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managed, would not oblige these people as well as cruelty; and whether there are principles of gratitude in them or no. Master. But what then can be the reason that we never believed it to be so before?

Jack. Truly, sir, I fear that Mouchat gave the true reason. Master. What was that pray? that we were too cruel? Jack. That they never had any mercy showed them; that they never tried them whether they would be grateful or no; that if they did a fault, they were never spared, but punished with the utmost cruelty; so that they had no passion, no affection to act upon, but that of fear, which necessarily brought hatred with it; but that if they were used with compassion they would serve with affection as well as other servants. Nature is the same, and reason governs in just proportions in all creatures; but having never been let taste what mercy is, they know not how to act from a principle of love.

Master. I am convinced it is so; but now, pray tell me, how did you put this in practice with the poor negroes now in bonds yonder, when you passed such a cruel sentence upon them, that they should be whipped twice a day, for four days together; was that showing mercy?

Jack. My method was just the same; and if you please to inquire of Mr. your other servant, you will be satisfied that it was so; for we agreed upon the same measures as I took with Mouchat; namely, first to put them into the utmost horror and apprehensions of the cruelest punishment that they ever heard of, and thereby enhance the value of their pardon, which was to come as from yourself, but not without our great intercession. Then I was to argue with them, and work upon their reason, to make the mercy that was showed them sink deep into their minds, and give lasting impressions; explain the meaning of gratitude to them, and the nature of an obligation, and the like, as I had done with Mouchat.

Master. I am answered; your method is certainly right, and I desire you may go on with it; for I desire nothing on this side heaven more, than to have all my negroes serve me from principles of gratitude for my kindness to them. I abhor to be feared like a lion, like a tyrant; it is a violence upon nature every way, and is the most disagreeable thing in the world to a generous mind.

Jack. But, sir, I am doubtful that you may not believe that I intended to act thus with those poor fellows; I beseech you to send for Mr. that he may tell you what

we had agreed on, before I speak with him.

Master. What reason have I to doubt that?

Jack. I hope you have not; but I should be very sorry you should think me capable of executing such a sentence, as you have heard me own I had passed on them; and there can be no way effectually to clear it up but this.

Master. Well, seeing you put so much weight upon it, he shall be called for.

[He was called, and, being ordered by the master to tell the measures that were concerted between them for the punishment or management of those negroes, he gave it just as Jack had done before.]

Jack. I hope, sir, you are now, not only satisfied of the truth of the account I gave, relating to the method we had agreed on, but of its being so proper, and so likely to answer your end.

Master. I am fully satisfied, and shall be glad to see that it answers the end; for, as I have said, nothing can be more agreeable to me, nothing has so much robbed me of the comfort of all my fortunes, as the cruelty used, in my name, on the bodies of those poor slaves.

Jack. It is certainly wrong, sir; it is not only wrong as it is barbarous and cruel, but it is wrong, too, as it is the worst way of managing and of having your business done.

Master. It is my aversion, it fills my very soul with horror; I believe if I should come by while they were using those cruelties on the poor creatures, I should either sink down at the sight of it, or fly into a rage and kill the fellow that did it; though it is done too by my own authority.

Jack. But, sir, I dare say I shall convince you also that it is wrong in respect of interest; and that your business shall be better discharged, and your plantations better ordered, and more work done by the negroes, who shall be engaged by mercy and lenity, than by those who are driven and dragged by the whips and the chains of a merciless tor

mentor.

Master. I think the nature of the thing speaks itself; doubtless it should be so, and I have often thought it would be so, and a thousand times wished it might be so; but all

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my English people pretend otherwise, and that it is impossible to bring the negroes to any sense of kindness, and consequently not to any obedience of love.

Jack. It may be true, sir, that there may be found here and there a negro of a senseless, stupid, sordid disposition, perfectly untractable, undocible, and incapable of due impressions; especially incapable of the generosity of principle which I am speaking of. You know very well, sir, there are such among the Christians, as well as among the negroes; whence else came the English proverb, That if you save a thief from the gallows, he shall be the first to cut your throat. But, sir, if such a refractory, undocible fellow comes in our way, he must be dealt with, first by the smooth ways, to try him, then by the violent way, to break his temper, as they break a horse; and if nothing will do, such a wretch should be sold off, and others bought in his room; for the peace of the plantation should not be broken for one devilish-tempered fellow; and if this was done, I doubt not you should have all your plantations carried on, and your work done, and not a negro or a servant upon it, but what would not only work for you, but even die for you if there was an occasion for it, as you see this poor Mouchat would have done for me.

Master. Well, go on with your measures, and may you succeed; I'll promise you I will fully make you amends for it. I long to have these cruelties out of use, in my plantation especially; as for others, let them do as they will.

CHAPTER X.

MY MASTER GIVES ME MY LIBERTY, AND PUTS ME INTO A PLANTATION FOR MYSELF-PROCEEDINGS AS A PLANTER -I GET MY BILL CASHED IN LONDON, AND A SORTED PARCEL OF GOODS SENT OUT FOR ITS AMOUNT-THE GREATEST PART OF THEM ARE LOST AT THE MOUTH OF THE BAY-REFLECTIONS.

OUR master being gone, I went to the prisoners, and first I suffered them to be told that the great master had been there, and that he had been inclined to pardon them, till he knew what their crime was; but then he said it was so great a fault that it must be punished; besides, the man that talked

to them told them, that the great master said, that he knew if he had pardoned them they would be but the worse, for that the negroes were never thankful for being spared, and that there were no other ways to make them obedient, but by severity.

One of the poor fellows, more sensible than the other, answered, if any negro be badder for being kindly used, they should be whipped till they were muchee better; but that he never knew that, for that he never knew the negro be kindly use.

This was the same thing as the other had said, and indeed, was but too true, for the overseers really knew no such thing as mercy; and that notion of the negroes being no other way to be governed but by cruelty, had been the occasion that no other method was ever tried among them.

Again, if a slack hand had at any time been held upon them, it had not been done with discretion, or as a point of mercy, and managed with the assistance of argument to convince the negroes of the nature and reason of it, and to show them what they ought to do in return for it; but it was perhaps the effect of negligence, ill conduct, and want of application to the business of the plantation; and then it was no wonder that the negroes took the advantage of it.

Well, I carried on the affair with these two negroes just as I did with Mouchat, so I need not repeat the particulars; and they were delivered with infinite acknowledgments and thanks, even to all the extravagances of joy usual in those people on such occasions; and such was the gratitude of those two pardoned fellows, that they were the most faithful and most diligent servants ever after that belonged to the whole plantation, Mouchat excepted.

In this manner I carried on the plantation fully to his satisfaction; and before a year more was expired, there was scarce any such thing as correction known in the plantation, except upon a few boys, who were incapable of the impressions that good usage would have made, even upon them too, till they had lived to know the difference.

It was some time after this conference, that our great master, as we called him, sent for me again to his dwellinghouse, and told me he had had an answer from England from his friend, to whom he had written about my bill. I was a little afraid that he was going to ask me leave to send

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it to London; but he did not say anything like that, but told me that his friend had been with the gentleman, and that he owned the bill, and that he had all the money in his hand that the bill had mentioned; but that he had promised the young man that had given him the money (meaning me) not to pay the money to anybody but himself, though they should bring the bill; the reason of which was, that I did not know who might get the bill away from me.

But now, Colonel Jack, says he, as you wrote him an account where you was, and by what wicked arts you were trepanned, and that it was impossible for you to have your liberty till you could get the money; my friend at London has written to me, that, upon making out a due copy of the bill here, attested by a notary and sent to him, and your obligation likewise attested, whereby you oblige yourself to deliver the original to his order, after the money is paid, he will pay the money.

I told him I was willing to do whatever his honour directed; and so the proper copies were drawn as I had been told were required.

But now, what will you do with this money Jack? says he, smiling; will you buy your liberty of me, and go to planting?

I was too cunning for him now indeed, for I remembered what he had promised me; and I had too much knowledge of the honesty of his principles, as well as of the kindness he had for me, to doubt his being as good as his word; so I turned all this talk of his upon him another way. I knew that when he asked me if I would buy my liberty and go to planting, it was to try if I would leave him; so I said, As to buying my liberty, sir, that is to say, going out of your service, I had much rather buy more time in your service, and I am only unhappy that I have but two years to serve.

Come, come, colonel, says he, don't flatter me; I love plain dealing; liberty is precious to everybody; if you have a mind to have your money brought over, you shall have your liberty to begin for yourself, and I will take care you shall be well used by the country, and get you a good plantation.

I still insisted that I would not quit his service for the best plantation in Maryland; that he had been so good to me, and I believed I was so useful to him, that I could not

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