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|
 Mr. Hopkins remained but a short time in the |
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| office of overseer. Why his career was so short, I |
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| do not know, but suppose he lacked the necessary |
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| severity to suit Colonel Lloyd. Mr. Hopkins was suc- |
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| ceeded by Mr. Austin Gore, a man possessing, in |
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| an eminent degree, all those traits of character in- |
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| dispensable to what is called a first-rate overseer. Mr. |
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| Gore had served Colonel Lloyd, in the capacity of |
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| overseer, upon one of the out-farms, and had shown |
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| himself worthy of the high station of overseer upon |
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| the home or Great House Farm. |
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| Mr. Gore was proud, ambitious, and persevering. |
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| He was artful, cruel, and obdurate. He was just the |
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| man for such a place, and it was just the place for |
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| such a man. It afforded scope for the full exercise |
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| of all his powers, and he seemed to be perfectly |
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| at home in it. He was one of those who could torture |
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| the slightest look, word, or gesture, on the part of |
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| the slave, into impudence, and would treat it ac- |
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| cordingly. There must be no answering back to him; |
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| no explanation was allowed a slave, showing himself |
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| to have been wrongfully accused. Mr. Gore acted |
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| fully up to the maxim laid down by slaveholders,— |
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| "It is better that a dozen slaves should suffer under the |
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| lash, than that the overseer should be convicted, in |
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| the presence of the slaves, of having been at fault." |
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| No matter how innocent a slave might be—it availed |
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| him nothing, when accused by Mr. Gore of any |
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| misdemeanor. To be accused was to be convicted, |
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| and to be convicted was to be punished; the one |
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| always following the other with immutable certainty. |
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| To escape punishment was to escape accusation; and |
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| few slaves had the fortune to do either, under the |
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| overseership of Mr. Gore. He was just proud enough |
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| to demand the most debasing homage of the slave, |
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| and quite servile enough to crouch, himself, at the |
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| feet of the master. He was ambitious enough to be |
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| contented with nothing short of the highest rank |
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| of overseers, and persevering enough to reach the |
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| height of his ambition. He was cruel enough to in- |
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| flict the severest punishment, artful enough to de- |
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| scend to the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to |
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| be insensible to the voice of a reproving conscience. |
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| He was, of all the overseers, the most dreaded by |
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| the slaves. His presence was painful; his eye flashed |
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| confusion; and seldom was his sharp, shrill voice |
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| heard, without producing horror and trembling in |
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| their ranks. |
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| Mr. Gore was a grave man, and, though a young |
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| man, he indulged in no jokes, said no funny words, |
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| seldom smiled. His words were in perfect keeping |
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| with his looks, and his looks were in perfect keeping |
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| with his words. Overseers will sometimes indulge in |
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| a witty word, even with the slaves; not so with Mr. |
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| Gore. He spoke but to command, and commanded |
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| but to be obeyed; he dealt sparingly with his words, |
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| and bountifully with his whip, never using the |
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| former where the latter would answer as well. When |
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| he whipped, he seemed to do so from a sense of |
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| duty, and feared no consequences. He did nothing |
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| reluctantly, no matter how disagreeable; always at his |
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| post, never inconsistent. He never promised but to |
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| fulfil. He was, in a word, a man of the most in- |
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| flexible firmness and stone-like coolness. |
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| His savage barbarity was equalled only by the con- |
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| summate coolness with which he committed the |
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| grossest and most savage deeds upon the slaves under |
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| his charge. Mr. Gore once undertook to whip one of |
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| Colonel Lloyd's slaves, by the name of Demby. He |
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| had given Demby but few stripes, when, to get rid |
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| of the scourging, he ran and plunged himself into a |
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| creek, and stood there at the depth of his shoulders, |
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| refusing to come out. Mr. Gore told him that he |
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| would give him three calls, and that, if he did not |
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| come out at the third call, he would shoot him. |
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| The first call was given. Demby made no response, |
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| but stood his ground. The second and third calls |
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| were given with the same result. Mr. Gore then, |
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| without consultation or deliberation with any one, |
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| not even giving Demby an additional call, raised |
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| his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his |
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| standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was |
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| no more. His mangled body sank out of sight, and |
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| blood and brains marked the water where he had |
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| stood. |
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| A thrill of horror flashed through every soul upon |
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| the plantation, excepting Mr. Gore. He alone |
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| seemed cool and collected. He was asked by Colonel |
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| Lloyd and my old master, why he resorted to this |
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| extraordinary expedient. His reply was, (as well as |
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| I can remember,) that Demby had become unman- |
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| ageable. He was setting a dangerous example to the |
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| other slaves,—one which, if suffered to pass without |
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| some such demonstration on his part, would finally |
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| lead to the total subversion of all rule and order |
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| upon the plantation. He argued that if one slave re- |
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| fused to be corrected, and escaped with his life, the |
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| other slaves would soon copy the example; the re- |
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| sult of which would be, the freedom of the slaves, |
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| and the enslavement of the whites. Mr. Gore's de- |
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| fence was satisfactory. He was continued in his sta- |
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| tion as overseer upon the home plantation. His |
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| fame as an overseer went abroad. His horrid crime |
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| was not even submitted to judicial investigation. It |
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| was committed in the presence of slaves, and they of |
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| course could neither institute a suit, nor testify |
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| against him; and thus the guilty perpetrator of one of |
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| the bloodiest and most foul murders goes unwhipped |
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| of justice, and uncensured by the community in |
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| which he lives. Mr. Gore lived in St. Michael's, Tal- |
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| bot county, Maryland, when I left there; and if he |
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| is still alive, he very probably lives there now; and if |
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| so, he is now, as he was then, as highly esteemed |
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| and as much respected as though his guilty soul |
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| had not been stained with his brother's blood. |
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| I speak advisedly when I say this,—that killing |
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| a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot county, |
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| Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the |
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| courts or the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, of |
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| St. Michael's, killed two slaves, one of whom he |
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| killed with a hatchet, by knocking his brains out. He |
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| used to boast of the commission of the awful and |
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| bloody deed. I have heard him do so laughingly, |
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| saying, among other things, that he was the only |
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| benefactor of his country in the company, and that |
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| when others would do as much as he had done, we |
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| should be relieved of "the d——d niggers." |
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| The wife of Mr. Giles Hicks, living but a short |
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| distance from where I used to live, murdered my |
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| wife's cousin, a young girl between fifteen and six- |
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|
| teen years of age, mangling her person in the most |
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| horrible manner, breaking her nose and breastbone |
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| with a stick, so that the poor girl expired in a few |
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|
| hours afterward. She was immediately buried, but |
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| had not been in her untimely grave but a few hours |
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| before she was taken up and examined by the cor- |
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| oner, who decided that she had come to her death |
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| by severe beating. The offence for which this girl |
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| was thus murdered was this:—She had been set |
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| that night to mind Mrs. Hicks's baby, and during the |
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|
| night she fell asleep, and the baby cried. She, having |
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| lost her rest for several nights previous, did not hear |
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| the crying. They were both in the room with Mrs. |
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| Hicks. Mrs. Hicks, finding the girl slow to move, |
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| jumped from her bed, seized an oak stick of wood |
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| by the fireplace, and with it broke the girl's nose |
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| and breastbone, and thus ended her life. I will not |
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| say that this most horrid murder produced no sen- |
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| sation in the community. It did produce sensation, |
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|
| but not enough to bring the murderess to punish- |
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| ment. There was a warrant issued for her arrest, |
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|
| but it was never served. Thus she escaped not only |
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| punishment, but even the pain of being arraigned |
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| before a court for her horrid crime. |
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|
| Colonel Lloyd's slaves were in the habit of spend- |
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|
| ing a part of their nights and Sundays in fishing for |
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|
| oysters, and in this way made up the deficiency of |
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|
| their scanty allowance. An old man belonging to |
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|
| Colonel Lloyd, while thus engaged, happened to get |
|
|
| beyond the limits of Colonel Lloyd's, and on the |
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|
| premises of Mr. Beal Bondly. At this trespass, Mr. |
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|
| Bondly took offence, and with his musket came |
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|
| down to the shore, and blew its deadly contents |
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|
| into the poor old man. |
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|
| Mr. Bondly came over to see Colonel Lloyd the |
|
|
| next day, whether to pay him for his property, or |
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|
| to justify himself in what he had done, I know not. |
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|
| At any rate, this whole fiendish transaction was soon |
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|
| hushed up. There was very little said about it at all, |
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|
| and nothing done. It was a common saying, even |
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|
| among little white boys, that it was worth a half- |
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|
| cent to kill a "nigger," and a half-cent to bury one. |
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|
