Mr. Hopkins Essay, Research Paper

Chapter IV

Mr. Hopkins remained but a short clip in the office of superintendent. Why his calling was so short, I do non cognize, but suppose he lacked the necessary badness to accommodate Colonel Lloyd. Mr. Hopkins was succeeded by Mr. Austin Gore, a adult male possessing, in an high grade, all those traits of character in dispensable to what is called a ace superintendent. Mr. Gore had served Colonel Lloyd, in the capacity of superintendent, upon one of the out-farms, and had shown himself worthy of the high station of superintendent upon the place or Great House Farm.

Mr. Gore was proud, ambitious, and persisting. He was disingenuous, barbarous, and obdurate. He was merely the adult male for such a topographic point, and it was merely the topographic point for such a adult male. It afforded range for the full exercising of all his powers, and he seemed to be absolutely at place in it. He was one of those who could torment the slightest expression, word, or gesture, on the portion of the slave, into cheek, and would handle it consequently. There must be no replying back to him ; no account was allowed a slave, demoing himself to hold been wrongfully accused. Mr. Gore acted to the full up to the axiom laid down by slave owners, & # 8211 ; & # 8220 ; It is better that a twelve slaves should endure under the cilium, than that the superintendent should be convicted, in the presence of the slaves, of holding been at fault. & # 8221 ; No affair how guiltless a slave might be & # 8211 ; it availed him nil, when accused by Mr. Gore of any misdemeanour. To be accused was to be convicted, and to be convicted was to be punished ; the one ever following the other with changeless certainty. To get away penalty was to get away accusal ; and few slaves had the luck to make either, under the overseership of Mr. Gore. He was merely proud plenty to demand the most degrading court of the slave, and rather servile plenty to stoop, himself, at the pess of the maestro. He was ambitious plenty to be contented with nil short of the highest rank of superintendents, and persisting plenty to make the tallness of his aspiration. He was barbarous plenty to bring down the severest penalty, disingenuous plenty to fall to the lowest hocus-pocus, and obdurate adequate to be insensible to the voice of a reproving scruples. He was, of all the superintendents, the most dreaded by the slaves. His presence was painful ; his oculus flashed confusion ; and seldom was his crisp, sharp voice heard, without bring forthing horror and trembling in their ranks.

Mr. Gore was a sedate adult male, and, though a immature adult male, he indulged in no gags, said no amusing words, rarely smiled. His words were in perfect maintaining with his expressions, and his expressions were in perfect maintaining with his words. Overseers will sometimes indulge in a witty word, even with the slaves ; non so with Mr. Gore. He spoke but to command, and commanded but to be obeyed ; he dealt meagerly with his words, and bounteously with his whip, ne’er utilizing the former where the latter would reply every bit good. When he whipped, he seemed to make so from a sense of responsibility, and feared no effects. He did nil reluctantly, no affair how disagreeable ; ever at his station, ne’er inconsistent. He ne’er promised but to carry through. He was, in a word, a adult male of the most in flexible soundness and stone-like imperturbability.

His barbarian atrocity was equalled merely by the consummate imperturbability with which he committed the grossest and most barbarous workss upon the slaves under his charge. Mr. Gore one time undertook to flog one of Colonel Lloyd & # 8217 ; s slaves, by the name of Demby. He had given Demby but few chevrons, when, to acquire rid of the scourging, he ran and plunged himself into a brook, and stood there at the deepness of his shoulders, declining to come out. Mr. Gore told him that he would give him three calls, and that, if he did non come out at the 3rd call, he would hit him. The first call was given. Demby made no response, but stood his land. The 2nd and 3rd calls were given with the same consequence. Mr. Gore so, without audience or deliberation with any one, non even giving Demby an extra call, raised his musket to his face, taking deathly purpose at his standing victim, and in an instant hapless Demby was no more. His lacerate organic structure sank out of sight, and blood and encephalons marked the H2O where he had stood.

A bang of horror flashed through every psyche upon the plantation, demuring Mr. Gore. He entirely seemed cool and gathered. He was asked by Colonel

Lloyd and my old maestro, why he resorted to this extraordinary expedient. His answer was, ( every bit good as I can retrieve, ) that Demby had become unwieldy. He was puting a unsafe illustration to the other slaves, –one which, if suffered to go through without some such presentation on his portion, would eventually take to the entire corruption of all regulation and order upon the plantation. He argued that if one slave refused to be corrected, and escaped with his life, the other slaves would shortly copy the illustration ; the consequence of which would be, the freedom of the slaves, and the captivity of the Whites. Mr. Gore’s defense mechanism was satisfactory. He was continued in his station as superintendent upon the place plantation. His celebrity as an superintendent went abroad. His horrid offense was non even submitted to judicial probe. It was committed in the presence of slaves, and they of class could neither establish a suit, nor attest against him ; and therefore the guilty culprit of one of the bloodiest and most disgusting slayings goes unwhipped of justness, and uncensured by the community in which he lives. Mr. Gore lived in St. Michael’s, Talbot county, Maryland, when I left there ; and if he is still alive, he really likely lives at that place now ; and if so, he is now, as he was so, as extremely esteemed and every bit much respected as though his guilty psyche had non been stained with his brother’s blood.

I speak intentionally when I say this, & # 8211 ; that killing a slave, or any coloured individual, in Talbot county, Maryland, is non treated as a offense, either by the tribunals or the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, of St. Michael & # 8217 ; s, killed two slaves, one of whom he killed with a tomahawk, by strike harding his encephalons out. He used to tout of the committee of the atrocious and bloody title. I have heard him do so laughingly, stating, among other things, that he was the lone helper of his state in the company, and that when others would make every bit much as he had done, we should be relieved of & # 8220 ; the vitamin D & # 8212 ; -d niggers. & # 8221 ;

The married woman of Mr. Giles Hicks, populating but a short distance from where I used to populate, murdered my married woman & # 8217 ; s cousin, a immature miss between 15 and six adolescent old ages of age, mangling her individual in the most atrocious mode, interrupting her olfactory organ and sternum with a stick, so that the hapless miss expired in a few hours subsequently. She was instantly buried, but had non been in her ill-timed grave but a few hours before she was taken up and examined by the medical examiner, who decided that she had come to her decease by terrible whipping. The offense for which this miss was therefore murdered was this: -She had been set that dark to mind Mrs. Hicks & # 8217 ; s babe, and during the dark she fell asleep, and the babe cried. She, holding lost her remainder for several darks old, did non hear the weeping. They were both in the room with Mrs. Hicks. Mrs. Hicks, happening the miss slow to travel, jumped from her bed, seized an oak stick of wood by the hearth, and with it broke the miss & # 8217 ; s nose and sternum, and therefore ended her life. I will non state that this most horrid slaying produced no esthesis in the community. It did bring forth esthesis, but non plenty to convey the murderess to penalize ment. There was a warrant issued for her apprehension, but it was ne’er served. Thus she escaped non merely penalty, but even the hurting of being arraigned before a tribunal for her horrid offense.

Whilst I am detailing bloody workss which took topographic point during my stay on Colonel Lloyd & # 8217 ; s plantation, I will briefly narrate another, which occurred about the same clip as the slaying of Demby by Mr. Gore.

Colonel Lloyd & # 8217 ; s slaves were in the wont of spend ing a portion of their darks and Sundays in angling for oysters, and in this manner made up the lack of their pantie allowance. An old adult male belonging to Colonel Lloyd, while therefore engaged, happened to acquire beyond the bounds of Colonel Lloyd & # 8217 ; s, and on the premises of Mr. Beal Bondly. At this trespass, Mr. Bondly took offense, and with his musket came down to the shore, and blew its deathly contents into the hapless old adult male.

Mr. Bondly came over to see Colonel Lloyd the following twenty-four hours, whether to pay him for his belongings, or to warrant himself in what he had done, I know non. At any rate, this whole demonic dealing was shortly hushed up. There was really small said about it at all, and nil done. It was a common expression, even among small white male childs, that it was worth a half cent to kill a & # 8220 ; nigger, & # 8221 ; and a half-cent to bury one.