as from three to five hundred dollars a year.

Next in authority to the overseer was the driver, who directed the work
in the fields. Every morning the driver blew the horn or rang the
plantation bell to summon slaves to their work. Next to him was some
trusted slave, who carried the keys to the smokehouse and commissary,
and helped to give out rations once a week.

Many of the overseers were naturally cruel and inclined to treat the
slaves harshly. Often strict rules and regulations had to be made to
hold them in check. Overseers were generally made to sign these
regulations on receiving their appointments.

In 1840 the Southern Cultivator and Monthly Journal published the
following rules of the plantation:

RULES OF THE PLANTATION

Rule 1st. The overseer will not be expected to work in the
crop, but he must constantly with the hands, when not
otherwise engaged in the employer's business, and will be
required to attend on occasions to any pecuniary transactions
connected with the plantation.

Rule 2nd. The overseer is not expected to be absent from the
plantation unless actual necessity compels him, Sundays
excepted, and then it is expected that he will, on all
occasions, be at home by night.

Rule 3rd. He will attend, morning, noon and night, at the
stable, and see that the mules and horses are ordered, curried,
and fed.

Rule 4th. He will see that every negro is out by daylight in
the morning--a signal being given by a blast of the horn, the
first horn will be blown half an hour before day. He will also
visit the negro cabins at least once or twice a week, at night,
to see that all are in. No negro must be out of his house after
ten oclock in summer and eleven in winter.

Rule 5th. The overseer is not to give passes to the negroes
without the employer's consent. The families the negroes are
allowed to visit will be specified by the employer; also those
allowed to visit the premises. Nor is any negro allowed to
visit the place without showing himself to the employer or
overseer.

Rule 6th. The overseer is required not to chat with the
negroes, except on business, nor to encourage tale bearing, nor
is any tale to be told to him or employer, by any negro, unless
he has a witness to his statements, nor are they allowed, in
any instance, to quarrel and fight. But