and the men were coming as fast as they could.
The dogs would not permit me to run, and unless I
could make free use of my heels, it was clear that I
must be taken in a few minutes. I now thought of
my master's sword, which I had not removed from
its quilted scabbard, in my great coat, since I com-
menced my journey. 1 snatched it from its sheath,
and, at a single cut, laid open the head of the lar-
gest and fiercest of the dogs, from his heck to his
nose. He gave a loud yell and fell dead on the
ground. The other dog, seeing the fate of his com-
panion, leaped the fence, and escaped into the field,
where he stopped, and like a cowardly cur, set up a
clamorous barking at the enemy he was afraid to
look in the face. I thought this no time to wait
to ascertain what the men would say, when they
came to their dead dog, but made the best of my
way through the woods and did not stop to look be-
hind me, for more than an hour. In my battle with
the dogs, I lost all my peaches, except a few that re-
mained in my pockets ; and in running through
the woods 1 tore my clothes very badly, a disaster not

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 411

easily repaired in my situation ; but I had proved
the solidity of my own judgment in putting up my
sword as a part of my travelling equipage.

I now considered it necessary to travel as fast as
possible, and get as far as I could before day, from
the late battle-ground, and certainly I lost no time ;
but from the occurrences of the next day, I am of
opinion, that I had not continued in a straight line
all night, but that I must have travelled in a circu-
lar or zigzag route. When a man is greatly alarm-
ed, and in a strange country, he is not able to note
courses, or calculate distances, very accurately.

Daylight made its appearance, when I was mo-
ving to the south, for the daybreak was on my left
hand ; but I immediately stopped, went into a thick-
et of low white oak bushes, and lay down to rest
myself, for I was very weary, and soon fell asleep,
and did not awake until it was ten or eleven
o'clock. Before 1 fell asleep, I noted the course of
the rising sun, from the place where I lay, in pursu-
ance of a rule that I had established j for by this
means I could tell the time of day at any hour, with-
in a short period of time, by taking the bearing
of the sun in the heavens, from where I lay, and
then comparing it with the place of his rising.

When I awoke to-day, I felt hungry, and after
eating my breakfast, again lay down, but felt an
unusual sense of disquietude and alarm. It seemed
to me that this was not a safe place to lie in, although
it looked as well as any other spot, that I could see.
I rose and looked for a more secure retreat, but not

412 NARRATIVE OF THE

seeing any, lay down again — still I was uneasy,
and could not lie still. Finally I determined to
get up, and remove to the side of a large and long
black log, that lay at the distance of seventy or
eighty yards from me. I went to the log and lay
down by it, placing my bundle under my head,
with the intention of going to sleep again, if I could ;
but I had not been here more than fifteen or twen-
ty minutes, when I heard the noise of men's voices,
and soon after the tramping of horses on the ground.
I lay with my back to the log in such a position,
that I could see the place where I had been in
the bushes. I saw two dogs go into this little thick-
et, and three horsemen rode over the very spot where
I had lain when asleep in the morning, and imme-
diately horses and voices were at my back, around
me, and over me. Two horses jumped over the
log by the side of which I lay, one about ten feet
from my feet, and the other within two yards from
my head. The horses both saw me, took fright,
and started to run ; but fortunately their riders, who
were probably looking for me in the tops of the trees,
or expecting to see me start before them in the
woods, and run for my life, did not see me, and at-
tributed the alarm of their horses to the black ap-
pearance of the log, for I heard one of them say —
il Our horses are afraid of black logs — I wonder how
they would stand the sight of the negro, if we should
meet him."

There must have been in the troop, at least twen-
ty horsemen ; and the number of dogs was greater

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 413

than I could count, as they ran in the woods. I
knew, that all these men and dogs were in search
of me, and that if they could find me, I should be
hunted down like a wild beast. The dogs that had
gone into the thicket where I had been, fortunate-
ly for me, had not been trained to hunt negroes in
the woods, and were probably brought out for the
purpose of being trained. Doubtless, if some of
the kept dogs, as they are called, of which there
were certainly several in this large pack, had hap-
pened to go into that thicket, instead of those that
did go there, my race would soon have been run.

I lay still by the side of the log for a long time
after the horses, dogs, and men, had ceased to trou-
ble the woods with their noise ; if it can be said that
a man lies still, who is trembling in every joint,
nerve, and muscle, like a dog lying upon a cake of
ice; and when I arose and turned round, I found
myself so completely bereft of understanding, that
I could not tell south from north, nor east from west.
I could not even distinguish the thicket of bushes,
from which I had removed to come to this place,
from the other bushes of the woods. I remained
here all day, and at night it appeared to me, that
the sun set in the south-east. After sundown, the
moon appeared to my distempered judgment, to
stand due north from me ; and all the stars w^ere
out of their places. Fortunately I had sense enough
remaining to know, that it would not be safe for
me to attempt to travel, until my brain had been
restored to its ordinary stability ; which did not take

35*

414 NARRATIVE OF THE

place until the third morning after my fright. The
three days that I passed in this place, I reckon the
most unhappy of my life ; for surely it is the height
of human misery, to be oppressed with alienation of
mind, and to be conscious of the affliction.

Distracted as I was, I had determined never to
quit this wood, and voluntarily return to slavery;
and the joy I felt on the third morning, when I saw
the sun rise in his proper place in the heavens ; the
black log, the thicket of bushes, and all other things
resume the positions in which I found them, may be
imagined by those who have been saved from appa-
rently hopeless shipwreck on a barren rock, in the
midst of the ocean ; but cannnot be described by any
but a poetic pen.

I spent this day in making short excursions
through the woods, for the purpose of ascertain-
ing whether any road was near to me or not ; and
in the afternoon I came to one, about a mile from
my camp, which was broad, and had the appearance
of being much travelled. It appeared to me to lead
to the north.

Awhile before sundown, I brought my bundle to
this road, and lay down quietly to await the approach
of night. When it was quite dark, except the light
of the moon, which was now brilliant, I took to this
road, and travelled all night, without hearing or
seeing any person, and on the succeeding night, about
two o'clock in the morning, I came to the margin of
a river, so wide that I could not see across it ; but
the fog was so dense at this time, that I could not

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 415

have seen across a river of very moderate width. I
procured a long pole, and sounded the depth of the
water, which I found not very deep ; but as I could
not see the opposite shore, was afraid to attempt to
ford the stream.

In this dilemma, I turned back from the river,
and went more than a mile to gain the cover of a
small wood, where I might pass the day in safety,
and wait a favourable moment for obtaining a view
of the river, preparatory to crossing it. 1 lay all day
in full view of the high road, and saw, at least, a
hundred people pass ; from which I inferred, that
the country was populous about me. In the even-
ing, as soon as it was dark, I left my retreat, and
returned to the river side. The atmosphere was
now clear, and the river seemed to be at least a quar-
ter of a mile in width ; and whilst I was divesting
myself of my clothes, preparatory to entering the wa-
ter, happening to look down the shore, I saw a canoe,
with its head drawn high oh the beach. On reach-
ing the canoe, I found that it was secured to the
trunk of a tree by a lock and chain ; but after many
efforts, I broke the lock and launched the canoe in-
to the river. The paddles had been removed, but
with the aid of my sounding-pole, I managed to con-
duct the canoe across the water.

I was now once more in South Carolina, where
I knew it was necessary for me to be even more
watchful than I had been in Georgia. I do not
know where I crossed the Savannah river, but I

416 NARRATIVE OP THE

think it must have been only a few miles above the
town of Augusta.

After gaining the Carolina shore, I took an ob-
servation of the rising moon and of such stars as I
was acquainted with, and hastened to get away from
the river, from which I knew that heavy fogs rose
every night, at this season of the year, obscuring
the heavens for many miles on either side. I tra-
velled this night at least twenty miles, and provided
myself with a supply of corn, which was now hard,
from a field at the side of the road. At daybreak
I turned into the woods, and went to the top of
a hill on my left, where the ground was overgrown
by the species of pine-tree called spruce in the south.
I here kindled a fire, and parched corn for my break-
fast.

In the afternoon of this day the weather became
cloudy, and before dark the rain fell copiously, and
continued through the night, with the wind high.
I took shelter under a large stooping tree that was
decayed and hollow on the lower side, and kept me
dry until the morning. When daylight appeared,
I could see that the country around me was well in-
habited, and that the forest in which I lay was sur-
rounded by plantations, at the distance of one or two
miles from me. I did not consider this a safe posi-
tion, and waited anxiously for night, to enable me to
change my quarters. The weather was foul through-
out the day ; and when night returned, it was so
dark that I could not see a large tree three feet be-
fore me. Waiting until the moon rose, I made my

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 417

way back to the road, but had not proceeded more
than two or three miles on my way, when I came
to a place where the road forked, and the two roads
led away almost at right angles from each other.
It was so cloudy that I could not see the place of
the moon in the heavens, and I knew not which of
these roads to take. To go wrong was worse than to
stand still, and I therefore determined to look out for
some spot in which I could hide myself, and remain
in this neighbourhood until the clearing up of .the
weather. Taking the right hand road, I followed
its course until I saw at the distance, as I computed
it in the night, of two miles from me a large forest
which covered elevated ground. I gained it by the
shortest route across some cotton fields. Going seve-
ral hundred yards into this wood, I attempted to kin-
dle a fire, in which I failed, every combustible sub-
stance being wet. This compelled me to pass the
night as well as I could amongst the damp bushes
and trees that overhung me. When day came, I
went farther into the woods, and on the top of the
highest ground that I could see, established my camp,
by cutting bushes with my knife, and erecting a sort
of rude booth.

It was now, by my computation, about the twen-
ty-fifth of August, and I remained here eleven days
without seeing one clear night ; and in all this time
the sun never shone for half a day at once. I pro-
cured my subsistence while here from a field of corn
which I discovered at the distance of a mile and a
half from my camp. This was tl\e first time that I

418 NARRATIVE OF THE

was weather-bound, and my patience had been worn
out and renewed repeatedly before the return of the
clear weather; but one afternoon I perceived the trees
to be much agitated by the wind, the clouds appear-
ed high, and were driven with velocity over my head.
I saw the clear sky appear in all its beauty, in the
northwest.

Before sundown the wind was high, the sun shone
in full splendour, and a few fleecy clouds, careering
high in the upper vault of heaven, gave assurance
that the rains were over and gone.

At nightfall I returned to the forks of the road,
and after much observation, finally concluded to fol-
low the right hand road, in which 1 am satisfied that
I committed a great error. Nothing worthy of no-
tice occurred for several days after this. As I was
now in a thickly- peopled country, I never moved
until long after night, and was cautious never to per-
mit daylight to find me on the road ; but I observed
that the north-star was always on my left hand.
My object was to reach the neighbourhood of Colum-
bia, and get upon the road which I had travelled
and seen years before in coming to the south ; but
the road I was now on must have been the great
Charleston road, leading down the country, and not
across the courses of the rivers. So many people
travelled this road, as well by night as by day, that
my progress was very slow ; and in some of the
nights I did not travel more than eight miles. At
the end of a week, after leaving the forks, I found
myself in a flat, sandy, poor country ; and as I had

ADTENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 419

not met with any river on this road, I now conclud-
ed that I was on the way to the sea-board instead of
Columbia. In my perplexity, I resolved to try to
get information concerning the country I was in, by
placing myself in some obscure place in the side of
the road, and listening to the conversation of travel-
lers as they passed me. For this purpose I chose
the corner of a cotton field, around which the road
turned, and led along the fence for some distance.
Passing the day in the woods among the pine-trees
I came to this corner in the evening, and lying down
within the field, waited patiently the coming of tra-
vellers, that I might hear their conversation, and en-
deavour to learn from that which they said, the name
at least of some place in this neighbourhood. On
the first and second evenings that I lay here, I glean-
ed nothing from the passengers that I thought could
be of service to me ; but on the third night, about ten
o'clock, several wagons drawn by mules passed me,
and I heard one of the drivers call to another and
tell him that it was sixty miles to Charleston ; and
that they should be able to reach the river to-mor-
row. I could not at first imagine what river this
could be ; but another of the wagoners enquired
how far it was to the Edisto, to which it was replied
by some one, that it was near thirty miles. I now
perceived that I had mistaken my course ; and
was as completely lost as a wild goose in cloudy
weather.

Not knowing what to do, I retraced the road that
had led me to this place for several nights, hoping

420 NARRATIVE OF THE

that something would happen from which I might
learn the route to Columbia ; but I gained no infor-
mation that could avail me anything. At length
I determined to quit this road altogether, travel by
the north-star for two or three weeks, and after that
to trust to Providence to guide me to some road that
might lead me back to Maryland. Having turned
my face due north, I made my way pretty well for
the first night; but on the second, the fog was so
dense that no stars could be seen. This compelled
me to remain in my camp, which I had pitched in
a swamp. In this place I remained more than a
week, waiting for clear nights ; but now the equinoc-
tial storm came on, and raged with a fury which I
had never before witnessed in this annual gale ; at
least it had never before appeared so violent to me,
because, perhaps, I had never been exposed to its
blasts, without the shelter of a house of some kind.
This storm continued four days ; and no wolf ever
lay closer in his lair, or moved out with more stealthy
caution than I did during this time. My subsistence
was drawn from a small corn-field at the edge of the
swamp in which I lay.

After the storm was over, the weather became
calm and clear, and 1 fell into a road which appear-
ed to run nearly north-west. Following the course
of this road by short marches, because I was obliged
to start late at night and stop before day, 1 came on
the first day, or rather night, of October, by my
calender, to a broad and well-frequented road that
crossed mine at nearly right angles. These roads

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 421

crossed in the middle of a plantation, and I took to
the right hand along this great road, and pursued it
in the same cautious and slow manner that I had
travelled for the last month.

When the day came I took refuge in the woods
as usual, choosing the highest piece of ground that
I could find in the neighbourhood. No part of this
country was very high, but I thought people who
visited these woods, would be less inclined to walk
to the tops of the hills, than to keep their course along
the low grounds.

I had lately crossed many small streams ; but on
the second night of my journey on this road, came
to a narrow but deep river, and after the most care-
ful search, no boat or craft of any kind could be
found on my side. A large flat, with two or three
canoes, lay on the opposite side, but they were as
much out of my reach as if they had never been
made. There was no alternative but swimming
this stream, and I made the transit in less than
three minutes, carrying my packages on my back.

i had as yet fallen in with no considerable towns,
and whenever I had seen a house near the road, or
one of the small hamlets of the south in my way,
I had gone round by the woods or fields, so as to
avoid the inhabitants ; but on the fourth night after
swimming the small river, I came in sight of a con-
siderable village, with lights burning and shining
through many of the windows. I knew the danger
of passing a town, on account of the patrols with
which all southern towns are provided, and making

36

422 NARRATIVE OF THE

a long circuit to the right, so as totally to avoid this
village, I came to the banks of a broad river, which,
upon further examination, I found flowing past the
village, and near its border. This compelled me to
go back, and attempt to turn the village on the left,
which was performed by wandering a long time in
swamps and pine woods.

It was break of day when I regained the road be-
yond the village, and returning to the swamps from
which I had first issued, I passed the day under their
cover. On the following night, after regaining the
road, I soon found myself in a country almost en-
tirely clear of timber, and abounding in fields of cot-
ton and corn.

The houses were numerous, and the barking of
dogs was incessant. I felt that I was in the midst
of dangers, and that I was entering a region very
different from those tracts of country through which
I had lately passed, where the gloom of the wilder-
ness was only broken by solitary plantations or lonely
huts. I had no doubt that I was in the neighbour-
hood of some town, but of its name,' and the part of
the country in which it was located, I was ignorant.
I at length found that I was receding from the woods
altogether, and entering a champaign country, in
the midst of which I now perceived a town of con-
siderable magnitude, the inhabitants of which were
entirely silent, and the town itself presented the ap-
pearance of total solitude. The country around was
so open, that I despaired of turning so large a place
as this was, and again finding the road I travelled,

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 423

I therefore determined to risk all consequences, and
attempt to pass this town under cover of darkness.

Keeping straight forward, I came unexpectedly
to a broad river, which I now saw running between
me and the town. I took it for granted that there
must be a ferry at this place, and on examining the
shore, found several small boats fastened only with
ropes to a large scow. One of these boats I seized,
and was quickly on the opposite shore of the river.
I entered the village and proceeded to its centre,
without seeing so much as a rat in motion. Find-
ing myself in an open space I stopped to examine
the streets, and upon looking at the houses around
me, I at once recognized the jail of Columbia, and
the tavern in which I had lodged on the night after
I was sold.

This discovery made me feel almost at home,
with my wife and children. I remembered the
streets by which I had come from the country to the
jail, and was quickly at the extremity of the town,
marching towards the residence of the paltry planter,
at whose house I had lodged on my way south. It
was late at night, when I left Columbia, and it was
necessary for me to make all speed, and get as far
as possible from that place before day. I ran rather
than walked, until the appearance of dawn, when I
left the road and took shelter in the pine woods, with
which this part of the country abounds.

I had now been travelling almost two months,
and was still so near the place from which I first de-
parted, that I could easily have walked to it in a.

424 NARRATIVE OF THE

week, by daylight ; but I hoped, that as I was now
on a road with which I was acquainted, and in a
country through which I had travelled before, that
my future progress would be more rapid, and that I
should be able to surmount, without difficulty, many
of the obstacles that had hitherto embarrassed me so
greatly.

It was now in my power to avail myself of the
knowledge I had formerly acquired, of the customs
of South Carolina. The patrol are very rigid in the
execution of the authority, with which they are in-
vested ; but I never had much difficulty with these
officers, anywhere. From dark until ten or eleven
o'clock at night, the patrol are watchful, and always
traversing the country in quest of negroes, but to-
wards midnight these gentlemen grow cold, or sleepy,
or weary, and generally betake themselves to some
house, where they can procure a comfortable fire.

I now established, as a rule of my future conduct7
to remain in my hiding place until after ten o'clock,
according to my computation of time ; and this
night I did not come to the road, until I supposed it
to be within an hour of midnight, and it was well for
me that I practised so much caution, for when with-
in two or three hundred yards of the road, I heard
people conversing. After standing some minutes in
the woods, and listening to the voices at the road, the
people separated, and a party took each end of the
road, and galloped away upon their horses. These
people were certainly a band of patrollers, who were
watching this road, and had just separated to return

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 425

home for the night. After the horsemen were quite
out of hearing, I came to the road, and walked as
fast as I could for hours, and again came into the
lane leading to the house, where I had first remain-
ed a few days, in Carolina. Turning away from
the road I passed through this plantation, near the
old cotton-gin house, in which I had formerly lodg-
ed, and perceived that every thing on this plantation
was nearly as it was when I left it. Two or three
miles from this place I again left the road, and
sought a place of concealment, and from this time
until I reached Maryland, I never remained in the
road until daylight but once, and I paid dearly then
for my temerity.

I was now in an open, thickly-peopled country, in
comparison with many other tracts through which I
had passed ; and this circumstance compelled me to
observe the greater caution. As nearly as possible, I
confined my travelling within the hours of midnight
and three o'clock in the morning. Parties of patrolr
lers were heard by me almost every morning, before
day. These people sometimes moved directly along
the roads, but more frequently lay in wait near the
side of the road, ready to pounce upon any runaway
slave that might chance to pass ; but I knew by
former experience that they never lay out all night,
except in times of apprehended danger ; and the
country appearing at this time to be quiet, I felt but
little apprehension of falling in with these policemen,
within my travelling hours.

There was now plenty of corn in the fields, and

36*

426 NARRATIVE OF THE

sweet potatoes had not yet been dug. There was
no scarcity of provisions with me, and my health
was good, and my strength unimpaired. For more
than two weeks, I pursued the road that had led me
from Columbia, believing I was on my way to Cam-
den. Many small streams crossed my way, but
none of them were large enough to oblige me to
swim in crossing them.

CHAPTER XXII.

On the twenty-fourth of October, according to my
computation, in a dark night, I came to a river,
which appeared to be both broad and deep. Sound-
ing its depth with a pole, I found it too deep to be
forded, and after the most careful search along the
shore, no boat could be discovered. This place ap-
peared altogether strange to me, and I began to fear
that I was again lost. Confident that I had never
before been where I now found myself, and ignorant
of the other side of the stream, I thought it best not
to attempt to cross this water until I was better in-
formed of the country through which it flowed. A
thick wood bordered the road on my left, and gave
me shelter until daylight. Ascending a tree at sun-
rise, that overlooked the stream, which appeared to
be more than a mile in width, I perceived on the op-
posite shore a house, and one large, and several
small boats in the river. I remained in this tree the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 427

greater part of the day, and saw several persons
cross the river, some of whom had horses ; but in the
evening- the boats were all taken back to the place at
which 1 had seen them in the morning. The river
was so broad, that I felt some fear of failing in the
attempt to swim it ; but seeing no prospect of procu-
ring a boat to transport me, I resolved to attempt the
navigation as soon as it was dark. About nine
o'clock at night, having equipped myself in the best
manner I was able, I undertook this hazardous nav-
igation, and succeeded in gaining the farther shore
of the river, in about an hour, with all my things in
safety. On the previous day I had noted the bear-
ing of the road, as it led from the river, and in the
middle of the night I again resumed my journey, in
a state of perplexity bordering upon desperation ; for
it was now evident that this was not the road by
which we had travelled when we came to the south-
ern country, and on which hand to turn to reach the
right way, I knew not.

After travelling five or six miles on this road, and
having the north-star in view all the time, I became
satisfied that my course lay northwest, and that I
was consequently going out of my way ; and to
heighten my anxiety, I had not tasted any animal
food since I crossed the Savannah river — a sensation
of hunger harrassed me constantly ; but fortune,
which had been so long adverse to me, and had led
me so often astray, had now a little favour in store
for me. The leaves were already fallen from some
of the more tender trees, and near the road I this

428 NARRATIVE OF THE

night perceived a persimmon tree, well laden with
fruit, and whilst gathering the fallen persimmons
under the tree, a noise over head arrested my atten-
tion. This noise was caused by a large opossum,
which was on the tree gathering fruit like myself.
With a long stick the animal was brought to the
ground, and it proved to be very fat, weighing at
least ten pounds. With such a luxury as this in my
possession, I could not think of travelling far without
tasting it, and accordingly halted about a mile from
the persimmon tree, on a rising ground in a thick
wood, where I killed my opossum, and took off its
skin, a circumstance that I much regretted, for with
the skin I took at least a pound of fine fat. Had I
possessed the means of scalding my game, and dress-
ing it like a pig, it would have afforded me provision
for a week ; but as it was, I made a large fire and
roasted my prize before it, losing all the oil that ran
out in the operation, for want of a dripping-pan to
catch it. It was daylight when my meat was ready
for the table, and a very sumptuous breakfast it
yielded me.

Since leaving Columbia, I had followed as nearly
as the course of the roads permitted, the index of the
north-star ; which, I supposed, would lead me on
the most direct route to Maryland ; but I now be-
came convinced, that this star was leading me away
from the line by which I had approached the cotton
country.

I slept none this day, but passed the whole time,
from breakfast until night, in considering the means

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 429

of regaining my lost way. From the aspect of the
country I arrived at the conclusion, that I was not
near the sea-coast ; for there were no swamps in all
this region ; the land lay rather high and rolling,
and oak timber abounded.

At the return of night, I resumed my journey ear-
lier than usual : paying no regard to the roads, but
keeping the north-star on my left hand, as nearly as
I could. This night I killed a rabbit, which had
leaped from the bushes before me, by throwing my
walking stick at it. It was roasted at my stopping
place in the morning, and was very good.

I pursued the same course, keeping the north-star
on my left hand for three nights ; intending to get
as far east as the road leading from Columbia to
Richmond, in Virginia ; but as my line of march
lay almost continually in the woods, I made but little
progress ; and on the third day, the weather be-
came cloudy, so that 1 could not see the stars. This
again compelled me to lie by, until the return of fair
weather.

On the second day, after I had stopped this time,
the sun shone out bright in the morning, and contin-
ued to shed a glorious light during the day ; but in
the evening, the heavens became overcast with
clouds ; and the night that followed was so dark, that
I did not attempt to travel. This state of the weath-
er continued more than a week : obliging me to re-
main stationary all this time. These cloudy nights
were succeeded by a brisk wind from the north-west,
accompanied by fine clear nights, in which I made

430 NARRATIVE OP THE

the best of my way towards the north-east, pursuing
my course ^across the country without regard to
roads, forests, or streams of water : crossing many of
the latter, none of which were deep, but some of
them were extremely muddy. One night I became
entangled in a thick and deep swamp ; the trees that
grew in which, were so tall, and stood so close to-
gether, that the interlocking of their boughs, and the
deep foliage in which they were clad, prevented me
from seeing the stars. Wandering there for several
hours, most of the time with mud and water over
my knees, and frequently wading in stagnant pools,
with deep slimy bottoms, I became totally lost, and
was incapable of seeing the least appearance of fast
land. At length, giving up all hope of extricating
myself from this abyss of mud, water, brambles, and
fallen timber, I scrambled on a large tussock, and
sat down to await the coming of day, with the in-
tention of going to the nearest high land, as soon as
the sun should be up. The nights were now be-
coming cool, and though I did not see any frost in
the swamp where I was in the morning, 1 have no
doubt, that hoar frost was seen in the dry and open
country. After daylight I found myself as much
perplexed as I was at midnight. No shore was to
be seen ; and in every direction there was the same
deep, dreary, black solitude. To add to my misfor-
tune, the morning proved cloudly, and when the sun
was up, I could not tell the east from the west. Af-
ter waiting several hours for a sight of the sun, and
failing to obtain it, I set out in search of a running

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 431

stream of water, intending to strike off at right an-
gels, with the course of the current, and endeavour
to reach the dry ground by this means : but after
wandering about, through tangled bushes, briars,
and vines, clambering over fallen tree-tops, and wa-
ding through fens overgrown with saw grass, for two
or three hours, I sat down in despair of finding any
guide to conduct me from this detestable place.

My bag of meal that I took with me at the com-
mencement of my journey, was long since gone;
and the only provisions that I now possessed, were
a few grains of parched corn, and near a pint of
chestnuts that I had picked up under a tree the day
before I entered the swamp. The chestnut-tree
was full of nuts, but 1 was afraid to throw sticks or
to shake the tree, lest hunters or other persons hear-
ing the noise, might be drawn to the place.

About ten o'clock I sat down under a large
cypress tree, upon a decaying log of the same tim-
ber, to make my breakfast on a few grains of parch-
ed corn. Near me was an open space without trees,
but filled with water that seemed to be deep, for no
grass grew in it, except a small quantity near the
shore. The water was on my left hand, and as 1
sat cracking my corn, my attention was attracted
by the playful gambols of two squirrels that were
running and chasing each other on the boughs of
some trees near me. Half pleased with the joyous
movements of the little animals, and half covetous
of their carcasses, to roast and devour them, I paid no
attention to a succession of sounds on my left, which

432 NARRATIVE OP THE

I thought proceeded from the movement of frogs
at the edge of the water, until the breaking of a
stick near me caused me to turn my head, when I
discovered that I had other neighbours than spring-
frogs.

A monstrous alligator had left the water, and was
crawling over the mud, with his eyes fixed upon
me. He was now within fifteen feet of me. and in
a moment more, if he had not broken the stick with
his weight, I should have become his prey. He
could easily have knocked me down with a blow of
his tail ; and if his jaws had once been closed on
a leg or an arm, he would have dragged me into
the water, spite of any resistance that I could have
made.

At the sight of him, I sprang to my feet, and run-
ning to the other end of the fallen tree on which I
sat, and being there out of danger, had an opportu-
nity of viewing the motions of the alligator at leisure.
Finding me out of his reach, he raised his trunk from
the ground, elevated his snout, and gave a wistful
look, the import of which I well understood ; then
turning slowly round, he retreated to the water, and
sank from my vision.

I was much alarmed by this adventure with the
alligator, for had I fallen in with this huge reptile
in the night-time, I should have had no chance of
escape from his tusks.

The whole day was spent in the swamp, not in
travelling from place to place, but in waiting for the
sun to ;shine, to enable me to obtain a knowledge

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL 433

of the various points of the heavens. The day was
succeeded by a night of unbroken darkness ; and
it was late in the evening of the second day before
I saw the sun. It being then too late to attempt to
extricate myself from the swamp for that day, I
was obliged to pass another night in the lodge
that I had formed for myself in the thick boughs
of a fallen c}^press tree, which elevated me several
feet from the ground, where I believed the alliga-
tor could not reach me, if he should come in pursuit
of me.

On the morning of the third day, the sun rose
beautifully clear, and at sight of him I set off for the
east. It must have been five miles from the place
where I lay to the dry land on the east of the
swamp ; for with all the exertion that fear and hun-
ger compelled me to make, it was two or three
o'clock in the afternoon when I reached the shore ?
after swimming in several places, and suffering the
loss of a very valuable part of my clothes, which
were torn off b)^ the briars and snags. On coming
to high ground I found myself in the woods, and
hungry as I was, lay down to await the coming of
night, lest some one should see me moving through
the forest in daylight.

When night came on, I resumed my journey by

the stars, which were visible, and marched several

miles before coming to a plantation. The first that

I came to was a cotton field ; and after much search,

I found no corn nor grain of any kind on this place,

and was compelled to continue on my way.

37

434 NARRATIVE OF THE

Two or three miles further on, I was more fortu-
nate, and found a field of corn which had been
gathered from the stalks and thrown in heaps along
the ground. Filling my little bag, which I still
kept, with this corn, i retreated a mile or two in the
woods, and striking fire, encamped for the purpose of
parching and eating it. After despatching my meal,
I lay down beside the fire and fell into a sound sleep,
from which I did not awake until long after sun-
rise ; but on rising and looking around me, I found
that my lodge was within less than a hundred yards
of a new house that people were building in the
woods, and upon which men were now at work.
Dropping instantly to the ground, I crawled away
through the woods, until being out of sight of the
house, 1 ventured to rise and escape on my feet.
After I lay down in the night, my fire had died away,
and emitted no smoke ; this circumstance saved me.
This affair made me more cautious as to my future
conduct.

Hiding in the woods until night again came on, I
continued my course eastward, and some time after
midnight came upon a wide, well beaten road, one
end of which led, at this place, a little to the left of
the north-star, which I could plainly see. Here I
deliberated a long time, whether to take this road, or
continue my course across the country by the stars ;
but at last resolved to follow the road, more from a
desire to get out of the woods, than from a conviction
that it would lead me in the right way. In the
course of this night I saw but few plantations, but

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 435

was so fortunate as to see a ground-hog crossing the
road before me. This animal 1 killed with my stick,
and carried it until morning.

At the approach of daylight, turning away to the
right, I gained the top of an eminence, from which
I could see through the woods for some distance
around me. Here J kindled a fire and roasted my
ground-hog, which afforded me a most grateful re-
past, after my late fasting and severe toils. Accord-
ing to custom, my meal being over, I betook myself
to sleep, and did not awTake until the afternoon ;
when descending a few rods down the hill, and
standing still to take a survey of the woods around
me, I saw, at the distance of half a mile from me, a
man moving slowly about in the forest, and appa-
rently watching, like myself, to see if any one was
in view. Looking at this man attentively, I saw that
he was a black, and that he did not move more than
a few rods from the same spot where I first saw
him. Curiosity impelled me to know more of the
condition of my neighbour ; and descending quite
to the foot of the hill, I perceived that he had a
covert of boughs of trees, under which I saw him
pass, and after some time return again from his re-
treat. Examining- the appearance of things care-
fully, I became satisfied that the stranger was, like
myself, a negro slave, and I determined, without
more ceremony, to go and speak to him, for I felt no
fear of being betrayed by one as badly off in the
world as myself.

When this man first saw me, at the distance of a

436 NARRATIVE OF THE

hundred yards from him, he manifested great agita-
tion, and at once seemed disposed to run from me ;
but when I called to him, and told him not to be
afraid, he became more assured, and waited for me
to come close to him. I found him to be a dark
mulatto, small and slender in person, and lame in
one leg. He had been well bred, and possessed
good manners and fine address. I told him I was
travelling, and presumed this was not his dwelling-
place. Upon which he informed me that he was a
native of Kent county, in the state of Delaware, and
had been brought up as a house-servant by his mas-
ter, who, on his death-bed, had made his will, and
directed him to be set free by his executors, at the age
of twenty-five, and that in the meantime he would
be hired out as a servant to some person who should
treat him well. Soon after the death of his master,
the executors hired him to a man in Wilmington,
who employed him as a waiter in his house for three
or four months, and then took him to a small town
called Newport, and sold him to a man who took
him immediately to Baltimore, wThere he was again
sold or transferred to another man, who brought
him to South Carolina, and sold him to a cotton
planter, with whom he had lived more than two
years, and had run away three weeks before the
time I saw him, with the intention of returning to
Delaware.

That being lame, and becoming fatigued by tra-
velling, he had stopped here and made this shelter
of boughs and bark of trees, under which he had

^ ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 437

remained more than a week before I met him. He
invited me to go into his camp, as he termed it,
where he had an old skillet, more than a bushel of
potatoes, and several fowls, all of which he said he
had purloined from the plantations in the neigh-
bourhood.

This encampment was in a level open wood, and
it appeared surprising to me that its occupant had
not been discovered and conveyed back to his mas-
ter before this time. I told him that I thought he
ran great risk of being taken up by remaining here,
and advised him to break up his lodge immediately,
and pursue his journey, travelling only in the night
time. He then proposed to join me, and travel in
company with me ; but this I declined, because of
his lameness and great want of discretion, though I
did not assign these reasons to him.

I remained with this man two or three hours,
and ate dinner of fowls dressed after his rude fash-
ion. Before leaving him, I pressed upon him the
necessity of immediately quitting the position he then
occupied ; but he said he intended to remain there
a few days longer, unless I would take him with
me.

On quitting my new acquaintance, I thought it
prudent to change my place of abode for the residue
of this day, and removed along the top of the hill
that J occupied at least two miles, and concealed
myself in a thicket until night, when returning to
the road I had left in the morning, and travelling
hard all night, I came to a large stream of water

37*

438 NARRATIVE OF THE

just at the break of day. As it was too late to pass
the river with safety this morning, at this ford, I
went half a mile higher, and swam across the stream
in open daylight, at a place where both sides of the
water were skirted with woods. I had several large
potatoes that had been given to me by the man at
his camp in the woods, and these constituted my
rations for this day.

At the rising and setting of the sun, I took the bear-
ing of the road by the course of the stream that I
had crossed, and found that I was travelling to the
northwest, instead of the north or northeast, to one
of which latter points I wished to direct my march.

Having perceived the country in which I now
was to be thickly peopled, I remained in my resting
place until late at night, when returning to the road,
and crossing it, I took once more to the woods, with
the stars for my guides, and steered for the north-
east.

This was a fortunate night for me in all respects.
The atmosphere was clear, the ground was high,
dry, and free from thickets. In the course of the
night I passed several corn fields, with the corn still
remaining in them, and passed a potato lot, in w7hich
large quantities of fine potatoes were dug out of the
ground, and lay in heaps covered with vines ; but
my most signal good luck occurred just before day,
when passing under a dog-wood tree, and hearing a
noise in the branches above me, I looked up and saw
a large opossum amongst the berries that hung upon
the boughs. The game was quickly shaken down,

*

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 439

and turned out as fat as a well-fed pig, and as heavy
as a full-grown rackoon. My attention was now
turned to searching for a place in which I could se-
crete myself for the day, and dress my provisions in
quietness.

This day was clear and beautiful until the after-
noon, when the air became damp, and the heavens
were overhung with clouds. The night that fol-
lowed was dark as pitch, compelling me to remain
in my camp all night. The next day brought
with it a terrible storm of rain and wind, that con-
tinued with but little intermission, more than twen-
ty-four hours, and the sun was not again visible
until the third day ; nor was there a clear night for
more than a week. During all this time I lay in my
camp, and subsisted upon the provisions that I had
brought with me to this place. The corn and pota-
toes looked so tempting, when I saw them in the
fields, that I had taken more than I should have
consumed, had not the bad weather compelled me to
remain at this spot ; but it was well for me, for this
time, that I had taken more than I could eat in one
or two days.

At the end of the cloudy weather, I felt much re-
freshed and strengthened, and resumed my journey
in high spirits, although I now began to feel the
want of shoes — those which I wore when I left
my mistress having long since been worn out, and
my boots were now beginning to fail so much, that I
was obliged to wrap straps of hickory bark about my

440

NARRATIVE OF THE

feet, to keep the leather from separating, and falling
to pieces.

It was now, by my computation, the month of
November, and I was yet in the state of South Ca-
rolina. I began to consider with myself, whether I
had gained or lost, by attempting to travel on the
roads ; and, after revolving in my mind all the dis-
asters that had befallen me, determined to abandon
the roads altogether, for two reasons : — the first of
which was, that on the highways, I was constant-
ly liable to meet persons, or to be overtaken by
them ; and a second, no less powerful, was, that
as I did not know what roads to pursue, I was
oftener travelling on the wrong route than on the
right one.

Setting my face once more for the north-star, I
advanced with a steady, though slow pace, for four
or five nights, when I was again delayed by dark
weather, and forced to remain in idleness nearly two
weeks ; and when the weather again became clear,
I was arrested, on the second night, by a broad and
rapid river, that appeared so formidable, that I did
not dare to attempt its passage, until after examin-
ing it in daylight. On the succeeding night, how-
ever, I crossed it by swimming — resting at some
large rocks near the middle. After gaining the
north side of this river, which I believed to be the
Catawba, I considered myself in North Carolina, and
again steered towards the north.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 441

CHAPTER XXIII.

The month of November is, in all years, a season
of clouds and vapours ; but at the time of which I
write, the good weather vanished early in^the month,
and all the clouds of the universe seemed to have col-
lected in North Carolina. From the second night
after crossing the Catawba, I did not see the north-
star for the space of three weeks ; and during all this
time, no progress was made in my journey ; al-
though I seldom remained two days in the same
place, but moved from one position to another, for
the purpose of eluding the observation of the people
of the country, whose attention might have been at-
tracted by the continual appearance of the smoke of
my fires in one place.

There had, as yet, been no hard frost, and the
leaves were still on the oak trees, at the close of this
cloudy weather ; but the northwest wind which dis-
pelled the mist, also brought down nearly all the
leaves of the forest, except those of the evergreen
trees ; and the nights now became clear, and the
air keen with frost. Hitherto the oak woods had
afforded me the safest shelter, but now I was obliged
to seek for groves of young pines to retire to at dawn.
Heretofore 1 had found a plentiful subsistence in
every corn-field and potato-lot, that fell in my way :
but now began to find some of the fields in which
corn had grown, destitute of the corn, and contain-
ing nothing but the stalks. The potatoes had all

442 NARRATIVE OF THE

been taken out of the lots where they grew, except
in some few instances where they had been buried
in the field ; and the means of subsistence became
every day more difficult to be obtained ; but as I had
fine weather, I made the best use of those hours in
which I dared to travel, and was constantly moving
from a short time after dark until daylight. The
toil that I underwent for the first half of the month
of December was excessive, and my sufferings for
want of food were great. I was obliged to carry
with me a stock of corn, sufficient to supply me for
two or three days ; for it frequently happened that I
met with none in the fields for a long time. In the
course of this period, I crossed innumerable streams,
the greater portion of which were of small size, but
some were of considerable magnitude ; and in all of
them the water had become almost as cold as ice.
Sometimes I was fortunate enough to find boats or
canoes tied at the side of the streams, and when this
happened, I always made free use of that which no
one else was using at the time ; but this did not oc-
cur often , and I believe that in these two weeks I
swam over nine rivers, or streams, so deep, that I
could not ford them. The number of creeks and
rivulets through which I waded, was far greater ; but
I cannot now fix the number.

In one of these fine nights, passing near the house
of a planter, I saw several dry hides hanging on
poles, under a shed. One of these hides I appropri-
ated to myself, for the purpose of converting it into
moccasins, to supply the place of my boots, which

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 443

were totally worthless. By beating the dry hide
with a stick it was made sufficiently pliable to
bear making it into moccasins ; of which I made
for myself three pair, wearing one, and carrying the
others on my back.

One day as I lay in a pine thicket, several pigs,
which appeared to be wild, having no marks on their
ears, came near me, and one of them approached so
close without seeing me, that I knocked it down with
a stone, and succeeded in killing it. This pig was
very fat, and would have weighed thirty if not
forty pounds. Feeling now greatly exhausted with
the fatigues that I had lately undergone, and being
in a very great forest, far removed from white inha-
bitants, I resolved to remain a few days in this place,
to regale myself with the flesh of the pig, which I
preserved by hanging it up in the shade, after cut-
ting it into pieces. Fortune, so adverse to me here-
tofore, seemed to have been more kind to me at this
time, for the very night succeeding the day on which
I killed the pig. a storm of hail, snow, and sleet,
came on, and continued fifteen or sixteen hours.
The snow lay on the ground four inches in depth,
and the whole country was covered with a crust al-
most hard enough to bear a man. In this state of
the weather I could not travel, and my stock of
pork was invaluable to me. The pork was frozen
where it hung on the branches of the trees, and was
as well preserved as if it had been buried in snow ;
but on the fourth day after the snow fell, the atmo-
sphere underwent a great change. The wind blew

444 NARRATIVE OF THE

from the south, the snow melted away, the air be-
came warm, and the sun shone with the brightness,
and almost with the warmth of spring. It was
manifest that my pork, which was now soft and
oily, would not long be in a sound state. If I re-
mained here, my provisions would become putrid
on my hands in a short time, and compel me
to quit my residence to avoid the atmosphere of the
place.

I resolved to pursue my journey, and prepared
myself, by roasting before the fire, all my pork that
was left, wrapping it up carefully in green pine
leaves, and enveloping the whole in a sort of close
basket, that I made of small boughs of trees.
Equipping myself for my journey with my meat
in my knapsack, I again took to the woods, with
the stars for my guide, keeping the north-star over
my left eye.

The weather had now become exceedingly varia-
ble, and I was seldom able to travel more than half
of the night. The fields were muddy, the low
grounds in the woods were wet, and often covered
with water, through which I was obliged to wade —
the air was damp and cold by day, the nights were
frosty, very often covering the water with ice an
inch in thickness. From the great degree of cold
that prevailed, I inferred, either that I was pretty far
north, or that I had advanced too much to the left,
and was approaching the mountain country.

To satisfy myself as far as possible of my situa-
tion, one fair day, when the sky was very clear, I

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 445

climbed to the top of a pine-tree that stood on the
summit of a hill, and took a wide survey of the re-
gion around me. Eastward, I saw nothing but a
vast continuation of plantations, intervened by for-
ests ; on the south, the faint beams of a winter sun
shed a soft lustre over the woods, which were doited
at remote distances, with the habitations of men, and
the openings that they had made in the green cham-
paign of the endless pine-groves, that nature had
planted in the direction of the midday sun. On
the north, at a great distance, I saw a tract of low
and flat country, which, in my opinion, was the
vale of some great river, and beyond this, at the
farthest stretch of vision, the eye was lost in the blue
transparent vault, where the extremity of the arch
of the world touches the abode of perpetual winter.
Turning westward, the view passed beyond the re-
gion of pine-trees, which was followed afar off by
naked and leafless oaks, hickories, and walnuts ; and
still beyond these ros3 high in air, elevated tracts
of country, clad in the white livery of snow, and
bearing the impress of mid-winter.

It was now apparent that I had borne too far west-
ward, and was within a few days travel of the
mountains. Descending from my observations, I
determined, on the return of night, to shape my
course, for the future, nearly due east, until I should
at least be out of the mountains.

According to my calendar, it was the day before
Christmas that I ascended the pine-tree ; and I
believe I was at that time in the north-western

38

446 NARRATIVE OF THE

part of North Carolina, not far from the banks of
the Yadkin river. On the following night I tra-
velled from dark until, as I supposed, about three
or four o'clock in the morning, when I came to a
road which led, as I thought, in an easterly direction.
This road I travelled until daylight, and encamped
near it in an old field, overgrown with young pines,
and holly-trees.

This was Christmas-day, and I celebrated it by
breakfasting on fat pork, without salt, and substi-
tuted parched corn for bread. In the evening, the
weather became cloudy and cold, and when night
came, it was so dark, that I found difficulty in keep-
ing in the road, at some points where it made short
angles. Before midnight it began to snow, and
at break of day the snow lay more than a foot deep.
This compelled me to seek winter quarters ; and
fortunately, at about half a mile from the road,
I found, on the side of a steep hill, a shelving
rock that formed a dry covert, with a southern
prospect.

Under this rock 1 took refuge, and kindling a fire
of dry sticks, considered myself happy to possess a
few pounds of my roasted pork, and more than
half a gallon of corn that I carried in my pockets.
The snow continued falling, until it was full two
feet deep around me, and the danger of exposing
mvself to discovery by my tracks in the snow, com-
pelled me to keep close to my hiding place until the
third day, when I ventured to go back to the road,
which I found broken by the passage of numerous

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 447

wagons, sleds, and horses, and so much beaten that
I could travel it with ease at night, the snow afford-
ing good light.

Accordingly at night I again advanced on my
way, which indeed I was obliged to do, for my corn
was quite gone, and not more than a pound of my
pork remained to me. I travelled hard through the
night, and after the morning star rose, came to a riv-
er, which I think must have been the Yadkin. It
appeared to be about two hundred yards wide, and
the water ran with great rapidity in it.

Waiting until the eastern horizon was tinged with
the first rays of the morning light, I entered the river
at the ford, and waded until the water was nearly
three feet deep, when it felt as if it was cutting the
flesh from the bones of my limbs, and a large cake
of ice floating downward, forced me off my balance,
and I was near falling. My courage failed me, and
I returned to the shore ; but found the pain that al-
ready tormented me, greatly increased, when I was
out of the water, and exposed to the action of the
open air. Returning to the river, I plunged into the
current to relieve me from the pinching frost, that
gnawed every part of my skin that had become wet ;
and rushing forward as fast as the weight of the
water, that pressed me downward, would permit,
was soon up to my chin in melted ice, when rising
to the surface, I exerted my utmost strength and
skill to gain the opposite shore by swimming in the
shortest space of time. At every stroke of my arms
and legs, they were cut and bruised by cakes of solid

448 NARRATIVE OF THE

ice, or weighed down by floating masses of congeal-
ed snow.

It is impossible for human life to be long sustain-
ed in such an element as that which encompassed
me ; and I had not been afloat five minutes before I
felt chilled in all my members, and in less than the
double of that time, my limbs felt numbed, and my
hands became stiff, and almost powerless.

When at the distance of thirty feet from the shoie,
my body was struck by a violent current, produced
by a projecting rock above me, and driven with re-
sistless violence down the stream. "Wholly unable
to contend with the fury of the waves, and penetra-
ted by the coldness of death, in my inmost vitals, I
gave myself up for lost, and was commending my
soul to God, whom I expected to be my immediate
judge, when I perceived the long hanging branch of
a large tree, sweeping to and fro, and undulating
backward and forward, as its extremities weie wash-
ed by the surging current of the river, just below me.
In a moment I was in contact with the tree, and
making the effort of despair, seized one of its limbs.
Bowed down by the weight of my body, the branch
yielded to the power of the water, which rushing
against my person, swept me round like the quad-
rant of a circle: and dashed me against the shore,
where clinging to some roots that grew near the
bank, the limb of the tree left me, and springing
with elastic force to its former position, again dipped
its slender branches in the mad stream.

Crawling out of the water, and being once more

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL, 449

on dry land, I found my circumstances little less des-
perate, than when 1 was struggling with the floating
ice. The morning was frosty, and icicles hung in
long pendant groups from the trees along the shore of
the river, and the hoar frost glistened in sparkling ra-
diance, upon the polished surface of the smooth snow,
as it whitened all the plain before me, and spread its
chill but beautiful covering through the woods.

There were three alternatives before me, one of
which I knew must quickly be adopted. The one
was to obtain a fire, by which I could dry and warm
my stiffened limbs ; the second was to die, without
the fire ; the third, to go to the first house, if I could
reach one, and surrender myself as a runaway slave.

Staggering, rather than walking forward, until I
gained the cover of a wood, at a short distance from
the river, I turned into it, and found that a field bor-
dered the wood within less than twenty rods of the
road. Within a few yards of this fence I stopped,
and taking out my fire apparatus, to my unspeakable
joy, found them dry and in perfect safety. With
the aid of my spunk, and some dry moss gathered
from the fence, a small flame was obtained, to which
dry leaves being added from the boughs of a white
oak tree, that had fallen before the frost of the last
autumn had commenced, I soon had fire of sufficient
intensity, to consume dry wood, with which I sup-
plied it, partly from the fence, and partly from the
branches of the fallen tree. Having raked away the
snow from about the fire, by the time the sun was
up, my frozen clothes were smoking before the

38*

450

NARRATIVE OF THE

coals — warming first one side and then the other —
1 felt the glow of returning life, once more invigora-
ting my blood, and giving animation to my frozen
limbs.

The public road was near me on one hand, and
an enclosed field was before me on the other, but in
my present condition, it was im possible for me to
leave this place to-day, without danger of perishing
in the woods, or of being arrested on the road.

As evening came on, the air became much colder
than it was in the forenoon, and after night the wind
rose high, and blew from the northwest, with in-
tense keenness. My limbs were yet stiff from the
effects of my morning adventure, and to complete
my distress, I was tctaily without provisions, having
left a few ears of corn, that I had in my pocket, on
the other side of the river.

Leaving my fire in the night, and advancing into
the field near me, I discovered a house at so i e dis-
tance, and as there was no light, or sign of fire about
it, 1 determined to reconnoitre the premises, which
turned out to be a small barn, standing alone, with
no other inhabitants about it than a few cattle and
a flock of sheep. After much trouble, 1 succeeded in
entering the barn by starting the nails that confined
one of the boards at the corner. Entering the house
I found it nearly filled with corn, in the husks, and
'some from which the husks had been removed, was
lying in a heap in one corner.

Into these husks I crawled, and covering myself
deeply under them, soon became warm, and fell into

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 451

a profound sleep, from which I was awakened by
the noise of people walking about in the barn, and
talking of the cattle and sheep, which it appeared
they had come to feed, for they soon commenced
working in the corn husks, with which I was cover-
ed, and throwing them out to the cattle. I expected
at every moment that they would uncover me; but
fortunately before they saw me, they ceased their
operations, and went to work, some husking corn,
and throwing the husks on the pile over me, while
others were employed in loading the husked corn
into carts, as I learned by their conversation, and
hauling it away to the house. The people contin-
ued working in the barn all day, and in the evening
gave more husks to the cattle and went home.

Waiting two or three hours after my visiters were
gone, I rose from the pile of husks, and filling my
pockets with ears of corn, issued from the barn, at
the same place by which I had entered it, and re-
turned to the woods, where I kindled a fire in a pine
thicket, and parched more than half a gallon of corn.
Before day I returned to the barn, and again secreted
myself in the corn husks. In the morning the peo-
ple again returned to their work, and husked corn
until the evening. At night T again repaired to the
woods, and parched more corn. In this manner I
passed more than a month, lying in the barn all
day, and going to the woods at night ; but at length
the corn was all husked, and 1 watched daily the
progress that was made in feeding the cattle with the
husks, knowing that I must quit my winter retreat,

452 NARRATIVE OF THE

before the husks were exhausted. Before the husk-
ed corn was removed from the barn, 1 had conveyed
several bushels of the ears into the husks, near my
bed, and concealed them for my winter's stock.

Whilst I lay in this barn, there were frequent and
great changes of weather. The snow that covered
the earth to the depth of two feet, when I came here,
did not remain more than ten days, and was suc-
ceeded by more than a week of warm rainy weath-
er, which was in turn succeeded by several days of
dry weather, with cold high winds from the north.
The month of February was cloudy and damp, with
several squalls of snow and frequent rains. About
the first of March, the atmosphere became clear and
dry, and the winds boisterous from the west.

On the third of this month, having filled my little
bag and all my packets with parched corn, I quitted
my winter quarters about ten o'clock at night, and
again proceeded on my way to the north, leaving a
large heap of corn husks still lying in the corner of
the barn.

On leaving this place, I again pursued the road
that had led me to it, for several nights ; crossing
many small streams in my way, all of which I was
able to pass without swimming, though several of
them were so deep, that they wet me as high as my
arm-pits. This road led nearly northeast, and was
the only road that I had fallen in with, since I left
Georgia, that had maintained that direction for so
great a distance. Nothing extraordinary befell me
until the twelfth of March, when venturing to turn

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 453

out earlier than usual in the evening, and proceeding
along the road, I found that my way led me down a
hill, along the side of which the road had been cut
into the earth ten or twelve feet in depth, having
steep banks on each side, which were now so damp
and slippery, that it was impossible for a man to
ascend either the one or the other.

Whilst in this narrow place, I heard the sound of
horses proceeding up the hill to meet me. Stopping
to listen, in a moment almost two horsemen were
close before me. trotting up the road. To escape on
either hand was impossible, and to retreat back-
wards would have exposed me to certain destruction.
Only one means of salvation was left, and I embra-
ced it. Near the place where I stood, was a deep
gully cut in one side of the road, by the water which
had run down here in time of rains. Into this gully
I threw myself, and lying down close to the ground,
the horsemen rode almost over me, and passed on.
When they were gone I arose, and descending the
hill, found a river before me.

In crossing this stream, I was compelled to swim
at least two hundred yards ; and found the cold so
oppressive, after coming out of the water, that I was
forced to stop at the first thick woods that I could
find, and make a fire to dry myself. 1 did not move
again until the next night ; and on the fourth night
after this, came to a great river, which I suppose
was the Roanoke. I was obliged to swim this
stream, and was carried a great way down by the
rapidity of the current. It must have been more

454 NARRATIVE OP THE

than an hour from the time that I entered the water,
until I reached the opposite shore, and as the rivers
were yet very cold, I suffered greatly at this place.

Judging by the aspect of the country, I believed
myself to be at this time in Virginia ; and was now
reduced to the utmost extremity, for want of provi-
sions. The corn that I had parched at the barn, and
brought with me, was nearly exhausted, and no
more was to be obtained in the fields, at this season
of the year. For three or four days I allowed my-
self only my two hands full of parched corn per day ;
and after this I travelled three days without tasting
food of any kind ; but being nearly exhausted with
hunger, I one night entered an old stack- yard, ho-
ping that I might fall in with- pigs, or poultry of
some kind. I found, instead of these, a stack of oats,
which had not been threshed. From this stack I
took as much oats in the sheaf, as I could carry, and
going on a few miles, stopped in a pine forest, made
a large fire, and parched at least half a gallon of oats,
after rubbing the grain from the straw. After the
grain was parched, I again rubbed it in my hands,
to separate it from the husks, and spent the night in
feasting on parched oats.

The weather was now becoming quite warm,
though the water was cold in the rivers ; and I per-
ceived the farmers had everywhere ploughed their
fields, preparatory to planting corn. Every night I
saw people burning brush in the new grounds that
they were clearing of the wood and brush ; and
when the day came, in the morning after I obtained

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 455

the oats, I perceived people planting corn in a
field about half a mile from my fire. According
to my computation of time, it was on the night of
the last day of March that I obtained the oats ; and
the appearance of the country satisfied me, that I
had not lost many days in my reckoning.

I lay in this pine-wood two days, for the purpose
of recruiting my strength, after my long fast j and
when I again resumed my journey, determined to
seek some large road leading towards the north, and
follow it in future ; the one that I had been pursuing
of late, not appearing to be a principal high-way of
the country. For this purpose, striking off across
the fields, in an easterly direction, I travelled a few
hours, and was fortunate enough to come to a great
road, which was manifestly much travelled, leading
towards the northeast.

My bag was now replenished with more than a
gallon of parched oats, and I had yet one pair of
moccasins made of raw hide ; but my shirt was to-
tally gone, and my last pair of trousers was now in
actual service. A tolerable waistcoat still remained
to me, and my great coat, though full of honourable
scars, was yet capable of much service.

Having resolved to pursue the road I was now in,
it was necessary again to resort to the utmost degree
of caution, to prevent surprise. Travelling only af-
ter it was dark, and taking care to stop before the ap-
pearance of day, my progress was not rapid, but my
safety was preserved.

The acquisition of food had now become difficult,

456 NARRATIVE OP THE

and when my oats began to fail, I resorted to the
dangerous expedient of attacking the corn-crib of
a planter that was near the road. The house was
built of round logs, and was covered with boards.
One of these boards I succeeded in removing, on
the side of the crib opposite from the dwelling, and
by thrusting my arm downwards, was able to reach
the corn — of which I took as much as filled my
bag, the pockets of my great coat, and a large hand-
kerchief, that I had preserved through all the vicissi-
tudes of my journey. This opportune supply of
corn furnished me with food more than a week,
and before it was consumed, I reached the Appomat-
tox river, which I crossed in a canoe, that I found
tied at the shore, a few miles above the town of Peters-
burg. Having approached Petersburg in the night,
1 was afraid to attempt to pass through it, lest the
patrol should fall in with me ; and turning to the
left through the country, reached the river, and cross-
ed in safety.

The great road leading to Richmond is so distin-
guishingly marked above the other ways in this part
of Virginia, that there was no difficulty in following
it, and on the third night after passing Petersburg, 1
obtained a sight of the capitol of Virginia. It was
only a little after midnight, when the city presented
itself to my sight ; but here, as well as at Petersburg,
I was afraid to attempt to go through the town, un-
der cover of the darkness, because of the patrol.
Turning, therefore, back into a forest, about two
miles from the small town on the south-side of the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 457

river, I lay there until after twelve o'clock in the day,
when loosening the package from my back, and
taking it in my hand in the form of a bundle, I ad-
vanced into the village, as if I had only come from
some plantation in the neighbourhood.

This was on Sunday, I believe, though accord-
ing to my computation, it was Monday ; but it must
have been Sunday, for the village was quiet, and in
passing it, I only saw two or three persons, whom
I passed as if I had not seen them. No one spoke
to me, and I gained the bridge in safety, and cross-
ed it without attracting the least attention.

Entering the city of Richmond, I kept along the
principal street, walking at a slow pace, and turning
my head from side to side, as if much attracted by
the objects around me. Few persons were in the
street, and I was careful to appear more attentive to
the houses than to the people. At the upper end of
the city I saw a great crowd of ladies and gentel-
men, who were, I believe, returning from church.
Whilst these people were passing me, 1 stood in the
street, on the outside of the foot pavement, with my
face turned to the opposite side of the street. They
all went by without taking any notice of me ; and
when they were gone, I again resumed my leisure
walk along the pavement, and reached the utmost
limit of the town without being accosted by any one.
As soon as I was clear of the city I quickened my
pace, assumed the air of a man in great haste, some-
times actually ran, and in less than an hour was
safely lodged in the thickest part of the woods that

39

458 NARRATIVE OF THE

lay on the north of Richmond, and full four miles
from the river. This was the boldest exploit that I
had performed since leaving my mistress, except the
visit I paid to the gentleman in Georgia.

My corn was now failing, but as I had once en-
tered a crib secretly, I felt but little apprehension on
account of future supplies. After this time I never
wanted corn, and did not again suffer by hunger,
until I reached the place of my nativity.

After leaving Richmond, I again kept along the
great road by which I had travelled on my way south,
taking great care not to expose my person unneces-
sarily. For several nights I saw no white people on
the way, but was often met by black ones, whom I
avoided by turning out of the road ; but one moon-
light night, five or six days after I left Richmond, a
man stepped out of the woods almost at my side,
and accosting me in a familiar manner, asked me
which way I was travelling, how long 1 had been on
the road, and made many inquiries concerning the
course of my late journey. This man was a mulatto,
and carried a heavy cane, or rather club, in his hand.
I did not like his appearance, and the idea of a fami-
liar conversation with any one seemed to terrify me.
I determined to watch my companion closely, and
he appeared equally intent on observing me; but at
the same time that he talked with me, he was con-
stantly drawing closer to, and following behind mer
This conduct increased my suspicion, and I began
to wish to get rid of him, but could not at the mo-
ment imagine how I should effect my purpose. To

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 459

avoid him, I crossed the road several times ; but still
he followed me closely. The moon, which shone
brightly upon our backs, cast his shadow far before me,
and enabled me to perceive his motions with the ut-
most accuracy, without turning my head towards
him. He carried his club under his left arm, and
at length raised his right hand gently, took the stick
by the end, and drawing it slowly over his head,
was in the very act of striking a blow at me, when,
springing backward, and raising my own staff at the
same moment, I brought him to the ground by
a stroke on his forehead ; and when I had him
down, beat him over the back and sides with my
weapon, until he roared for mercy, and begged me
not to kill him. I left him in no condition to pursue
me, and hastened on my way, resolved to get as far
from him before day as my legs would carry me.

This man was undoubtedly one of those wretches
wTho are employed by white men to kidnap and be-
tray such unfortunate people of colour as may chance
to fall into their hands ; but for once the deceiver
was deceived, and he who intended to make prey of
me, had well nigh fallen a sacrifice himself.

The same night I crossed the Pammunky river,
near the village of Hanover by -swimming, and se-
creted myself before day in a dense cedar thicket.
The next night, after 1 had travelled several miles,
in ascending a hill, I saw the head of a man rise on
the opposite side, without having heard any noise.

instantly ran into the woods, and concealed my-
self behind a large tree. The traveller was on horse-

460 NARRATIVE OF THE

back, and the road being sandy, and his horse mo-
ving only at a walk, I had not heard his approach
until I saw him. He also saw me ; for when he
came opposite the place where I stood, he stopped
his horse in the road, and desired me to tell him
how far it was to some place, the name of which
I have forgotten. As I made no answer, he again
repeated the inquiry ; and then said, 1 need not be
afraid to speak, as he did not wish to hurt me ; but
no answer being given him, he at last said I might
as well speak, and rode on.

Before day I reached the Matapony river, and
crossed it by wading ; but knowing that I was not
far from Maryland, I fell into a great indiscretion,
and forgot the wariness and caution that had ena-
bled me to overcome obstacles apparently insur-
mountable. Anxious to get forward, I neglected to
conceal myself before day ; but travelled until day-
break before 1 sought a place of concealment, and
unfortunatety, when I looked for a hiding place,
none was at hand. This compelled me to keep on
the road, until gray twilight, for the purpose of reach-
ing a wood that was in view before me ; but to gain
this wood I was obliged to pass a house, that stood
at the road side, and when only about fifty yards
beyond the house, a white man opened the door, and
seeing me in the road, called to me to stop. As this
order was not obeyed, he set his dog upon me. The
dog was quickly vanquished by my stick, and setting
off to run at full speed, 1 at the same moment heard
the report of a gun, and received its contents in my

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 461

legs, chiefly about, and in my hams. I fell on the
road, and was soon surrounded by several persons, who
it appeared were a party of patrollers, who had gather-
ed together in this house. They ordered me to cross
my hands, which order not being immediately obey-
ed, they beat me with sticks and stones until I was
almost senseless, and entirely unable to make resist-
ance. They then bound me with cords, and drag-
ged me by the feet back to the house, and threw me
into the kitchen, like a dead dog. One of my eyes
was almost beaten out, and the blood was running
from my mouth, nose and ears ; but in this condition
they refused to wash the blood from my face, or even
to give me a drink of water.

In a short time, a justice of the peace arrived, and
when he looked at me, ordered me to be unbound,
and to have water to wash myself, and also some
bread to eat. This man's heart appeared not to be
altogether void of sensibility, for he reprimanded, in
harsh terms, those who had beaten me ; told them
that their conduct was brutal, and that it would have
been more humane to kill me outright, than to bruise
and mangle me in the manner they had done.

He then interrogated me as to my name, place of
abode, and place of destination, and afterwards de-
manded the name of my master. To all these in-
quiries I made no reply, except that I was going to
Maryland, where I lived. The justice told me it
was his duty under the law, to send me to jail ; and
I was immediately put into a cart, and carried to a

39*

462 NARRATIVE OP THE

small village called Bowling Green, which I reached
before ten o'clock.

There I was locked up in the jail, and a doctor
came to examine my legs, and extract the shot from
my wounds. In the course of the operation he took
out thirty-four duck shot, and after dressing my legs
left me to my own reflections. No fever followed in
the train of my disasters, which I attributed to the re-
duced state of my blood, by long fasting, and the fa-
tigues I had undergone.

In the afternoon, the jailer came to see me, and
brought my daily allowance of provisions, and a jug
of water. The provisions consisted of more than a
pound of corn-bread, and some boiled bacon. As
my appetite was good, I immediately devoured more
than two-thirds of this food, but reserved the rest for
supper.

For several days I was not able to stand, and in
this period found great difficulty in performing the
ordinary offices of life for myself, no one coming to
give me any aid ; but I did not suffer for want of
food, the daily allowance of the jailer being quite
sufficient to appease the cravings of hunger. After I
grew better, and was able to walk in the jail, the
jailer frequently called to see me, and endeavour-
ed to prevail on me to tell where I had come from ;
but in this undertaking, he was no more successful
than the justice had been in the same business.

I remained in the jail more than a month, and in
this time became quite fat and strong, but saw no
way by which I could escape. The jail was of

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 463

brick, the floors were of solid oak boards, and the
door, of the same material, was secured by iron
bolts, let into its posts, and connected together by
a strong band of iron, reaching from the one to the
other.

Every thing appeared sound and strong, and to
add to my security, my feet were chained together,
from the time my wounds were healed. This chain
I acquired the knowledge of removing from my feet,
by working out of its socket a small iron pin that
secured the bolt that held the chain round one of my
legs.

The jailer came to see me with great regularity^
every morning and evening, but remained only a few
minutes, when he came, leaving me entirely alone
at all other times.

CHAPTER XXIV.

When I had been in prison thirty-nine days, and
had quite recovered from the wounds that 1 had re-
ceived, the jailer was late in coming to me with my
breakfast, and going to the door I began to beat
against it with my fist, for the purpose of making a
noise. After beating some time against the door I
happened, by mere accident, to strike my fist against
one of the posts, which, to my surprise, I discovered by
its sound, to be a mere hollow shell, encrusted with a
thin coat of sound timber, and as I struck it, the rotten

464 NARRATIVE OF THE

wood crumbled to pieces within. On a more careful
examination of this post, I became satisfied that I
could easily split it to pieces, by the aid of the iron
bolt that confined my feet. The jailer came with my
breakfast, and reprimanded me for making a noise.
This day appeared as long to me, as a week had done
heretofore ; but night came at length, and as scon as
the room in which I was confined, had become quite
dark, I disentangled myself from the irons with which
I was bound, and with the aid of the long bolt, easily
wrenched from its place, the large staple that held
one end of the bar, that lay across the door. The
hasps that held the lock in its place, were drawn
away almost without force, and the door swung open
of its own weight.

I now walked out into the jail-yard, and found
that all was quiet, and that only a few lights were
burning in the village windows. At first 1 walked
slowly along the road, but soon quickened my pace,
and ran along the high-way, until I was more than
a mile from the jail, then taking to the woods, [ tra-
velled all night, in a northern direction. At the ap-
proach of day I concealed myself in a cedar thicket,
where I lay until the next evening, without any
thing to eat.

On the second night after my escape, I crossed the
Potomac, at Hoe's ferry, in a small boat that I
found tied at the side of the ferry flat ; and on the
night following crossed the Patuxent, in a canoe,
which I found chained at the shore.

About one o'clock in the morning, I came to the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 465

door of my wife's cabin, and stood there, I believe,
more than five minutes, before I could summon
sufficient fortitude to knock. I at length rapped
lightly on the door, and was immediatly asked, in
the well-known voice of my wife, "Who is there?" — I
replied "Charles." She then came tothe door, and
opening it slowly, said, "Who is this that speaks so
much like my husband?" I then rushed into the
cabin and made myself known to her, but it was
some time before I could convince her, that I was
really her husband, returned from Georgia. The chil-
dren were then called up, but they had forgotten me.
When I attempted to take them in my arms, they
fled from me, and took refuge under tbe bed of their
mother. My eldest boy, who was four years old
when I was carried away, still retained some recol-
lections of once having had a father, but could not
believe that I was that father. My wife, who at
first was overcome by astonishment at seeing me
again in her cabin, and was incapable of giving
credit to the fidelity of her own vision, after I had
been in the house a few minutes, seemed to awake
from a dream ; and gathering all three of her chil-
dren in her arms, thrust them into my lap, as I sat
in the corner, clapped her hands, laughed, and cried
by turns ; and in her ecstasy forgot to give me any
supper, until I at length told her that I was hun-
gry. Before I entered the house I felt as if I could
eat any thing in the shape of food ; but now that I
attempted to eat, my appetite had fled, and I sat up
all night with my wife and children.

466 NARRATIVE OP THE

When on my journey I thought of nothing but
getting home, and never reflected, that when at
home, I might still be in danger : but now that my
toils were ended, I began to consider with myself
how I could appear in safety in Calvert county,
where everybody must know that I was a runaway
slave. "With my heart thrilling with joy, when I
looked. upon my wife and children, who had not
hoped ever to behold me again ; yet fearful of the
coming of daylight, which must expose me to be
arrested as a fugitive slave, I passed the night be-
tween the happiness of the present and the dread
of the future. In all the toils, dangers, and suffer-
ings of my long journey, my courage had never
forsaken me. The hope of again seeing my wife
and little ones, had borne me triumphantly through
perils, that even now I reflect upon as upon some
extravagant dream ; but when I found myself at
rest under the roof of my wife, the object of my la-
bours attained, and no motive to arouse my ener-
gies, or give them the least impulse, that firmness
of resolution which had so long sustained me, sud-
denly vanished from my bosom ; and I passed the
night, with my children around me, oppressed by a
melancholy foreboding of my future destiny. The
idea that I was utterly unable to afford protection and
safeguard to my own family, and was myself even
more helpless than they, tormented my bosom with
alternate throbs of affection and fear, until the dawn
broke in the east, and summoned me to decide upon
my future conduct.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 467

When morning came, I went to the great house,
and showed myself to my wife's master and mistress
who treated me with great kindness, and gave me a
good breakfast. Mr. Symmes at first advised me to
conceal myself, but soon afterwards told me to go to
work in the neigbourhood for wages. I continued
to hire myself about among the farmers, until after
the war broke out ; and until Commodore Barney
came into the Patuxent with his flotilla, when I en-
listed on board one of his barges, and was em-
ployed sometimes in the capacity of a seaman, and
sometimes as cook of the barge.

I had been on board, only a few days, when the
British fleet entered the Patuxent, and forced our flo-
tilla high up the river. I was present when the flo-
tilla was blown up, and assisted in the performance
of that operation upon the barge that I was in. The
guns and the principal part of the armament of the
flotilla, were sunk in the river and lost.

I marched with the troops of Barney, from Bene-
dict to Biadensburg, and travelled nearly the whole
of the distance, through heavy forests of timber, or
numerous and dense cedar thickets. It is my opinion,
that if General Winder had marched the half of the
troops that he had at Biadensburg, down to the lower
part of Prince George county, and attacked the Brit-
ish in these woods and cedar thickets, not a man
of them would ever have reached Biadensburg.

I feel confident that in the country through which
I marched, one hundred Americans would have des-

468 NARRATIVE OP THE

troyed a thousand of the enemy, by felling trees
across the road, and attacking them in ambush.

When we reached Bladensburg, and the flotilla
men were drawn up in line, to work at their cannon,
armed with their cutlasses, I volunteered to assist in
working the cannon, that occupied the first place, on
the left of the Commodore. We had a full and
perfect view of the British army, as it advanced
along the road, leading to the bridge over the East
Branch; and I could not but admire the handsome
manner in which the British officers led on their fa-
tigued and worn-out soldiers. I thought then, and
think yet, that General Ross was one of the finest
looking men that I ever saw on horseback.

I stood at my gun, until the Commodore w7as shot
down, when he ordered us to retreat, as I was told
by the officer who commanded our gun. If the mi-
litia regiments, that lay upon our right and left, could
have been brought to charge the British, in close
fight, as they crossed the bridge, we should have
killed or taken the whole of them in a short time;
but the militia ran like sheep chased by dogs.

My readers will not, perhaps, condemn me if I
here make a short digression from my main narra-
tive, to give some account of the part that I took in
the war, on the shores of the Chesapeake, and the
Patuxent. I did not enlist with Commodore Barney
until the month of December, 1813; but as I resided
in Calvert county, in the summer of 1813, I had an
opportunity of witnessing many of the evils that fol-

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 469

lowed in the train of war, before I assumed the pro-
fession of arms myself.'

In the spring of the year 1813, the British fleet
came into the bay, and from this time, the origin of
the troubles and distresses of the people of the Wes-
tern Shore, may be dated. I had been employed at
a fishery, near the mouth of the Patuxent, from early
in March, until the latter part of May, when a
British vessel of war came off the mouth of the river,
and sent her boats up to drive us away from our fish-
ing ground. There was but little property at the
fishery that could bs destroyed ; but the enemy cut
the seines to pieces, and burned the sheds belonging
to the place. They then marched up two miles into
the country, burned the house of a planter, and
brought away with them several cattle, that were
found in his fields. They also carried off more than,
twenty slaves, which were never again restored to
their owner; although, on the following day, he went
on board the ship, with a flag of truce, and offered
a large ransom for these slaves.

These were the first black people whom I had
known to desert to the British, although the practice
was afterwards so common. In the course of this
summer, and the summer of 1814, several thousand
black people deserted from their masters and mis-
tresses, and escaped to the British fleet. None of
these people were ever regained by their owners, as
the British naval officers treated them as free peo-
ple, and placed them on the footing of military de-
serters.

40

470 NARRATIVE OF THE

In the fall of this year, a lady by the name of
Wilson, who owned more than a hundred slaves, lost
them all in one night, except one man, who had a
wife and several children on an adjoining estate, and
as he could not take his family with him, on account
of the rigid guard that was kept over them, he re-
fused to go himself.

The slaves of Mrs. Wilson effected their escape in
the following manner. Two or three of the men
having agreed amongst themselves, that they would
run away and go to the fleet, they stole a canoe one
night, and went off to the ship, that lay nearest the
shore. When on board, they informed the officer
of the ship that their mistress owned more than a
hundred other slaves, whom they had left behind
them. They were then advised to return home,
and remain there until the next night, and then bring
with them to the beach, all the slaves on the plan-
tation— the officer promising that he would send a
detachment of boats to the shore, to bring them off.
This advice was followed, and the fugitives returned
before day, to their cabins, on the plantation of their
mistress.

On the next night, having communicated their
plans to some of their fellow-slaves, they rose about
midnight, and partly by persuasion, partly by com-
pulsion, carried off all the slaves on the plantation,
with the exception of the man already named.

When they reached the beach, they kindled a
fire, as had been concerted with the British officers,
and the boats of the fleet came off, and removed this

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 471

whole party on board. In the morning-, when the
overseer of Mrs. Wilson arose, and went to call his
hands to the field, he found only empty cabins in the
quarter, with a single man remaining, to tell what
had become of his fellows.

This was the greatest disaster that had befallen
any individual in our neighbourhood, in the course
of the war; and as the sufferer was a lady, much
sympathy was excited in her favour. A large num-
ber of gentlemen met together, for the purpose of
endeavouring to devise some means of recovering
the fugitive slaves. Their consultations ended in
sending a deputation of gentlemen, on board the fleet?
with a flag of truce, to solicit the restoration of the
deserters, either as a matter of favour, or for such
ransom, as might be agreed upon. Strong hopes
were entertained, that the runaways might be in-
duced voluntarily to return to the service of their
mistress, as she had never treated them with great
severity.

To accomplish, if possible, this latter end, I was
spoken to, to go along with the flag of truce, in the
assumed character of the servant of one of the gen-
tlemen who bore it; but in the real character of the
advocate of the mistress, for the purpose of inducing
her slaves to return to her service.

We went on board the ship in the afternoon, and
I observed, that the gentlemen who went with me,
were received by the British officers with very little
ceremony. The captain did not show himself on
deck, nor were the gentlemen invited into his cabin.

472 NARRATIVE OF THE

They were shown into a large square room under
the first deck of the ship, which was a 74, and here
a great number of officers came to talk to them, and
ask them questions concerning the war, and the state
of the country.

The whole of the runaways were on board this
ship, lounging about on the main deck, or leaning
against the sides of the ship's bulwarks. I went
amongst them, and talked to them a long time, on
the subject of returning home; but found that their
heads were full of notions of liberty and happiness in
ome of the West India islands.

In the afternoon; all the gentlemen, except one,
returned home in the boat that they had come off
in. The gentleman, who remained on board, wTas
a young man of pleasing manners and lively conver-
sation, who appeared, even before the other gentle-
men who had come with the flag had left the ship,
to have become quite a favourite with the younger
British officers. Permission was obtained of the Brit-
ish captain, for this young gentleman to remain on
board a few days, for the purpose, as he alleged,
of seeing the curiosities of the ship. He had permis-
sion to retain me with him as his servant: and I
was instructed to exert myself to the utmost, to pre-
vail on the runaway slaves to return to their mistress.
The ship lay at ancbor offthe shore of Calvert coun-
ty, until the second night after I came on board,
when, from some cause which I was notable to un-
derstand, this ship and all the rest of the fleet, got
under weigh, and stood down the Bay to the neigh-

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 473

bourhood of Tangier Islands ; where she again cast
anchor, soon after sunrise the next morning, in ten
fathoms water. I was now at least seventy or eighty
miles from home, in a ship of the public enemies of
the country, and liable to be carried off to sea, and to
be conveyed to the most distant part of the world.
To increase my alarm, about noon of this day, a sloop
of war cast anchor under the stern of our ship ; and
all the black people that were with us, were immedi?
ately removed on board the sloop. I was invited,
and even urged to go with the others, who, I was
told, were bound to the island of Trinidad, in the
West Indies, where they would have lands given to
them, and where they were to be free. I returned
many thanks for their kind offers; but respectfully
declined them; telling those who made them, that
I was already a freeman, and though I owned no
land myself, yet I could have plenty of land of other
people to cultivate.

In the evening, the sloop weighed anchor, and
stood down the Bay, with more than two hundred
and fifty black people on board. I watched her as
she sailed away from us, until the darkness of the
night shut her out from my sight. In the morning
she was not to be seen. What became of the miser?
able mass of black fugitives, that this vessel took to
sea, I never learned.

My mission was now at an end, and I spoke this
day to the young gentleman, under whose care I was,
to endeavour to procure some means of conveying
both him and me back again to Calvert. My protect

40*

474 NARRATIVE OF THE

tor seemed no less embarrassed than I was, and in-
formed me, that the officers of the ship said they
would not land us on the Western Shore, within less
than two weeks. I was obliged to content myself in
the best way I could, in my confinement on ship-
board ; and I amused myself by talking to the sailors,
and giving them an account of the way in which I
had passed my life on the tobacco and cotton planta-
tions; in return for which, the seamen gave many
long stories of their adventures at sea, and of the
battles they had been engaged in.

I lived well whilst on board this ship, as they al-
lowed me to share in a mess. In compensation for
their civility, I gave them many useful instructions
in the art of taking fish in the Bay.

This great ship lay at anchor like a vast castle,
moored by the cable; but there were many small
vessels, used as tenders to the fleet, that were con-
tinually sailing up and down the Bay, by night, as
well as by day, in pursuit of any thing that they
might fall in with, that they could take from the
Americans. Whilst I was on board, I saw more
than thirty vessels, chiefly Bay craft, brought to our
anchorage, and there burned, after being stripped of
every thing valuable that could be taken from them.
The people who manned and navigated these vessels,
were made prisoners, and dispersed amongst the
several ships of the fleet, until they could be removed
to Halifax, or the West Indies. One day a small
schooner was seen standing out of the mouth of Nan-
ticoke river, and beating up the Bay. Chase was

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 475

immediately given by several of the light vessels be-
longing to the fleet, and continued until nightfall,
when I could no longer see the sails; but the next
day, the British vessels returned, bringing in their
company the little schooner, which was manned by
her owner, who acted as captain, and two boys. On
board the schooner, besides her crew, were several
passengers, seven in number, I believe. The people
were taken out of this little vessel, which was laden
with Indian corn, and after her cargo had been re-
moved, she was burned in view of her owner, who
seemed much affected at the sight, and said that it
was all the property he owned in the world, and
that his wife and children were now beggars. The
passengers and crew of this little vessel, were all re-
tained as prisoners of war, onboard the 74, in which
I was; and were shut up every night in a room on
the lower gun-deck. In this room there were sev-
eral port-holes, which were suffered to remain open
for the benefit of the air.

After these people had been on board three or four
days, a boat's crewT, that had been out somewhere in
the evening, when they returned to the ship, tied
the boat with a long rope to one of the halyards of
the ship, and left the boat floating near the ship's
bows. Some time after night the tide turned, moved
the boat along the side of the ship, and floated it
directly under the port-holes of the prisoners' room.
The night was dark and warm, and I had taken a
station on the upper deck, and was leaning over the
bulwarks, when my attention was drawn towards

476 NARRATIVE OF THE

the water, by hearing something drop into the boat
that lay along side. Dark as it was, I could see the
forms of men passing out of the port-holes into the
boat. In less than two minutes, nine persons had
entered the boat; and 1 then heard a low whisper,
which I could not understand; but immediately after-
wards, saw the boat drifting with the tide; which
convinced me that she was loose, and that the pri-
soners were in her. I said nothing, and in a short
time the boat was out of sight. She had, however,
not been long gone, when the watch on deck passed
near me, and looking over the side of the ship, called
to the officer on deck, that the yawl was gone. The
officer on deck instantly called to some one below to
examine the room of the prisoners; and received for
answer, that the prisoners had fled. A gun was im-
mediately fired under me, on one of the lower decks ;
the ship's bells were tolled ; numerous blue lights
were made ready, and cast high into the air, which
performing a curve in the atmosphere, illuminated
the face of the water all the way from the ship to the
place where they fell. The other ships in the fleet
all answered by firing guns, casting out lights, and
ringing their large bells. Three boats put off from
our ship, in search of the fugitives, with as little de^
lay as possible; and, after being absent more than
an hour, returned without finding those who had
escaped.

This affair presented one of the finest night scenes
that can well be imagined. The deep thunder of
the heavy artillery, as it broke upon the stillness of

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 477

the night/ and re-echoed from the distant shores ;
the solemn and mournful tones of the numerous
bells, as they answered each other from ship to ship,
as the sounds rose in the air, and died away in the
distance, on the wide expanse of waters; with the
shouts of the seamen, and the pale and ghastly ap-
pearance of the blue lights, as they rose into the at-
mosphere, and then descended and died away in
the water — all combined together, to affect both the
eye and the ear, in a manner the most impressive.

One of the prisoners remained in the ship: not
having courage to undertake, with his companions,
the daring and dangerous exploit of escaping from
the ship in her own boat. When the morning came,
this man explained, to the officers of the ship, the
whole plan that had been devised, and pursued by
his companions. When they found that the boat
had floated under the port-holes of their room, some
one of the number proposed to the rest, to attempt
to escape, as the oars of the boat had been left in her ;
but a difficulty suggested itself, at the outset, which
was this: the oars could not be worked on the boat
without making a great noise, sufficient to alarm the
watch on deck. To avoid this, one of the prisoners
said he would undertake to pull offhis coat, and muf-
fle one of the oars with it, and scull the boat until they
should be clear of the fleet; when they could lay both
oars on the boat, and row to shore. We lay much
nearer to the Western Shore, than we were to the
Eastern but this man said, the design of the prison-
ers was to pull to the Eastern Shore. All the boats

478 NARRATIVE OF THE

that went from our ship pulled for the Western
Shore, and by this means the prisoners escaped, with-
out being seen.

The captain of the ship was much enraged at the-
escape of these prisoners, and swore he would be
avenged of the Yankees in a short time. In this
he was as good as his word ; for the very next day
he fitted out an expedition, consisting of eleven long
boats, and more than two hundred men, who landed
on the Western Shore, and burned three houses,
with all their furniture, and killed a great number
of cattle.

The officer who headed this expedition, brought
back with him a large silk handkerchief full of sil-
ver spoons, and other articles of silver plate. I saw
hirn exhibit these trophies of his valour amongst
his brother officers, on the deck of the ship,,

After I had been on board nearly a week, a furi-
ous northeast storm came on and blew for three
days, accompanied with frequent gusts of rain. In
the evening of the second day, we saw two schoon-
ers standing down the bay, and sailing close on the
wind, so as to pass between the fleet and the Eastern
Shore. As it was dangerous for large ships to ap-
proach much nearer the Eastern Shore than where
we lay, several of the tenders of the fleet, amounting
in all to more than a dozen, were ordered, b}^ signal,
to intercept the strange sails, and bring them to the
fleet.

The tenders got under weigh and stood before the
wind, for the purpose of encountering the schooners.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 479

as they came down the Bay. These schooners
proved to be two heavy armed American privateers,
and when the tenders approached them a furious bat-
tle commenced, with cannon, which lasted more than
an hour, and until the privateers had passed quite
below the anchorage of the fleet.

Several of the tenders were much damaged in their
hulls and rigging; and it was said that they lost
more than twenty men. I could not perceive that
the privateers sustained the least injury, as they ne-
ver shortened sail, nor altered their course, until they
had passed to the windward of all the ships of the
fleet, when they changed their bearing, and stood
for the Capes of Virginia. There were nearly forty
vessels in the fleet, great and small ; and yet these
two privateers braved the whole of them in open day-
light, and went to sea in spite of them.

On the ninth day after we came on board, the fleet
again moved up the Bay, and when we were off the
mouth of the Potomac, the captain sent the young
gentleman, in whose service I was, together with
myself, on shore in his own gig.

The lieutenant who had command of the gig, after
he set us on shore, went up to the house of a farmer,
whose estate lay opon to the Bay, and after pil-
fering the premises of every thing that he could
carry away, set fire to the house, and returned to his
boat. In the course of the summer and fall of the
year 1813, 1 witnessed many other atrocities, of equal
enormity.

I continued with the army after the sack of Wash-

480 NARRATIVE OF THE

ington, and assisted in the defence of Baltimore ; but
in the fall of 1814, 1 procured my discharge from the
army, and went to work in Baltimore, as a free
black man. From this time, until the year 1820, 1
worked in various places in Maryland, as a free man ;
sometimes in Baltimore, sometimes in Annapolis,
and frequently in Washington. My wife died in
the year 1816, and from that time I was not often
in Calvert county. I was fortunate in the enjoyment
of good health; and by constant economy 1 found
myself in possession, in the year 1820, of three hun-
dred and fifty dollars in money, the proceeds of my
labour.

I now removed to the neighbourhood of Baltimore,
and purchased a lot of twelve acres of ground, upon
which I erected a small house, and became a farmer
on my own account, and upon my own property.
I purchased a yoke of oxen and two cows, and be-
came a regular attendant of the Baltimore maiket,
where 1 sold the products of my own farm and dairy.
In the course of two or three years, I had brought my
little farm into very good culture, and had increa-
sed my stock of cattle to four cows and severalyoung-
er animals. I now lived very happily, and had an
abundance of all the necessaries of life around me.
I had married a second wife, who bore me four chil-
dren, and I now looked forward to an old age of com-
fort, if not of ease ; but I was soon to be awakened
from this dream

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 481

CHAPTER XXV.

In the month of June, 1830, as I was ploughing
in my lot, three gentlemen rode up to my fence, and
alighting from their horses, all came over the fence
and approached me, when one of them told me he
was the sheriff, and had a writ in his pocket, which
commanded him to take me to Baltimore. I was not
conscious of having done any thing injurious to any
one ; but yet felt a distrust of these men, who were-
all strangers to me. I told them I would go with
them, if they would permit me to turn my oxen loose
from the plough; but it was my intention to seek an
opportunity of escaping to the house of a gentleman,
who lived about a mile from me. This purpose I
was not able to effect, for whilst I was taking the
yoke from the oxen, one of the gentlemen came be-
hind me, and knocked me down, with a heavy whip,
that he carried in his hand.

When I recovered from the stunning effects of this
blow, I found myself bound with my hands behind
me, and strong cords closely wrapped about my arms.
In this condition I was forced to set out immediate-
ly, for Balitmore, without speaking to my wife, or
even entering my door. I expected that, on arriving
at Baltimore, I should be taken before a judge for
the purpose of being tried, but in this I was deceived.
They led me to the city jail, and there shut me up,

with several other black people, both men and women,

41

482 NARRATIVE OF THE

who told me that they had lately been purchased by
a trader from Georgia.

I now saw the extent of my misfortune, but could
not learn who the persons were, who had seized me.
In the evening however, one of the gentlemen, who
had brought me from home, came into the jail with
the jailer, and as&ed me if 1 knew him. On being
answered in the negative, he told me that he knew
me very well; and asked me if 1 did not recollect the
time when he and his brother had whipped me, be-
fore my master's door, in Georgia.

I now recognised the features of the younger of
the two brothers of my mistress ; but this man was
so changed in his appearance, from the time when I
had last seen him, that if he had not declared him-
self, I should never have known him. When I left
Georgia, he was not more than twenty-one or two
years of age, and had black, bushy hair. His hair
was now thin and gray, and all his features were
changed.

After lying in jail a little more than twro weeks,
strongly ironed, my fellow prisoners and I were one
day chained together, handcuffed in pairs, and in this
way driven about ten miles out of Baltimore, where
we remained all night.

On the evening of the second day, wTe halted at
Bladensburg, and were shut up in a small house,
within full view of the very ground, where sixteen
years before I had fought in the ranks of the army
of the United States, in defence of the liberty and in-
dependence of that wThich I then regarded as my

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 483

country. It seemed as if it had been but yesterday
that I had seen the British columns, advancing across
the bridge now before me, directing their fire against
me, and my companions in arms.

The thought now struck me, that if T had deser-
ted that day, and gone over to the enemies of the
United States, how different would my situation at
this moment have been. And this, thought I, is the
reward of the part I bore in the dangers and fatigues
of that disastrous battle.

On the next morning, we marched through Wash-
ington, and as we passed in front of the President's
house, I saw an old gentleman walking in the
grounds, near the gate. This man I was told was
the President of the United States.

Within four weeks after we left Washington, I
was in Milled geville in Georgia, near which the man
who had kidnapped me, resided. He took me home
with him, and set me to work on his plantation ; but I
had now enjoyed liberty too long to submit quietly to
the endurance of slavery. I had no sooner come here,
than I began to devise ways of escaping again from
the hands of my tyrants, and of making my way to
the northern states.

The month of August was now approaching,
which is a favourable season of the year to travel,
on account of the abundance of food that is to be
found in the corn fields and orchards ; but I remem-
bered the dreadful sufferings that I had endured in
my former journey from the south, and determined

484 NARRATIVE OF THE

if possible, to devise some scheme of getting away,
that would not subject me to such hardships.

After several weeks of consideration, I resolved to
run away, go to some of the seaports, and endeavour
to get a passage on board a vessel, bound to a north-
ern city. With this view, I assumed the appearance
of resignation and composure, under the new aspect
of my fortune; and even went so far as to tell my new
master that I lived more comfortably with him, in
his cotton fields, than I had formerly done, on my
own small farm in Maryland ; though I believe my
master did me the justice to give no credit to my as-
sertions, on this subject.

From the moment I discovered in Maryland, that
I had fallen into the hands of the brother of my for-
mer mistress, I gave up all hope of contesting his
right to arrest me, with success, at law, as I supposed
he had come with authority to reclaim me as the
property of his sister; but after I had returned to
Georgia, and had been at work some weeks on the
plantation of my new master, I learned that he now
claimed me as his own slave, and that he had report-
ed he had purchased me in Baltimore. It was now
clear to me that this man, having by some means
learned the place of my residence, in Maryland, had
kidnapped and now held me as his slave, without
the colour of legal right; but complaint on my part
was useless, and resistance vain.

I was again reduced to the condition of a common
field slave, on a cotton plantation in Georgia, and
compelled to subsist on the very scanty and coarse

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 485

food, allowed to the southern slaves. I had been
absent from Georgia, almost twenty years, and in
that period, great changes had doubtlessly taken
place in the face of the country, as well as in the con-
dition of human society.

I had never been in Milledgeville, until I was
brought there by the man who had kidnapped me
in Maryland ; and I was now a slave among entire
strangers, and had no friend to give me the consola-
tion of kind words, such as I had formerly received
from my master in Morgan county. The planta-
tion on which I was now a slave, had formerly be-
longed to the father of my mistress ; and some of my
fellow-slaves had been well acquainted with her, in
her youth. From these people I learned, that after
the death of my master, and my flight from Georgia,
my mistress had become the wife of a second hus-
band, who had removed with her to the state of
Louisiana, more than fifteen years ago.

After ascertaining these facts, which proved be-
yond all doubt that my present master had no right
whatsoever to me, in either law or justice, I deter~
mined, that before encountering the dangers and
sufferings, that must necessarily attend my second
flight from Georgia, I would attempt to claim the
protection of the laws of the country, and try to get
myself discharged from the unjust slavery in which
I was now held. For this purpose, I went to Mil-
ledgeville, one Sunday, and inquired for a lawyer,
of a black man whom I met in the street. This

41*

4.86 NARRATIVE OF THE

person told me that his master was a lawyer, and
went with me to his house.

The lawyer, after talking to me some time, told
me that my master was his client, and that he there-
fore could not undertake my cause ; but referred me
to a young gentleman, who he said would do my
business for me. Accordingly to this young man I
went, and after relating my whole story to him, he
told me that he believed he could not do any thing
for me, as I had no witnesses to prove my freedom.

I rejoined, that it seemed hard that I must be com-
pelled to prove myself a freeman : and that it would
appear more consonant to reason, that my master
should prove me to be a slave. He, however, assured
me that this was not the law of Georgia, where
every man of colour was presumed to be a slave, un-
til he could prove that he was free. He then told
me that if I expected him to talk to me, I must
give him a fee ; whereupon I gave him all the mo-
ney I had been able to procure, since my arrival in
the country, which was two dollars and seventy-five
cents.

When I offered him this money, the lawyer tos-
sed his head, and said such a trifle was not worth ac-
cepting ; but nevertheless he took it, and then asked
me if I could get some more money before the next
Sunday. That if I could get another dollar, he
would issue a writ and have me brought before the
court; but if he succeeded in getting me set free, I
must engage to serve him a year. To these condi-
tions I agreed, and signed a paper which the lawyer

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 487

wrote, and which was signed by two persons as wit-
nesses.

The brother of my pretended master, was yet liv-
ing in this neighbourhood, and the lawyer advised
me to have him brought forward, as a witness, to
prove that I was not the slave of my present preten-
ded owner.

On the Wednesday following my visit to Milledge-
ville, the sheriff came to my master's plantation, and
took me from the field to the house, telling me as I
walked beside him, that he had a writ which com-
manded him to take me to Milledgeville. Instead,
however, of obeying the command of his writ, when
we arrived at the house, he took a bond of my mas-
ter that he would produce me at the court house on
the next day, Friday, and then rode away, leaving
me at the mercy of my kidnapper.

Since I had been on this plantation, I had never
been whipped, although all the other slaves, of whom
there were more than fifty, were frequently flogged
without any apparent cause. I had all along attri-
buted my exemption from the lash to the fears of my
master. He knew I had formerly run away from
his sister, on account of her cruelty, and his own
savage conduct to me; and I believed that he was
still apprehensive that a repetition of his former bar-
barity might produce the same effect that it had done
twenty years before.

His evil passions were like fire covered with ashes,
concealed, not extinguished. He now found that I
was determined to try to regain my liberty at all

488 NARRATIVE OF THE

events, and the sheriff was no sooner gone, than the
overseer was sent for, to come from the field, and I
was tied up and whipped, with the long lashed negro
whip, until I fainted, and was carried in a state of
insensibility, to my lodgings in the quarter. It was
night when I recovered my understanding, sufficient-
ly to be aware of my true situation. I now found
that my wounds had been oiled, and that I was
wrapped in a piece of clean linen cloth ; but for sever-
al days I was unable to leave my bed. When Fri-
day came, I was not taken to Milled geville, and
afterwards learned that my master reported to the
court, that I had been taken ill, and was not able to
leave the house. The judge asked no questions as
to the cause of my illness.

At the end of two weeks, I was taken to Milledge-
ville, and carried before a judge, who first asked a
few questions of my master, as to the length of time
that he had owned me, and the place where he had
purchased me. He stated in my presence that he
had purchased me, with several others, at public
auction, in the city of Baltimore, and had paid five
hundred and ten dollars for me. I was not permit-
ted to speak to the court, much less to contradict this
falsehood in the manner it deserved.

The brother of my master wras then called as a
witness, by my lawyer ; but the witness refused to be
sworn or examined, on account of his interest in me,
as his slave. In support of his refusal, he produced
a bill of sale from my master to himself, for an equal,
undivided half part of the slave Charles. This bill

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 489

of sale was dated several weeks previous to the time
of trial, and gave rise to an argument between the
opposing lawyers, that continued until the court ad-
journed in the evening.

On the next morning I was again brought into
court, and the judge now delivered his opinion,
which was that the witness could not be compelled
to give evidence in a cause to which he was really,
though not nominally, a party.

The court then proceeded to give judgment in the
cause now before it, and declared that the law was well
settled in Georgia, that every negro was presumed
to be a slave, until he proved his freedom by the clear-
est evidence. That where a negro was found in the
custody or keeping of a white man, the law declared
that white man to be his master, without any evi-
dence on the subject. But the case before the court,
was exceedingly plain and free from all doubt or diffi-
culty. Here the master has brought this slave into
the state of Georgia, as his property, has held him as
a slave ever since, and still holds him as a slave.
The title of the master in this case, is the best title
that a man can have to any property, and the order
of the court is that the slave Charles be returned to
the custody of his master.

I was immediately ordered to return home, and
from this time until I left the plantation, my life was
a continual torment to me. The overseer often
came up to me in the field, and gave me several
lashes with his long whip, over my naked back,
through mere wantonness; and I was often com-

490 NARRATIVE OF THE

pelled, after I had done my day's work in the field,
to cut wood, or perform some other labour at the
house, until long after dark. My sufferings were
too great to be borne long by any human creature;
and to a man who had once tasted the sweets of lib-
erty, they were doubly tormenting.

There was nothing- iu the form of danger that
could intimidate me, if the road on which I had to
encounter it, led me to freedom. That season of the
year, most favourable to my escape from bondage,
had at length arrived. The corn in the fields was
so far grown, as to be fit for roasting; the peaches
were beginning to ripen, and the sweet potatoes were
large enough to be eaten; but notwithstanding all
this, the difficulties that surrounded me were greater
than can easily be imagined by any one who has
never been a slave in the lower country of Georgia.

In the first place I was almost naked, having no
other clothes than a ragged shirt of tow cloth, and
a pair of old trousers of the same material, with an
old woollen jacket that I had brought with me from
home. In addition to this, I was closely watched eve-
ry evening, until I had finished the labour assigned
me, and then I was locked up in a small cabin by
myself for the night. -

This cabin was really a prison, and had been built
for the purpose of confining such of the slaves of this
estate, as were tried in the evening, and sentenced
to be whipped in the morning. It was built of strong
oak logs, hewn square, and dovetailed together at
the corners. It had no window in it; but as the logs

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 491

did not fit very close together, there was neyer any
want of air in this jail, in which I had been locked
up every night since my trial before the court.

On Sundays I was permitted to go to work in the
fields, with the other people who worked on that day,
if I chose so to do; but at this time I was put under
the charge of an old African negro, who was instruct-
ed to give immediate information, if I attempted to
leave the field. To escape on Sunday was impos-
sible, and there seemed to be no hope of getting out
of my sleeping room, the floor of which was made of
strong pine plank.

Fortune at length did for me that which I had
not been able to accomplish, by the greatest efforts,
for myself. The lock that was on the door of my
nightly prison, was a large stock lock, and had been
clumsily fitted on the door, so that the end of the
lock pressed against the door-case, and made it diffi-
cult to shut the door even in dry weather. When
the weather was damp, and the wood was swollen
with moisture, it was not easy to close the door at all.

Late in the month of September, the weather be-
came cloudy, and much rain fell. The clouds con-
tinued to obscure the heavens for four or five days.
One evening, when I was ordered to my house, as it
was called, the overseer followed me without a light,
although it was very dark. When I was in the
house, he pushed the door after me, with all his
strength. The violence of the effort caused the door
to pass within the case at the top, for one or two

492 NARRATIVE OF THE

feet, and this held it so fast that he could not again
pull it open.

Supposing in the extreme darkness, that the door
was shut, he turned the key; and the bolt of the
lock passing on the outside of the staple intended to
receive it, completely deceived him. He then with-
drew the key, and went away. Soon after he was
gone, I went to the door, and feeling with my hands,
ascertained that it was not shut. An opportunity
now presented itself for me to escape from my prison-
house, with a prospect of being able to be so far from
my master's residence before morning, that none
could soon overtake me, even should the course of
my flight be ascertained. Waiting quietly, until
every one about the quarter had ceased to be heard,
I applied one of my feet to the door, and giving it a
strong push, forced it open.

The world was now all before me, but the dark-
ness was so profound, as to obscure from my vision
the largest objects, even a house, at the distance of a
few yards. But dark as it was, necessity compelled
me to leave the plantation without delay, and know-
ing only the great road that led to Milledgeville,
amongst the various roads of this country, I set off
at a brisk walk on this public highway, assured
that no one could apprehend me in so dark a night.

It was only about seven miles to Milledgeville,
and when I reached that town several lights were
burning in the windows of the houses ; but keeping
on directly through the village, I neither saw nor
heard any person in it, and after gaining the open

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL.

493

country, my first care was to find some secure place
where shelter could be found for the next day ; but no
appearance of thick woods was to be seen for several
miles, and two or three hours must have elapsed be-
fore a forest of sufficient magnitude was found to
answer my purposes.

It was perhaps three o'clock in the morning, when
I took refuge in a thick and dismal swamp that lay
on the right hand of the road, intending to remain
here until daylight, and then look out for a secret
place to conceal myself in, during the day. Hither-
to, although the night was so extremely dark, it
had not rained any, but soon after my halt in the
swamp, the rain began to fall in floods, rather than
in snowers, which made me as wet as if I had swum
a river.

Daylight at length appeared, but brought with
it very little mitigation of my sufferings; for the
swamp, in which my hiding-place was, lay in the
midst of a well-peopled country, and was surround-
ed, on all sides, by cotton and corn fields, so close to
me, that the open spaces of the cleared land could
be seen from my position. It was dangerous to
move, lest some one should see me; and painful to
remain without food, when hunger was consuming
me.

My resting place, in the swamp, was within view
of the road ; and, soon after sunrise, although it
continued to rain fast, numerous horsemen were seen
passing along the road by the way. that had led me
to the swamp. There was little doubt on my mind,

42

494 NARRATIVE OF THE

that these people were in search of me, and the se-
quel proved that my surmises were well founded.
It rained throughout this day, and the fear of being
apprehended by those who came in pursuit of me,
confined me'to the swamp, until after dark the fol-
lowing evening, when I ventured to leave the thick-
et, and return to the high road, the bearing of
which it was impossible for me to ascertain, on ac-
count of the dense clouds that obscured the heavens.
All that could be done in my situation, was to take
care not to follow that end of the road which had
led me to the swamp. Turning my back once
more upon Milledgeville, and walking at a quick
pace, every effort was made to remove myself, as
far as possible this night, from the scene of suffering,
for which that swamp will be always memorable in
my mind.

The rain had ceased to fall at the going down of
the sun ; and the darkness of this second night, was
not so great as that of the first had been. This cir-
cumstance was regarded by me, as a happy presage
of the final success that awaited my undertaking.
Events proved that I was no prophet ; for the dim
light of this night, was the cause of the dreaful mis-
fortune that awaited me.

In a former part of this volume, the reader is
made acquaimed with the deep interest that, is taken
by all the planters, far and wide, around the plan-
tation from w7hich a slave has escaped, by running
away. Twenty years had wrought no change in
favour of the fugitive; nor had the feuds anddissen-

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 495

sions, that agitate and distract the communities of
white men, produced any relaxation in the friend-
ship that they profess to feel, and really do feel, for
each other, on a question of so much importance to
them all.

More than twenty miles of road had been left be-
hind me this night ; and it must have been two or
three o'clock in the morning, when, as I was passing
a part of the road that led through a dense pine
grove, where the trees on either side grew close to
the wheel tracks, five or six men suddenly rushed
upon me, from both sides of the road, and with loud
cries of "Kill him! kill him!" accompanied with
oaths and opprobrious language, seized me, dragged
me to the ground, and bound me fast with a long
cord, which was wrapped round my arms and body,
so as to confine my hands below my hips.

In this condition, I was driven, or rather dragged,
about two miles to a kind of tavern or public house,
that stood by the side of the road ; where my captors
were joined, soon after daylight, by at least twenty
of their companions, who had been out all night
waiting and watching for me, on the other roads of
this part of the country. Those who had taken me
were loudly applauded by their fellows ; and the
whole party passed the morning in drinking, sing-
ing songs, and playing cards, at this house. At
breakfast time, they gave me a large cake of corn
bread, and some sour milk, for breakfast.

About ten o'clock in the morning, my master ar-
rived at the tavern, in company with two or three

496 NARRATIVE OF THE

other gentlemen, all strangers to me. My master,
when he came into my presence, looked at me, and
said, " Well, Charles, you had bad luck in running
away this time;" and immediately asked aloud,
what any person would give for me. One man,
who was slightly intoxicated, said he would give
four hundred dollars for me. Other bids followed,
until my price was soon up to five hundred and
eighty dollars, for which I was stricken off, by my
master himself, to a gentleman, who immediately
gave his note for me, and took charge of me as his
property.

CHAPTER XXVI.

The name of my new master was Jones, a plan-
ter, who was only a visiter in this part of the coun-
try ; his residence being about fifty miles down the
country. The next day, my new master set off
with me to the place of his residence; permitting me
to walk b hind him, as he rode on horseback, and
leaving me entirely unshackled. I was resolved,
that as my owner treated me with so much liberal-
ity, the trust he reposed in me should not be broken
until after we had reached his home; though the
determination of again running away, and attempt-
ing to escapa from Georgia, never abandoned me for
a moment.
The country through which we passed, on our

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 497

journey, was not rich. The soil was sandy, light,
and, in many places, much exhausted by excessive
tillage. The timber, in the woods where the ground
was high, was almost exclusively pine ; but many
swamps, and extensive tracts of low ground inter-
vened, in which maple, gum, and all the other trees
common to such land in the south, abounded.

No improvement in the condition of the slaves on
the plantations, was here perceptible; but it ap-
peared to me, that there was now even a greater
want of good clothes, amongst the slaves on the
various plantations that we passed, than had existed
twenty years before. Everywhere, the overseers
still kept up the same custom of walking in the fields
with the long whip, that has been elsewThere de-
scribed; and everywhere, the slaves proved, by the
husky appearance of their skins, and the dry, sun-
burnt aspect of their hair, that they were strangers
to animal food.

On the second day of our journey, in the evening,
we arrived at the residence of my master; about
eighty miles from Savannah. The plantation, which
had now become the place of my residence, was not
large : containing only about three hundred acres of
cleared land, and having on it, about thirty working
slaves of all classes.

It was now the very midst of the season of pick-
ing cotton, and, at the end of twenty years from
the time of my first flight, I again had a daily task
assigned me, with the promise of half a cent a pound,
for all the cotton I should pick, beyond my day's

42*

498 NARRATIVE OF THE

work. Picking cotton, like every other occupation
requiring active manipulation, depends more upon
sleight, than strength; and I was n ;t now able to
pick so much in a day, as I was once able to do.

My master seemed to be a man ardently bent on
the acquisition of wealth, and came into the field,
where we were at work, almost every day ; frequent-
ly remonstrating, in strong language, with the.
overseer, because he did not get more work done.

Oar rations, on this place, were a half peck of
corn per week; in addition to which, we had rather
more than a peck of sweet potatoes allowed to each
person.

Our provisions were distributed to us on every
Sunday morning by the overseer ; but my master
was generally present, either to see (hat justice was
done to us, or that injustice was not done to
himself.

When I had been here about a week, my master
came into the field one day, and, in passing near
me, stopped and told me, that I had now fallen in-
to good hands, as it was his practice not to whip his
people much. That he, in truth, never whipped
them, nor suffered his overseer to whip them, except
in flagrant cases. That he had discovered a mode
of punishment much more mild, and, at the same
time, much more effectual, than flogging; and that
he governed his negroes exclusively under this mode
of discipline. He then told me, that when I came
home in the evening, I must come to the house; and

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 499

that be would then make me acquainted with the
principles upon which he chastised his slaves.

Going to the house in the evening, according to
orders, my master showed me a pump, set in a well
in which the water rose within ten feet of the sur-
face of the ground. The spout of this pump, was
elevated at least thirteen feet above the earth, and
when the water was to be drawn from it, the person
who worked the handle ascended by a ladder to the
proper station. The water in this well, although so
near the surface, was very cold ; and the pump dis-
charged it in a large stream. One of the women
employed in the house, had committed some offence
for which she was to be punished ; and the opportuni-
ty was embraced of exhibiting to me, the effect of this
novel mode of torture upon the human frame. The
woman was stripped quite naked, and tied to a post
that stood just under the stream of water, as it fell
from the spout of the pump. A lad was then ordered
to ascend the ladder, and pump water upon the head
and shoulders of the victim ; who had not been un-
der the waterfall more than a minute, before she be-
gan to cry and scream in a most lamentable man-
ner. In a short time, she exerted her strength, in
the most convulsive throes, in trying to escape from
the post ; but as the cords were strong, this was im-
possible. After another minute or a little more, her
cries became weaker, and soon afterwards her head
fell forward upon her breast ; and then the boy was
ordered to cease pumping the water. The woman
was removed in a state of insensibility ; but recovered

500

NARRATIVE OF THE

her faculties in about an hour. The next morning
she complained of lightness of head ; but was able
to go to work.

This punishment of the pump, as it is called, was
never inflicted on sue ; and 1 am only able to describe
it, as it has been described to me, by those who have
endured it.

When the water first strikes the head and arms,
it is not at all painful ; but in a very short time, it
produces the sensation that is felt when heavy blows
are inflicted with large rods, of the size of a man's
finger. This perception becomes more and more
painful, until the skull bone and shoulder blades ap-
pear to be broken in pieces. Finally, all the faculties
become oppressed ; breathing becomes more and more
difficult ; until the eye-sight becomes dim, and ani-
mation ceases. This punishment is in fact a tem-
porary murder; as all the pains are endured, that
can be felt by a person who is deprived of life by be-
ing beaten with bludgeons ; — but after the punish-
ment of the pump, the sufferer is restored to existence
by being laid in a bed, and covered with warm
clothes. A giddiness of the head, and oppression of the
breast, follows this operation, for a day or two, and
sometimes longer. The object of calling me to be a
witness of this new mode of torture, doubtlessly, was
to intimidate me from running away ; but like me-
dicines administered by empirics, the spectacle had
precisely the opposite effect, from that which it was
expected to produce.

After my arrival on this estate, my intention had

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 501

been to defer my elopement until the next year, be-
fore I had seen the torture inflicted on this unfor-
tunate woman ; but from that moment my resolu-
tion was unalterably fixed, to escape as quickly as
possible. Such was my desperation of feeling, at
this time, that I deliberated seriously upon the pro-
ject of endeavouring to make my way southward,
for the purpose of joining the Indians in Florida.
Fortune reserved a more agreeable fate for me.

On the Saturday night after the woman was pun-
ished at the pump, 1 stole a yard of cotton bagging
from the cotton-gin house, and converted it into a
bag, by means of a coarse needle and thread that I
borrowed of one of the black women. On the next
morning, when our weekly rations were distributed
to us, my portion was carefully placed in my bag,
under pretence of fears that it would be stolen from
me, if it was left open in the loft of the kitchen that
I lodged in.

This day being Sunday, I did not go to the field
to work as usual, on that day, but under pretence of
being unwell, remained in the kitchen all day, to be
the better prepared for the toils of the following
night. After daylight had totally disappeared, ta-
king my bag under my arm, under pretence of going
to the mill to grind my corn, I stole softly across the
cotton fields to the nearest wouds, and taking an ob-
servation of the stars, directed my course to the east-
ward, resolved that in no event should any thing
induce me to travel a single yard, on the high road,
until at least one hundred miles from this plantation,

502 NARRATIVE OF THE

Keeping on steadily through the whole of this
night, and meeting with no swamps, or briery thick-
ets in my way, I have no doubt that before day-
light, the plantation was more than thirty miles be-
hind me.

Twenty years before this, I had been in Savan-
nah, and noted at that time that great numbers of
ships were in that port, taking in loading of cotton.
My plan now was to reach Savannah, in the best
way I could, by some means to be devised after my
arrival in the city, to procure a passage to some of
the northern cities.

When day appeared before me, I was in a large
cotton field, and before the woods could be reached,
it was gray dawn; but the forest bordering on the
field was large and afforded me good shelter through
the day, under the cover of a large thicket of swamp
laurel, that lay at the distance of a quarter of a mile
from the field. It now became necessary to kindle a
fire, for all my stock of provisions, consisting of coin
and potatoes, was raw and undressed. Less fortunate
now than in my former flight, no fire apparatus was
in my possession, and driven at last to the extremity, T
determined to endeavour to produce fire by rubbing
two sticks together, and spent at least two hours of
incessant toil, in this vain operation, without the least
prospect of success. Abandoning this project at
length, I turned my thoughts to searching for a stone
of some kind, with which to endeavour to extract
fire from an old jack knife, that had been my com-
panion in Maryland for more than three years. My

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 503

labours were fruitless. No stone could be found in
this swamp; and the day was passed in anxiety and
hunger, a few raw potatoes being my only food.

Night at length came, and with it a renewal of
my travelling labours. Avoiding with the utmost
care, every appearance of a road, and pursuing my
way until daylight, I must have travelled at least
thirty miles this night. Awhile before day, in cros-
sing a field, I fortunately came upon a bed of large
pebbles, on the side of a hill. Several cf these were
deposited in my bag, which enabled me when day
arrived to procure fire, with which I parched corn
and roasted potatoes sufficient to subsist me for two or
three days. On the fourth night of my journey,
fortune directed me to a broad, open highway, that
appeared to be much travelled.

Near the side of this road, 1 established my quar-
ters for the day in a thick pine wood, for the purpose
of making observations upon the people who tra-
velled it, and of judging thence of the part of the
country to which it. led.

Soon after daylight, a wagon passed along, drawn
by oxen, and loaded with bales of cotton ; then fol-
lowed some white men on horseback, and soon after
sunrise, a whole train of wagons and carts, all load-
ed with bales of cotton, passed by, following the wa-
gon first seen by me. In the course of the day, at
least one hundred wagons and carts passed along
this road, towards the south-east, all laden with cot-
ton bales; and at least an equal number came to-
wards the west, either laden with casks of various

504 NARRATIVE OF THE

dimensions, or entirely empty. Numerous horse-
men, many carriages, and great numbers of persons
on foot, also passed to and fro on this road, in the
course of the day.

Ail these indications satisfied me, that I must be
near some large town, the seat of an extensive cot-
ton market. The next consideration with me was
to know how far it was to this town, for which pur-
pose I determined to travel on the road, the succeed-
ing night.

Lying in the woods, until about eleven o'clock, I
rose, came to the road, and travelled it until within
an hour of daylight, at which time the country
around me appeared almost wholly clear of timber;
and houses became much more numerous than they
had been in the former part of my journey.

Things continued to wear this aspect until day-
light, when I stopped, and sat down by the side of
a high fence that stood beside the road. After re-
maining here a short time, a wagon laden with cot-
ton, passed along, drawn by oxen, whose driver, a
black man, asked me if I was going towards town.
Being answered in the affirmative, he then asked me
if I did not wish to ride in his wagon. I told him
I had been out of town all night, and should be very
thankful to him for a ride; at the same time ascend-
ing his wagon and placing myself in a secure and
easy position, on the bags of cotton.

In this manner we travelled on for about two hours,
when wTe entered the town of Savannah. In my
situation there was no danger of any one suspecting

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 505

me to be a runaway slave; for no runaway had ever
been known to flee from the country, and seek re-
fuge in Savannah.

The man who drove the wagon, passed through
several of the principal streets of the city, and stopped
his team before a large warehouse, standing on a
wharf, looking into the river. Here 1 assisted my
new friend to unload his cotton and when we were
done, he invited me to share his breakfast with him,
consisting of corn bread, roasted potatoes, and some
cold boiled rice.

Whilst we were at our breakfast, a black man
came along the street, and asked us if we knew
where he could hire a hand, to help him to work a
day or two. I at once replied that my master had
sent me to town, to hire myself out for a few weeks,
and that I was ready to go with him immediately.
The joy I felt at finding employment, so overcame
me, that all thought of my wages was forgotten.
Bidding farewell to the man who had given me
my breakfast, and thanking him in my heart for his
kindness, I followed my new employer, who inform-
ed me that he had engaged to remove a thousand
bales of cotton from a large warehouse, to the end
of a wharf at which a ship lay, that was taking in
the cotton as a load.

This man was a slave, but hired his time of his
master at two hundred and fifty dollars a year, which
he said he paid in monthly instalments. He did
what he called job work, which consisted of under-
taking jobs, and hiring men to work under him, if

43

506 NARRATIVE OF THE

the job was too great to be performed by himself.
In the present instance he had seven or eight black
men, beside me, all hired to help him to remove the
cotton in wheel-barrows, and lay it near the end of
the wharf, when it was taken up by sailors and car^
ried on board the ship, that was receiving it.

We continued working hard all day; and amongst
the crew, of the ship was a black man, with whom I
resolved to become acquainted by some means. Ac-
cordingly at night, after we had quit our w7ork, I
went to the end of the wharf against which the ship
lay moored, and stood there a long time, waiting for
the black sailor to make his appearance on deck.
At length my desires were gratified. He. came upon
the deck, and sat down near the main-mast, with a
pipe in his mouth, which he was smoking with great
apparent pleasure. After a few minutes, I spoke to
him, for he had not yet seen me, as it appeared, and
when he heard my voice, he rose up and came to the
side of the ship near where I stood. We entered in-
to conversation together, in the course of which he
informed me that his home was in New- York; that
he had a wife and several children there, but that he
followed the sea for a livelihood, and knew no other
mode of life. - He also asked me where my master
lived, and if Georgia had always been the place of
my residence.

I deemed this a favourable opportunity of effecting
the object I had in view, in seeking the acquaintance
of this man, and told him at once that by law and
justice I was a free man, but had been kidnapped

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 507

near Baltimore, forcibly brought to Georgia, and sold
there as a slave. That I was now a fugitive from
my master, and in search of some means of getting
back to my wife and children.

The man seemed moved by the account of my suf-
ferings, and at the close of my narrative, told me he
could not receive me on board the ship, as the captain
had given positive orders to him, not to let any of the
negroes of Savannah come on board, lest they should
steal something belonging to the ship. He further
told me that he wTas on watch, and should continue
on deck two hours. That he was forced to take
a turn of watching the ship every night, for two
hours; but that his turn would not come the next
night until after midnight.

I now begged him to enable me to secrete myself
on board the ship, previous to .the time of her sailing,
so that I might be conveyed to Philadelphia, whi-
ther the ship was bound with her load of cotton.
He at first received my application with great cold-
ness, and said he would not do any thing contrary
to the orders of the captain ; bnt before we parted, he
said he should be glad to assist me if he could, but
that the excution of the plan proposed by me, would
be attended with great dangers, if not ruin.

In my situation there was nothing too hazardous
for me to undertake, and 1 informed him that if he
would let me hide myself in the hold of the ship,
amongst the bags of cotton, no one should ever
know that he had any knowledge of the fact; and that
all the danger, and all the disasters that might attend

508 NARRATIVE OF THE

the affair, should fall exclusively on me. He final-
ly told me to go away, and that he would think of
the matter until the next day.

It was obvious that his heart was softened in my
favour ; that his feelings of compassion almost im-
pelled him to do an act in my behalf, that was for-
bidden by his judgment, and his sense of duty to
his employers. As the houses of the city were now
closed, and I was a stranger in the place, I went to
a wagon that stood in front of the warehouse, and
had been unladen of the cotton that had been brought
in it, and creeping into it, made my bed with the
driver, who permitted me to share his lodgings
amongst some corn tops, that he had brought to feed
his oxen.

When the morning came, I went again to the ship;
and when the people came on deck, asked them for
the captain, whom I should not have known by his
dress, which was very nearly similar to that of the
sailors. On being asked if he did not wish to hire a
hand, to help to load his ship, he told me 1 might go
to work amongst the men, if I chose, and he would
pay me what I was worth.

My object was to procure employment on board
the ship, and not to get wages; and in the course of
this day I found means to enter the hold of the ship
several times, and examine it minutely. The black
sailor promised that he would not betray me, and
that if I could find the means of escaping on board
the ship he would not disclose it.

At the end of three days, the ship had taken in

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 509

her loading, and the captain said in my presence,
that he intended to sail the day after. No time was
now to be lost, and asking the captain what he
thought I had earned, he gave me three dollars,
which was certainly very liberal pay, considering
that during the whole time that I had worked for
him, my fare had been the same as that of the sai-
lors, who had as much as they could consume, of
excellent food.

The sailors were now busy in trimming the ship,
and making ready for sea, and observing, that this
work required them to spend much time in the hold
of the ship, I went to the captain and told him, that
as he had paid me good wages, and treated me well,
I would work with his people, the residue of this day,
for my victuals and half a gallon of molasses: which
he said he would give me. My first object now, was
to get into the hold of the ship with those who were
adjusting the cargo. The first time the men below
called for aid, I went to them, and being there, took
care to remain with them. Being placed at one side
of the hold, for the purpose of packing the bags close
to the ship's timbers, I so managed, as to leave a
space between two of the bags, large enough for a
man to creep in, and conceal himself. This cavity
was near the opening in the centre of the hold, that
was left to let men get down, to stow away the last
of the bags that were put in. In this small hollow
retreat amongst the bags of cotton, I determined to
take my passage to Philadelphia, if by any means
I could succeed in stealing on board the ship at night

43*

510 NARRATIVE OF THE

When the evening came, I went to a store near
the wharf, and bought two jugs, one that held half
a gallon, and the other, a large stone jug. holding
more than three gallons. When it was dark, I filled
my large jug with water; purchased twenty pounds
of pilot bread at a bakery, which I tied in a large
handkerchief; and taking my jugs in my hand, went
on board the ship to receive my molasses of the cap-
tain, for the labour of the clay. The captain was
not on board, and a boy gave me the molasses ; but,
under pretence of waiting to see the capiain, T sat
down between two rows of cotton bales, that were
stowed on deck. The night was very dark, and,
watching a favourable opportunity, when the man
on deck had gone forward, I succeeded in placing both
my jugs upon the bags of cotton that rose in the
hold, almost to the deck. In another moment, I
glided down amongst the cargo ; and lost no time in
placing my jugs in the place provided for them,
amongst the bales of cotton, beside the lair provided
for myself.

Soon after I had taken my station for the voyage.
the captain came on board, and the boy reported to
him, that he had paid me off, and dismissed me.
In a short time, all was quiet on board the ship, ex-
cept the occasional tread of the man on watch. I
slept none at all this night; the anxiety that oppres-
sed me, preventing me from taking any repose. ■

Before day the captain was on deck, and gave or-
ders to the seamen, to clear the ship for sailing, and
to be ready to descend the river with the ebb tide.

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 511

which was expected to flow at sunrise. I felt the
motion of the ship when she got under weigh, and
thought the time long before I heard the breakers of
the ocean surging against her sides.

In the place where I lay, when the hatches were
closed, total darkness prevailed ; and I had no idea
of the lapse of time, or of the progress we made, un-
til, having at one period crept out into the open space,
between the rows of cotton bags, which I have be-
fore described, I heard a man, who appeared from
the sound of his voice to be standing on the hatch,
call out and say, " That is Cape Hatteras." I had
already come out of my covert, several times, into the
open space ; but the hatches were closed so tightly,
as to exclude all light. It appeared to me that we
had already been at sea a long time ; but as darkness
was unbroken with me, I could not make any com-
putation of periods.

Soon after this, the hatch was opened, and the
light was let into the hold. A man descended for the
purpose of examining the state of the cargo ; who re-
turned in a short time. The hatch was again clos-
ed ; and nothing of moment occurred from this time,
until I heard and felt the ship strike against some
solid body. In a short time I heard much noise,
and a multitude of sounds of various kinds. All this
satisfied me, that the ship was in some port ; for I no
longer heard the sound of the waves, nor perceived
the least motion in the ship.

At length the hatch was again opened, and the
light was let in upon me. My anxiety now was, to

512 NARRATIVE OF THE

escape fromthe ship, without being- discovered by any
one ; to accomplish which I determined to issue from
the hold as soon as night came on, if possible. Wait-
ing until sometime after daylight had disappeared,
I ventured to creep to the hatchway, and raise my
head above deck. Seeing no one on board, I crawled
out of the hold, and stepped on board a ship that lay
alongside of that in which 1 had come a passenger.
Here a man seized me, and called me a thief, say-
ing I had come to rob his ship ; and it was with much
difficulty that I prevailed upon him to let me go. He
at length permitted me to go on the wharf; and I
once more felt myself a freeman.

I did not know what city I was in ; but as the
sailors had all told me, at Savannah, that their ship
was bound to Philadelphia, I had no doubt of being
in that city. In going along the street, a black man
met me, and I asked him if I was in Philadelphia.
This question caused the stranger to laugh loudly :
and he passed on without giving me any answer.
Soon afterwards I met an old gentleman, with drab
clothes on, as I could see by the light of the lamps.
To him I propounded the same question, that had
been addressed a few moments before to the black
man. This time, however, I received a civil answer :
being told that I was in Philadelphia.

This gentleman seemed concerned for me, either
because of my wretched and ragged appearance, or
because I was a stranger, and did not know where
1 was. Whether for the one cause or the other, I
know not ; but he told me to follow him, and led me

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 513

to the house of a black man, not far off, whom he
directed to take care of me until the morning. In
this house I was kindly entertained all night, and
when the morning came, the old gentleman in drab
clothes returned, and brought with him an entire
suit of clothes, not more than half worn, of which
he made me a present, and gave me money to buy
a hat and some muslin for a couple of shirts. He
then turned to go away, and said, " I perceive that
thee is a slave, and has run away from thy master.
Thee can now go to work for thy living ; but take
care that they do not catch thee again. " I then told
him, that I had been a slave, and had twice run
away and escaped from the state of Georgia. The
gentleman seemed a little incredulous of that which
I told him; but when I explained to him the cause
of the condition in which he found me, he seemed to
become more than ever interested in my fate. This
gentleman, whose name I shall not publish, has
always been a kind friend to me.

After remaining in Philadelphia a few weeks, I
resolved to return to my little farm in Maryland, for
the purpose of selling my property for as much as it
would produce, and of bringing my wife and children
to Pennsylvania.

On arriving in Baltimore. I went to a tavern keep-
er, rnvhom I had formerly supplied with vegetables
from my garden. This man appeared greatly sur-
prised to see me ; and asked me how 1 had managed
to escape from my master in Georgia. I told him,
that the man who had taken me to Georgia was not

514

NARRATIVE OF THE

my master ; but had kidnapped me, and carried me
away by violence. The tavern keeper then told me,
that I had better leave Baltimore as soon as possible,
and showed me a hand-bill that was stuck up against
the wall of his bar-room, in which a hundred and
fifty dollars reward was offered for my apprehension.
1 immediately left this house, and fled from Baltimore
that very night.

When I reached my former residence, I found a
white man living in it, whom I did not know. This
man, on being questioned by me, as to the time he
had owned this place, and the manner in which he
had obtained possession, informed me, that a black
man had formerly lived here; but he was a runaway
slave, and his master had come, the summer before,
and carried him off. That the wife of the former
owner of the house, was also a slave; and that her
master had come about six weeks before the present
time, and taken her and her children, and sold them
in Baltimore to a slave-dealer from the south.

This man also informed me, that he was not in
this neighbourhood at the time the woman and her
children were carried away ; but that he had received
his information from a black woman, who lived half
a mile off.

This black woman I was well acquainted with ;
she had been my neighbour, and I knew her to be
my friend. She had been set free, some years be-
fore by a gentleman of this neighbourhood, and re-
sided under his protection, on a part of his land. I
immediately went to the house of this woman, who

ADVENTURES OP CHARLES BALL. 515

could scarcely believe the evidence of her own eyes,
when she saw me enter her door. The first words
she spoke to me were, " Lucy and her children have
all been stolen away." At my request, she gave me
the following account of the manner in which my
wife and children, all of whom had been free from
their birth, were seized and driven into southern
slavery.

" A few weeks," said she, " after they took you
away, and before Lucy had so far recovered from the
terror produced by that event, as to remain in her
house all night with her children, without some other
company, I went one evening to stay all night with
her ; a kindness that I always rendered her, if no
other person came to remain with her.

" It was late when we went to bed, perhaps eleven
o'clock ; and after we had been asleep some time, we
were awakened by a loud rap at the door. At first
we said nothing ; but upon the rap being several
times repeated, Lucy asked who was there. She
was then told, in a voice that seemed by its sound
to be that of a woman, to get up and open the door ;
adding, that the person without had something to tell
her that she wished to hear. Lucy, supposing the
voice to be that of a black woman, the slave of a
lady living near, rose and opened the door ; but, to
our astonishment, instead of a woman coming in,
four or five men rushed into the house, and imme-
diately closed the door; at which one of the men
stood, with his back against it, until the others made
a light in the fire place, and proceeded deliberately

616 NARRATIVE OF THE

to tie Lucy with a rope. Search was then made in
the bed for the children ; and I was found, and drag-
ged out. This seemed to produce some consterna-
tion amongst the captors, whose faces were all black,
but whose hair and visages were those of white men.
A consultation was held amongst them, the object
of which was to determine whether I should also be
taken along with Lucy and the children, or be left
behind, on account of the interest which my master
was supposed to feel for me.

" It was finally agreed, that as it would be very
dangerous to carry me off, lest my old master should
cause pursuit to be made after them, they would
leave me behind, and take only Lucy and the chil-
dren. One of the number then said it would not do
to leave me behind, and at liberty, as I would im-
mediately go and give intelligence of what I had
seen ; and if the affair should be discovered by the
members of the abolition society, before they had time
to get out of Maryland, they would certainly be detec-
ted and punished for the crimes they were commit-
ting.

" It was finally resolved to tie me with cords, to
one of the logs of the housegag me by tying a rope
in my mouth, and confining it closely at the back of
my neck. They immediately confined me, and
then took the children from the bed. The oldest
boy they tied to his mother, and compelled them to
go out of the house together. The three youngest
children were then taken out of bed, and carried
off in the hands of the men who had tied me to the

ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL. 517

log. I never saw nor heard any more of Lucy or
her children.

"For myself, I remained in the house, the door of
which was carefully closed, and fastened after it
was shut, until the second night after my confine-
ment, without any thing to eat or drink. On the
second night some unknown persons came and cut
the cords that bound me, when I returned to my
own cabin."

This intelligence almost deprived me of life ; it
was the most dreadful of all the misfortunes that I
had ever suffered. It was now clear that some
slave-dealer had come in my absence, and seized my
wife and children as slaves, and sold them to such
men as T had served in the south. They had now
passed into hopeless bondage, and were gone forever
beyond my reach. I myself was advertised as a fu-
gitive slave, and was liable to be arrested at each
moment, and dragged back to Georgia. I rushed
out of my own house in despair and returned to
Pennsylvania with a broken heart.

For the last few years, I have resided about fifty
miles from Philadelphia, where I expect to pass the
evening of my life, in working hard for my subsist-
ence, without the least hope of ever again seeing my
wife and children : — fearful, at this day, to let my
place of residence be known, lest even yet it may
be supposed, that as an article of property, I am of
sufficient value to be worth pursuing in my old age,

THE END.

44

BOOKS

PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY

JOHN S. TAYLOR,

Theological and Sunday. School Bookseller,
BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL,

CORNER OF PARK-ROW AND NASSAU-STREET,

OPPOSITE THE CITY-HALL, NEW-YORK.

The Cause and Cure of Infidelity. By the Rev.
David Nelson, of Quincy, Illinois; late of Marion
County, Missouri.

From the Journal of Commerce.

A book, with the above title page, has just been published by Mr. John
S. Taylor. When it was announced as being- in the press, the thought
was suggested, whether there was not already an abundance of treatises
on the subject of infidelity ; and whether the feebleness of argument,
which characterize some, and the cold, abstruse speculation which chills
and mystifies others, were not adapted rather to beget skepticism than to
remove it. But a perusal of this book has convinced us, that at least one
treatise was still wanting, which, in simplicity, cogency, directness, and
clear illustration, should be answerable to the practice and business-
like habits of the present generation. Dr. Nelson's work ha3 all these
characteristics, and is therefore pre-eminently suited to make a deep
impression upon the community.

Our author was once himself a skeptic, thoroughly versed in all skep-
tical writings, from the impious witticisms of Voltaire, down to the
miserable slang of Tom Paine His acquaintance with men, in all parts
of our country, is uncommonly extensive ; and he has met practical infi-
delity as a friend and a foe, in almost every variety of form. He comes
before the public, therefore, as a physician, intimately acquainted with
the disease which he professes to cure. None can read the book, and not
feel that the writer is perfectly master of his subject. For strength of
argument, point, simplicity, and felicitous illustration, drawn from a
storehouse of facts, the book is equal to any we ever read. It is a com-
mon sense book, which we hope will find its way into every family in our
land. Sincerely do we hope it will be read by all who are infected with
the disease of infidelity, and work, with the blessing of God, a speedy
cure. The external execution of the book is good, it being printed on ex-
cellent paper and handsomely bound. O.

From the Commercial Advertiser.

This is no common-place, or ordinary book ; but is an original, experi-
mental, and practical work , adapted to the existing aspects of skepti-
cism in our country, and cannot fail to be useful to all who read it. The
author, now an aged and venerable minister of the gospel, was long an
infidel, a disciple of rationalism, a confirmed skeptic. He writes, there-
fore, from experience of infidelity, its causes and its cure ; and as the
spirit and style of the volume are mild and conciliatory, while at the same
time he deplores error and vindicates truth with sufficient point and force,
we see not how skeptics, who are honest, can excuse themselves from
reading this book of reasons for renouncing skepticism and vain philoso-
phy, by one who now labours to build up that which he once sought to
destroy.

11 NEW PUBLICATIONS.

We commend this book of reasons for believing in the Bible, writtenby an
infidel, to all "free inquirers," who are honest, and such will, at least, be
convinced, that the author is sincere ; and more, that the extraordinary rev-
olution of his opinions, which he here records, was yielded with a suffi-
ciency of resistance, and not until every weapon of rationalism had been
wielded and vanquished by the majesty of truth. The distribution of this
volume among skeptics of every class, would do more to convert them
from the error of their ways than can be hoped for from public or private
disputations, or even from those strictly controversial works which are
ever issuing from the press. The author and publisher have performed a
real service to the community by this timely publication.

Select Remains of the late William Nevins,
D.D. with a Memoir. $1.

From Rev. Wm. Adams, Pastor of the Broome-st. Church, New-York.

It would be difficult to mention a book which does more credit to an
author or a publisher than this. The contents are like " apples of gold in
pictures of silver."

Who that knew the lamented author, does not see his image reflected
from these pages — refined, ornate, thoughtful, and spiritual. We see him
again passing through his various and diversified trials— prosperity and
adversity, sickness and death — and coming out like silver that has been
tried. We commend especially the fragments which were written under
the greatest of all earthly losses, and in near prospect of his own depar-
ture. They breathe the spirit of heaven. Blessed be God for such an
exemplification of faith and patience — for this new evidence of the
reality and stability of our hopes. He was a burning and a shining light,
and many have and will rejoice in that light.

The fragmentary form of these articles will ensure frequent perusal.
They are the best specimens of this description, since the Remains of
Cecil ; with less of his mannerism and style, there is more of sim-
plicity and adaptedness, to general readers. In a time of haste and little
reflection, their brilliant thoughts may arrest attention, and lead others to
reflect also.

In unqualified terms do we commend this volume for the richness of its
contents, and the uncommon elegance of its form.

From the Evening Star.
The subject of this memoir was a pious and unpretending divine, in
possession of strong faculties and many great virtues. His life was one
of great usefulness, and much of his time devoted to the relief of the
distressed, and the alleviation of the misfortunes of his brethren. The
style in which this work is sent forth deserves the highest commend-
ation. The type is large, full, and handsome, and the paper is white,
clear, and lustrous, and presents a beautiful specimen of typographical
neatness.

From the Journal of Commerce.

An intelligent friend who has read this work, (which we have not yet
found time to do,) speaks of it as " a beautiful volume, and as useful as
beautiful." He adds—" The Memoir is prepared by a judicious friend of
the deceased, whose name is not given, and the Remains consist of short
reflections on various subjects of every day utility, for which the lament-
ed author (alas ! too soon removed to his reward) was so celebrated.
The manner in which it is got up is very creditable to the publisher, Mr.
John S. Taylor, of Park-Row, Nassau- street. We need such aids to re-
flection, and we hope our readers will patronise this book, and make
themselves familiar with the precepts and example of the worthy disciple
of our Saviour.

NEW PUBLICATIONS. Ill

From the New-York American.

The life of a pious, unpretending, and zealous Clergyman, offers little
out of which to make a book suited to the popular taste— but affection
loves to perpetuate the memory of its objects, and affection has ushered
forth this volume, beautiful in its materials and typography, and well
fitted to instruct, refine, and purify by its contents.

The extracts from the diary of Dr. Nevins present him in a most favour
a')le light, as a cheerful, humble and resigned clergyman— who found in
the midst of severe domestic affliction that his religion was a reality, and
that its promises were not in vain.

The greater part of the volume is made up of miscellaneous extracts on
different subjects, all connected with religion, from the manuscript papers
of Dr. Nevins.

From the Morning Star.
This is a most beautiful work. In paper, print, and binding, it exceeds
any new work that we have seen. The Memoir is correct and brief.
The Remains comprise a variety of the finest extracts from the wri-
tings of this eminently talented and lamented divine: several of them are
on the doctiines which now agitate the church.
From the American Baptist.

With Dr. Nevins it was never our happiness to be personally acquaint-
ed. But the perusal of this work has left a deep yet unavailing regret,
that we should have been contemporary with such a choice spirit — should
have dwelt in the same city with him, and it may be, have sided by him
in the crowded street, and yet never have seen, and never have known
him !

And so will it be with many, now pressing with us for the goal, who,
when they have outrun us in the Christian stadium, have seized the gar-
land, and their virtues and their victories have been heralded to the
church and to the world, we shall regret that we saw them not, and
wonder most of all, that living in the same age, sojourning in the same
cities, and perhaps for a time sheltered beneath the same roof, we yet
should have let pass unimproved the golden opportunity of enriching our
stores of piety and intelligence by an endeared and confiding intei course.

To us the very sight of a holy man is sanctifying. We love to gaze on
his resemblance to his Lord, till we catch his spirit and are changed into
the same image ! What gainers then might we have been, had we been
brought within the influence of a man, a Christian, and a minister, so
richly endowed with piety and intellect, and around whom there was
thrown, in foldings of such richness and and grace, the beautiful robe of
humility, as was Nevins ! What lessons might we have drawn from his
holy walk, his stern principles of integrity, his untiring industry, his va-
rious and successful plans of usefulness, and the spirit of self-annihilation
which enshrined all in its burning lustre ! But we have formed an intimacy
with him through his " Remains,"— alas! that the response should be
from the grave ! — and their perusal has left upon the heart the faint im
press of a character, which, in its living influence, must have been pecu.
liarly and eminently spiritual. The '' Memoir," which introduces th
" Remains," though brief, possesses yet a charm which other and mor"
elaborate biographies can seldom claim — that of permitting the subject
himself to speak out the history of his own life and experience — so tha
the Memoir of Nevins might be justly styled an auto-biography.

From the Long-Island Star.

The gifted author of these posthumous fragments, while in the midst
of his deeds of charity and love, and before he had reached his manhood's
prime, was summoned from the field of his labours and conflicts to

" Join the caravan that moves
To the pale realms of shade."

Perhaps the usefulness of the art of printing i3 never so forcibly felt as
when death suddenly severs a great mind, and extinguishes a flaming

IV NEW PUBLICATIONS.

light from the living. The Press seems to grasp and converge the rays
that gather over the death-couch of the devoted in piety and strong in
intellect, and pour them out again in their full effulgence,

" The round of rays complete,"

upon a benighted world. The Press, into the everlasting ear of its me-
mory, seems to drink up the last impressive lesson and parting benedic-
tion of the departing patriarch, as he takes his departure to mingle with
those beyond the flood, and imparts to them an immortal voice, whereby
" being dead, he yet speaketh." Truly may it be said of the lamented
Kevins, "being dead, he yet speaketh" — speaketh in the kindness of heart
by which he was endeared to the social circle — speaketh by his good
works, for which the widow and the fatherless still bless his memory —
speaketh in his exemplary piety, which made him a '• burning and a shi-
ning light" to a captious and infidel people — speaketh in the language of
his eloquent [teachings and asphaiions, preseived in the volume before
us, for the enlightenment and consolation of the way-farer on life's bleak
journey.

The extracts from his diary and letters will be read with deep interest
— and cold and unfeeling must be the individual who can linger around
the touching picture of his desolated and broken heart, mourning over the
grave of her who was the wife of his youth and the charm of his life, and
feel no thrilling emotion. The Christian, too, who is, as was the depart-
ed Nevins, all his life-time in bondage through the fear of death, as he
stands by his bed-side, and beholds him with unshaken faith in the faith-
fulness of God, and listens to his song, though tremulous in death, of joy
and triumph, will dismiss his fears, and commit his soul afresh to Him
who is able to keep it against that day.

But of his " Remains," what shall we say? We have perused, and re-
perused, and will peruse them yet again, so elevated in thought, so pure
in style, so eloquent in language, and so rich in piety are they. We
think, in each of these particulars, they will rank with " Pascal's and
Adam's Thoughts," and with "Searl's Christian Remembrancer." By
their side, on our biographical shelf, we have placed the " Remains and
Memoir of William INevins."

The work, as presented to the public by its enterprising publisher, John
S. Taylor, Park Row, New-York, is a beautiful specimen of neatness in
typography, and elegance in binding. Its appearance will vie with any
book in this department of literature which we have yet received either
from the English or the American press. That the fondest hopes which
influenced Nevins in writing, Plumer in compiling, and Taylor in publish-
ing this work, may reach the utmost limits of realization, is our sincerest
wish.

Christian Retirement, or Spiritual Exercises
of the Heart. By the Author of Christian Expe-
rience, as displayed in the Life and Writings of St.
Paid. From the eighth London Edition: — New-
York: Published by John S. Taylor, \2mo. pp. 476.

(From the Religious Telegraph.

Tnis volume contains thoughts and reflections on a great variety of
subjects, connected with the intellectual and spiritual growth of the
Christian, in pieces of four or five pages in length. "The Two Pillars,"
an article copied from it in our columns last Friday, is a fair specimen of
the theology and style of the work. In sentiment and spirit it is'excel-
lent ; its design appears to be such as all good men must approve : and
the fact that it has passed through eight editions in London is a strong
testimonial, recommending it to the Christian public. Judging the

NEW PUBLICATIONS. V

work from a partial reading, we cheerfully concur in such a commend-
ation of it. It is a book for the Christian family and closet. The author
would promote' the habit of self-examination and prayer, and lead the
reader.into a closer communion with his own heart, and with God. And
he endeavours to promote this end, not by the charm and power of novel-
ties—but by giving " line upon line" from the treasures of old theology-
such as guided prophets and the apostles and martyrs to their heavenly
inheritance.

From the Norwich Courier.

This is one of those admirable volumes, which, disdaining to enter into
sectarian controversy, aims to make us better Christians by making us
better acquainted with the Bible and our own hearts. The object of the
writer is thus briefly noticed in the Preface : " The simple design in pub
lishing the following reflections is to induce a habit of self-examination
and prayer; and to excite to a more diligent perusal of the Word of
God." This design is steadily and faithfully kept in view, and the fact
that the volume passed through eight Editions in Eng1and,is no mean testi-
mony of its merits. If read with the right disposition of mind, it can-
not be perused without some profit, it can be procured at Mr. Starr's
Book-store.

From the Methodist Protestant.

This volume consists of meditations and reflections upon evangelical
subjects, and is a valuable companion for the Christian in his devotional
retirement ; as it is calculated to exalt the mind— elevate the feelings-
excite to self-examination— engage the soul in devout and holy thought,
and increase a sense of the value and importance of divine truth. The
perusal of such a volume in the closet, is highly advantageous, as it calls
off the attention from the cares and tumults of life, and concentrates the
thoughts upon God and heavenly things. This book, we think, is admira-
bly adapted for this purpose, on account of the practical nature of the sub-
jects ; the experimental manner in which they are presented, and the
deep-toned piety which breathes in every page.

The work is got up in the same style as the other, and published by the
same gentleman.

Lights and Shadows of Christian Life. De-
signed for the Instruction of the Young. By William,
Craig Brownlee, D.D., of the Collegiate Reformed
Dutch Church, New- York. New-York, John S. Tay-
lor, 1837. Umo. pp. 388.

From the Religious Magazine.

Dr. Brownlee has here presented the Christian public with a volume of
Religious Tales, which cannot fail, we think, to be read with general in-
terest by the friends of religion, to whatever creed they may belong. . It
is refreshing to find one who has been so long harnessed for polemical
warfare, thus laying aside his spear and shield, and endeavouring to bene-
fit his readers, by presenting the truths of religion under so attractive a
form as is afforded by well-written tales. This is, without doubt, a diffi-
cult species of composition, and one in which, though many have made
the attempt, few have ever met with more than partial and short-lived
success. For this fact there are plainly some obvious reasons. The first
is, probably, the want of a correct public taste for what is just and true
in religion. The second, we imagine, lies rather in the mode in which
the attempt has usually been made, than in the nature of the case. It is
much easier, and consequently far more common, to connect dull and
tedious conversations on religious topics, with a meager and uninter-
esting narrative, than to form a story which shall, by its very texture, im-
press religious truth, without the aid of direct instruction. Hence, such

VI NEW PUBLICATIONS.

works, considered as religious essays, are too barren of instruction, to en-
gage much attention, and viewed as tales, they want the essential ele-
ment of deep and permanent interest in the narrative.

The views of our author upon this subject may be learned from the
following extract from his introductory address to his youthful readers.

Whether the honour, thus " accepted " by Dr. Brownlee, of being asso-
ciated, in any sense, with Professor Wilson, the incomparable author of
the " Lights and Shadows of Scottish life," will be finally awarded to
him, it would be premature for us to attempt to decide by anticipating
the verdict of futurity. To be thus associated is, indeed, a high honour,
and one which undoubtedly requires far more for its attainment, than to
compose a book with a title similar to that of the highly popular work of
the Professor.

From the Methodist Protestant.

This is a most excellent and valuable work. It comprises several
highly interesting narratives intended for the illustration of divine truth,
and the enforcement of duty. They are founded on fact, and presented
in an attractive and nervous style, and well calculated to engage the at-
tention of juvenile readers, for whom the book is principally designed ;
and to make deep impressions upon the mind in favour of the Christian
religion.— There was a great necessity for a volume, whose attractions
might divert the mind from those light and trashy productions that are
teeming from th e press, and calculated to vitiate the taste, and enfeeble
the intellect of the reader. This necessity is now met by the interesting
and useful volume of Dr. Brownlee, which we hope will have an exten-
sive circulation.

The book is got up in excellent style by the publisher, Mr, John S. Tay-
lor, of New- York. It may be had in this city of J. J. Harrod.

From the Philadelphia Observer.

The author of this work is well known to, and appreciated by, the
American public, as an able contraversialist. He exhibits himself in the
present publication, as no less able in presenting the details of ordinary
life, and in giving them an interesting form, and a practical direction.
Instruction and entertainment are judiciously blended in this volume, so
as to make it attractive to the young, for whose benefit it is principally
designed. Lovers of the romance of fiction, will find here the romance
of real life in the details of historic facts, as they have occurred in the
Christian's career; the contemplation of which, instead of dissipating the
mind, and filling the memory with nonsense, will contribute to concen-
trate the view on the folly of skepticism, the lofty principles, and the
rich consolations of the religion of the Gospel.

The Spirit of Holiness. By James Harrington
Evans, A.M. — John S. Taylor, New- York.

From, the Brooklyn Advertiser.

The Spirit of Holiness is the spirit and essence of genuine and operating
piety. The Christian Pilgrim, if he would be true to the great calling ol
grace, needs ever to pray for and cultivate in his heart, that spirit of holi-
ness which was so conspicuous in the Divine Master, and forms the
great feature of resemblance between God and those whom He has sanc-
tified ; and it is to be regretted that in the world, and even among pro-
fessing Christians, this spirit is so seldom witnessed. Men who belong
to the communion of Christ, are often guilty of practices which, although
not strictly immoral, savour but little of holiness. There are ten thou-
sand acts of unchristian-like conduct, of which no code of laws can
take cognizance, but which are adverse to all the sacred feelings of

NEW PUBLICATIONS. Vll

the soul, and directly opposed to the spirit of holiness. Against these
the author has taken up his pen; and after adverting to the creation, na-
ture, and operation of the spirit of holiness, he dwells forcibly and aptly
upon the manifold circumstances and passions which war against its ex-
istence. Mr. Evans, the author, is evidently a man of talent and good
sense, and treats his subject in a proper and skilful manner. This being
the first American edition, it has, prefixed to it, an introductory preface
by the Rev. Mr. Winslow, of the second Baptist Church of this city.
The book is printed in the excellent style, usually observable in Mr.
Taylor's publications.

The Lily of the Valley :— With a commendatory
Preface, by the Rev. W. Patton. New- York : John S.
Taylor.

From the Methodist Protestant.

This is a neat and very interesting little volume. The narrative
throughout will be read with pleasure and some portions of it with thril-
ling interest. The story is natural, and told in very neat language and
with admirable simplicity. It is not only calculated to please and interest
the mind of the reader, but also to make moral and religious impressions
upon the heart. We are well assured, if its merits were generally
known, that it would find its way into many families and Sabbath School
libraries, as it is particularly adapted to please and engage the attention of
uvenile readers.

From the Christian Imtelligencer.

This is a re-publication of a small narrative volume published in
England. The narrative is written with beautiful simplicity, possesses a
touching interest, and is calculated to leave a salutary impression. It is
well fitted for a present by parents or friends, to children, and is worthy
of a place in Sabbath School libraries.

From the Ladies'1 Morning Star of Aug. 26, 1836.

Th« above is the title of a very interesting little work of 123 pages, re*
cently published and for sale by John S. Taylor, Brick Church Chapel,
New- York. It is a simple though beautiful narrative of a young female,
some portions of which are of the most pathetic and affecting character,
particularly designed for the edification and instujtion of young females,
and a most excellent work to introduce into Sabbath schools. Its ten-
dency is to kinile the flames of piety in the youthful bosom, to instruct the
understanding, and to warm and improve the heart. Its intrinsic, though
unostentatious merits, should furnish it with a welcome into every
family.

Lights and Shadows of Christian Life. By Wm.
C. Brownlee, D.D. $1.

Christian Retirement. From the eighth London
Edition. SI.

An Earnest Appeal to Christians, on the Duty
of Making Efforts and Sacrifices for the
Conversion of the World. By Wm. C. Brownlee,
D.D. 31 cents.

V1H NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Popery an Enemy to Liberty. By Wm. C. Brown-
lee. D.D. 31 cents.

Thoughts on Evangelizing the World. By Rev.
S. H. Skinner, D.D. 37 cents.

Thoughts on Religious Education and Early
Piety. By Rev. Wm. S. Plumer. 31 cents.

Pleasure and Profit, vol. 1., or, The Museum. By
Uncle Arthur. 37 cents.

Pleasure and Profit, vol. 2., or, The Boy's Friend.
By Uncle Arthur. 37 cents.

Pleasure and Profit, vol. 3., or, Mary and Flo-
rence. By Uncle Arthur. 37 cents.

Missionary Remains; or, Sketches" of Evarts,
Cornelius, and Wisner. By Gardiner Spring,
D.D. and others. 37 cents.

The Christian's Pocket Companion. Selected from
the Works of John Rogers, Dr. Owen, David Brain-
erd, President Edwards, and others, with an Intro-
duction by Rev. John Blatchford, of 'Bridgeport, Conn.
25 cents.

The Works of the Rev. Daniel A. Clark. In three

volumes. $3.

Early Piety. By Rev. Jacob Abbot. ^8 cents.

How to Change your Heart. A Sermon, by C. G.
Finney. For five dollars a hundred, or six cents
single.