ession. This
latter gentleman used to give my wife, who was a favorite slave, (her
mother nursed every one of his own children,) sufficient food and clothing
to render her comfortable, so that I had to spend for her but little,
except to procure such small articles of extra comfort as I was prompted
to from time to time. Indeed Mr. Boylan was regarded as a very kind master
to all the slaves about him; that is, to his house servants; nor did he
inflict much cruelty upon his field hands, except by proxy. The overseer
on his nearest plantation (I know but little about the rest) was a very
cruel man; in one instance, as it was said among the slaves, he whipped a
man _to death_; but of course denied that the man died in consequence of
the whipping. Still it was the choice of my wife to pass into the hands of
Mr. Smith, as she had become attached to him in consequence of belonging
to the same church, and receiving his religious instruction and counsel as
her class-leader, and in consequence of the peculiar devotedness to the
cause of religion for which he was noted, and which he always seemed to
manifest.--But when she became his slave, he withheld both from her and
her children, the needful food and clothing, while he exacted from them to
the uttermost all the labor they were able to perform. Almost every
article of clothing worn either by my wife or children, especially every
article of much value, I had to purchase; while the food he furnished the
family amounted to less than a meal a day, and that of the coarser kind. I
have no remembrance that he ever gave us a blanket or any other article of
bedding, although it is considered a rule at the South that the master
shall furnish each of his slaves with one blanket a year. So that, both as
to food and clothing, I had in fact to support both my wife and the
children, while he claimed them as his property, and received all their
labor. She was house servant to Mr. Smith, sometimes cooked the food for
his family, and usually took it from the table, but her mistress was so
particular in giving it out to be cooked, or so watched it, that she
always knew whether it was all returned; and when the table was cleared
away, the stern old lady would sit by and see that every dish (except the
very little she would send into the kitchen) was put away, and then she
would turn the key upon it, so as to be sure her slaves should not die of
gluttony. This practice is common with some families in