The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-01-08
Gables porttolto,
How Southern Outrages" are Man
ufactured.

ANS II OHC COuu JdChSOu
IAN intelligent contraband, just arrived in
that city" from Charleston. S. c., in which
said jackson narrates at great length his
narrowing experiences before and after
emancipation at the hands of sshis master,
Gov. Wade Hampton" The following
specimen extracts will very well suffice to
indicate the character of the whole story.
and will, perhaps, suggest to many minds
the evident purposes of the publication,
which has been greedily and widely copied
by the republican press of the Northwest =
jackson was born of slave parentage on a
plantation near Columbia, S. C. In the
year 1856 his master, Charles A. Logan,
sold him to Wade Hampton for 81, 500. The
ex-slave describes the Governor of South
Carolina as a very hard master, cruel
and relentless, treating his slave as inhuman-
~ as did any of the Legrees of Southern
chivalry. On one occasion he, as coachman
to Hampton, was currying the horses in the
stable when his owner entered. Taking a
handkerchief from his pocket he passed it
over a horses hide, and finding the linen
slightly soiled thereby, he gave Jackson a
blow that sent him Keeling to the ground.
At Hampton's plantation, known as
'sGadsden's Turnout" there were some two
hundred slaves, who were worked early and
late and "for all they were worth" The
overseer was a white man and had a color
ed subordinate known 'sas driver whose
duty was to turn the negroes out before
daybreak, keep them at work under the
lash during the day and keep watch with a
leash of bloodhounds at night to prevent
escapes.
After the war things changed in name
only with the slaves in South Carolina. Their
condition was according to this witness,
changed very little from the days when the
lash was the strongest argument and blood
hound the last court of appeal. Before
leaving Mr.. Hampton's plantation he wit
messed the fogging of a icolorcd woman by
a white overseer, and further states that
the colored women of the Hampton man
sion were freqently whipped at the request
of the white young ladies and for the most
trivial causes.
But you get paid for your labor nova
DAYS. don't you Y'
Eyes" said jackson, with a sardonic
smile, sif you'll take it in stuff and prom
ises." He explains that each freedman is
engaged to work for wages at from SIS to
$50 a month and board. When the laborer
asks for money the overseer will tell him
that he has lone to give him, but offers him
.sorders'' on the plantation store, where
the poorest articles are sold at the highest
prices. Jackson gave some specimens of
prices current, which never vary:-Pota-
toes at So. so bushel, meal, $3.50 a bushel
flour at $40. 50 barrel; molasses, 70 cents a
pint; 35 cents to 40 cents a pound for sugar,
and so cents to 60 cents a pound for bacon,
and IS cents to 81 for ham. Dry goods are
sold on a like scale-75 cents per yard for
calico which sells here for 20 cents. If the
unfortunate laborer should reject this
method of giving "a fair wage for a fair
- . III ,ho,,1l H. to
nate. he is said to be sassy and is pun
ished with the cowhide.
With his own labor Jackson raised four
bales of cotton, for which his employer or
master agreed to pay him 5000. He paid
him $25 cash and promised" the balance,
which is unpaid to this day. This is not
an exceptional case; the freedmen cannot
get an honest wage or honest treatment
from the white men OF South Carolina.
When the ex-slaves wish to leave the plan
%tations they are compelled to sell their live
stock at merely nominal prices, and are
glad enough to ec-ape with their lives.
x X K
Of his own escape from the embraces of
a s'solid South" the facts make a thrilling
story, the proofs of his sufferings being
borne on his own body.
About ten O'Clock one June morning he
asked the overseer, one William Pickett,
for the cash balance due him from Hamp-
ton. The balance was paid in kind by the
overseer tying the Governors creditor by
the arm to a tree and lashing his back till
it was drenched with blood. When the
overseer was tired with this new way to pay
Wade Hampton's debts he drove the credi-
tor into the field to work. Sick and sore,
which bis back fostering from the lash, the
the victim favored through the weary hours
till the darkness gave an opportunity for
the prosecuted wretch to turn his face to
the land whose people believe that hui
mainly is better than ''honah, sah!' and
liberty to men Of all races is the truest
chivalry. Five miles from ''Massa Wade's'
place he met a friendly colored woman who
washed his SCARED back and gave ointment
to heal the soreness. Journeying from her
shanty he fell asleep and was aroused by