en born on the estate, had as children been taught to look up to their
white masters and mistresses, and to receive many little kindnesses at
their hands.

They had been cared for in sickness, and knew that they would be
provided for in old age. Each had his little allotment, and could raise
fruit, vegetables, and fowls, for his own use or for sale, in his
leisure time. The fear of loss of employment, or the pressure of want,
ever present to our English laborers, had never fallen upon them. The
climate was a lovely one, and their work far less severe than that of
men forced to toil in cold and wet, winter and summer. The institution
of slavery assuredly was capable of terrible abuses, and was marked in
many instances by abominable cruelty and oppression; but taken all in
all, the negroes on a well-ordered estate, under kind masters, were
probably a happier class of people than the laborers upon any estate in
Europe.

Jonas Pearson had been overseer in the time of Major Wingfield, but his
authority had at that time been comparatively small, for the major
himself personally supervised the whole working of the estate, and was
greatly liked by the slaves, whose chief affections were, however,
naturally bestowed upon their mistress, who had from childhood been
brought up in their midst. Major Wingfield had not liked his overseer,
but he had never any ground to justify him making a change. Jonas, who
was a Northern man, was always active and energetic; all Major
Wingfield's orders were strictly and punctually carried out, and
although he disliked the man, his employer acknowledged him to be an
excellent servant.

After the major's death, Jonas Pearson had naturally obtained greatly
increased power and authority. Mrs. Wingfield had great confidence in
him, his accounts were always clear and precise, and although the
profits of the estate were not quite so large as they had been in her
husband's lifetime, this was always satisfactorily explained by a fall
in prices, or by a part of the crops being affected by the weather. She
flattered herself that she herself managed the estate, and at times rode
over it, made suggestions, and issued orders, but this was only in fits
and starts; and although Jonas came up two or three times a week to the
house nominally to receive her orders, he managed her so adroitly, that
while she believed that everything was done by her directions, she in
reality only followed out the suggestions which