Chapter 4

Mr. Hopkins remained but a short time in the

office of overseer. Why his career was so short, I

do not know, but suppose he lacked the necessary

severity to suit Colonel Lloyd. Mr. Hopkins was suc-

ceeded by Mr. Austin Gore, a man possessing, in

an eminent degree, all those traits of character in-

dispensable to what is called a first-rate overseer. Mr.

Gore had served Colonel Lloyd, in the capacity of

overseer, upon one of the out-farms, and had shown

himself worthy of the high station of overseer upon

the home or Great House Farm.

Mr. Gore was proud, ambitious, and persevering.

He was artful, cruel, and obdurate. He was just the

man for such a place, and it was just the place for

such a man. It afforded scope for the full exercise

of all his powers, and he seemed to be perfectly

at home in it. He was one of those who could torture

the slightest look, word, or gesture, on the part of

the slave, into impudence, and would treat it ac-

cordingly. There must be no answering back to him;

no explanation was allowed a slave, showing himself

to have been wrongfully accused. Mr. Gore acted

fully up to the maxim laid down by slaveholders,—

"It is better that a dozen slaves should suffer under the

lash, than that the overseer should be convicted, in

the presence of the slaves, of having been at fault."

No matter how innocent a slave might be—it availed

him nothing, when accused by Mr. Gore of any

misdemeanor. To be accused was to be convicted,

and to be convicted was to be punished; the one

always following the other with immutable certainty.

To escape punishment was to escape accusation; and

few slaves had the fortune to do either, under the

overseership of Mr. Gore. He was just proud enough

to demand the most debasing homage of the slave,

and quite servile enough to crouch, himself, at the

feet of the master. He was ambitious enough to be

contented with nothing short of the highest rank

of overseers, and persevering enough to reach the

height of his ambition. He was cruel enough to in-

flict the severest punishment, artful enough to de-

scend to the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to

be insensible to the voice of a reproving conscience.

He was, of all the overseers, the most dreaded by

the slaves. His presence was painful; his eye flashed

confusion; and seldom was his sharp, shrill voice

heard, without producing horror and trembling in

their ranks.

Mr. Gore was a grave man, and, though a young

man, he indulged in no jokes, said no funny words,

seldom smiled. His words were in perfect keeping

with his looks, and his looks were in perfect keeping

with his words. Overseers will sometimes indulge in

a witty word, even with the slaves; not so with Mr.

Gore. He spoke but to command, and commanded

but to be obeyed; he dealt sparingly with his words,

and bountifully with his whip, never using the

former where the latter would answer as well. When

he whipped, he seemed to do so from a sense of

duty, and feared no consequences. He did nothing

reluctantly, no matter how disagreeable; always at his

post, never inconsistent. He never promised but to

fulfil. He was, in a word, a man of the most in-

flexible firmness and stone-like coolness.

His savage barbarity was equalled only by the con-

summate coolness with which he committed the

grossest and most savage deeds upon the slaves under

his charge. Mr. Gore once undertook to whip one of

Colonel Lloyd's slaves, by the name of Demby. He

had given Demby but few stripes, when, to get rid

of the scourging, he ran and plunged himself into a

creek, and stood there at the depth of his shoulders,

refusing to come out. Mr. Gore told him that he

would give him three calls, and that, if he did not

come out at the third call, he would shoot him.

The first call was given. Demby made no response,

but stood his ground. The second and third calls

were given with the same result. Mr. Gore then,

without consultation or deliberation with any one,

not even giving Demby an additional call, raised

his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his

standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was

no more. His mangled body sank out of sight, and

blood and brains marked the water where he had

stood.

A thrill of horror flashed through every soul upon

the plantation, excepting Mr. Gore. He alone

seemed cool and collected. He was asked by Colonel

Lloyd and my old master, why he resorted to this

extraordinary expedient. His reply was, (as well as

I can remember,) that Demby had become unman-

ageable. He was setting a dangerous example to the

other slaves,—one which, if suffered to pass without

some such demonstration on his part, would finally

lead to the total subversion of all rule and order

upon the plantation. He argued that if one slave re-

fused to be corrected, and escaped with his life, the

other slaves would soon copy the example; the re-

sult of which would be, the freedom of the slaves,

and the enslavement of the whites. Mr. Gore's de-

fence was satisfactory. He was continued in his sta-

tion as overseer upon the home plantation. His

fame as an overseer went abroad. His horrid crime

was not even submitted to judicial investigation. It

was committed in the presence of slaves, and they of

course could neither institute a suit, nor testify

against him; and thus the guilty perpetrator of one of

the bloodiest and most foul murders goes unwhipped

of justice, and uncensured by the community in

which he lives. Mr. Gore lived in St. Michael's, Tal-

bot county, Maryland, when I left there; and if he

is still alive, he very probably lives there now; and if

so, he is now, as he was then, as highly esteemed

and as much respected as though his guilty soul

had not been stained with his brother's blood.

I speak advisedly when I say this,—that killing

a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot county,

Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the

courts or the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, of

St. Michael's, killed two slaves, one of whom he

killed with a hatchet, by knocking his brains out. He

used to boast of the commission of the awful and

bloody deed. I have heard him do so laughingly,

saying, among other things, that he was the only

benefactor of his country in the company, and that

when others would do as much as he had done, we

should be relieved of "the d——d niggers."

The wife of Mr. Giles Hicks, living but a short

distance from where I used to live, murdered my

wife's cousin, a young girl between fifteen and six-

teen years of age, mangling her person in the most

horrible manner, breaking her nose and breastbone

with a stick, so that the poor girl expired in a few

hours afterward. She was immediately buried, but

had not been in her untimely grave but a few hours

before she was taken up and examined by the cor-

oner, who decided that she had come to her death

by severe beating. The offence for which this girl

was thus murdered was this:—She had been set

that night to mind Mrs. Hicks's baby, and during the

night she fell asleep, and the baby cried. She, having

lost her rest for several nights previous, did not hear

the crying. They were both in the room with Mrs.

Hicks. Mrs. Hicks, finding the girl slow to move,

jumped from her bed, seized an oak stick of wood

by the fireplace, and with it broke the girl's nose

and breastbone, and thus ended her life. I will not

say that this most horrid murder produced no sen-

sation in the community. It did produce sensation,

but not enough to bring the murderess to punish-

ment. There was a warrant issued for her arrest,

but it was never served. Thus she escaped not only

punishment, but even the pain of being arraigned

before a court for her horrid crime.

Whilst I am detailing bloody deeds which took

place during my stay on Colonel Lloyd's plantation,

I will briefly narrate another, which occurred about

the same time as the murder of Demby by Mr.

Gore.

Colonel Lloyd's slaves were in the habit of spend-

ing a part of their nights and Sundays in fishing for

oysters, and in this way made up the deficiency of

their scanty allowance. An old man belonging to

Colonel Lloyd, while thus engaged, happened to get

beyond the limits of Colonel Lloyd's, and on the

premises of Mr. Beal Bondly. At this trespass, Mr.

Bondly took offence, and with his musket came

down to the shore, and blew its deadly contents

into the poor old man.

Mr. Bondly came over to see Colonel Lloyd the

next day, whether to pay him for his property, or

to justify himself in what he had done, I know not.

At any rate, this whole fiendish transaction was soon

hushed up. There was very little said about it at all,

and nothing done. It was a common saying, even

among little white boys, that it was worth a half-

cent to kill a "nigger," and a half-cent to bury one.