family, that the father and head had for near half a century stood high in
the counsels of the state, and had the benefit of the unrequited toil of
hundreds of his fellowmen, when they were already grappling with the
annoyances of that poverty, which he had entailed upon others.

My master's family, in wealth and influence, was not inferior to General
R.'s originally. His father was a member of the convention that framed the
present constitution of the state; he was, also, for some years chief
justice of the state.

My master was never equal to his father, although he stood high at one
time. He once lacked but a few votes of being elected Governor of the
state: he once sat in the Assembly, and was generally a leading man in his
own county. His influence was found to be greatest when exerted in favour
of any measure in regard to the control of slaves. He was the first mover
in several cruel and rigid municipal regulations in the county, which
prohibited slaves from going over a certain number of miles from their
master's places on the Sabbath, and from being seen about the town. He
once instigated the authorities of the town where he attended service, to
break up a Sabbath-school some humane members of the Methodist and
Lutheran denominations had set up to teach the free negroes, lest the
slaves should get some benefit of it.

But there was a still wider contrast between my master and his own
children, eight in number, when I left him. His eldest daughter, the
flower of the family, married a miserable and reckless gambler. His
eldest son was kind-hearted, and rather a favourite with the slaves on
that account; but he had no strength of mind or weight of character. His
education was limited, and he had no disposition or tact for business of
any kind. He died at thirty-six, intestate; leaving his second-wife (a
sister to his father's second wife) with several orphan children, a widow
with a small estate deeply embarrassed. The second son was once sent to
West Point to fit for an officer. After being there a short time, however,
he became unsteady, and commenced the study of medicine, but he soon gave
that up and preferred to live at home and flog the slaves; and by them was
cordially dreaded and disliked, and among themselves he was vulgarly
nicknamed on account of his cruel and filthy habits.

These two families will afford a fair illustration of the gloomy history
of many others that I could name. This decline of slav