University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XIV
PLANTATION MANAGEMENT

TYPICAL planters though facile in conversation seldom resorted
to their pens. Few of them put their standards
into writing except in the form of instructions to their
stewards and overseers. These counsels of perfection, drafted
in widely separated periods and localities, and varying much in
Detail, concurred strikingly in their main provisions. Their
initial topic was usually the care of the slaves. Richard Corbin
of Virginia wrote in 1759 for the guidance of his steward: "The
care of negroes is the first thing to be recommended, that you
give me timely notice of their wants that they may be provided
with all necessarys. The breeding wenches more particularly
you must instruct the overseers to be kind and indulgent to, and
not force them when with child upon any service or hardship that
will be injurious to them, . . . and the children to be well looked
after, . . . and that none of them suffer in time of sickness for
want of proper care." P. C. Weston of South Carolina wrote in
1856: "The proprietor, in the first place, wishes the overseer
most distinctly to understand that his first object is to be, under
all circumstances, the care and well being of the negroes. The
proprietor is always ready to excuse such errors as may proceed
from want of judgment; but he never can or will excuse any
cruelty, severity or want of care towards the negroes. For the
well being, however, of the negroes it is absolutely necessary to
maintain obedience, order and discipline, to see that the tasks are
punctually and carefully performed, and to conduct the business
steadily and firmly, without weakness on the one hand or
harshness on the other." Charles Manigault likewise required of
his overseer in Georgia a pledge to treat his negroes "all with
kindness and consideration in sickness and health." On J. W.

Fowler's plantation in the Yazoo-Mississippi delta from which
we have seen in a preceding chapter such excellent records of
cotton picking, the preamble to the rules framed in 1857 ran as
follows: "The health, happiness, good discipline and obedience,
good, sufficient and comfortable clothing, a sufficiency of good,
wholesome and nutritious food for both man and beast being indispensably
necessary to successful planting, as well as for reasonable
dividends for the amount of capital invested, without
saying anything about the Master's duty to his dependents, to
himself, and his God, I do hereby establish the following rules
and regulations for the management of my Prairie plantation,
and require an observance of the same by any and all overseers
I may at any time have in charge thereof."[1]

Joseph A. S. Acklen had his own rules printed in 1861 for the
information of applicants and the guidance of those who were
employed as his overseers.[2] His estate was one of the greatest
in Louisiana, his residence one of the most pretentious,[3] and his
rules the most sharply phrased. They read in part: "Order
and system must be the aim of everyone on this estate, and the
maxim strictly pursued of a time for everything and everything
done in its time, a place for everything and everything kept in
its place, a rule for everything and everything done according to
rule. In this way labor becomes easy and pleasant. No man
can enforce a system of discipline unless he himself conforms
strictly to rules. . . . No man should attempt to manage negroes
who is not perfectly firm and fearless and [in] entire control of
his temper."

James H. Hammond's "plantation manual" which is the fullest
of such documents available, began with the subject of the
crop, only to subordinate it at once to the care of the slaves and
outfit: "A good crop means one that is good taking into consideration
everything, negroes, land, mules, stock, fences, ditches,
farming utensils, etc., etc., all of which must be kept up and

improved in value. The effort must therefore not be merely to
make so many cotton bales or such an amount of other produce,
but as much as can be made without interrupting the steady
increase in value of the rest of the property. . . . There should
be an increase in number and improvement in condition of negroes."[4]

For the care of the sick, of course, all these planters were solicitous.
Acklen, Manigault and Weston provided that mild
cases be prescribed for by the overseer in the master's absence,
but that for any serious illness a doctor be summoned. One of
Telfair's women was a semi-professional midwife and general
practitioner, permitted by her master to serve blacks and whites
in the neighborhood. For home needs Telfair wrote of her:
"Elsey is the doctoress of the plantation. In case of extraordinary
illness, when she thinks she can do no more for the sick,
you will employ a physician." Hammond, however, was such
a devotee of homeopathy that in the lack of an available physician
of that school he was his own practitioner. He wrote in
his manual: "No negro will be allowed to remain at his own
house when sick, but must be confined to the hospital. Every
reasonable complaint must be promptly attended to; and with
any marked or general symptom of sickness, however trivial, a
negro may lie up a day or so at least. . . . Each case has to be
examined carefully by the master or overseer to ascertain the
disease. The remedies next are to be chosen with the utmost
discrimination; . . . the directions for treatment, diet, etc., most
implicitly followed; the effects and changes cautiously observed.
. . . In cases where there is the slightest uncertainty, the books
must be taken to the bedside and a careful and thorough examination
of the case and comparison of remedies made before administering
them. The overseer must record in the prescription
book every dose of medicine administered." Weston said he
would never grudge a doctor's bill, however large; but he was
anxious to prevent idleness under pretence of illness, "Nothing,"
said he, "is so subversive of discipline, or so unjust, as to

allow people to sham, for this causes the well-disposed to do the
work of the lazy."

Pregnancy, childbirth and the care of children were matters
of special concern. Weston wrote: "The pregnant women are
always to do some work up to the time of their confinement, If it
is only walking into the field and staying there. If they are
sick, they are to go to the hospital and stay there until it is pretty
certain their time is near." "Lying-in women are to be attended
by the midwife as long as is necessary, and by a woman put to
nurse them for a fortnight. They will remain at the negro
houses for four weeks, and then will work two weeks on the
highland. In some cases, however, it is necessary to allow them
to lie up longer. The health of many women has been ruined
by want of care in this particular." Hammond's rules were as
follows: "Sucklers are not required to leave their homes until
sunrise, when they leave their children at the children's house before
going to field. The period of suckling is twelve months.
Their work lies always within half a mile of the quarter. They
are required to be cool before commencing to suckle—to wait
fifteen minutes at least in summer, after reaching the children's
house before nursing. It is the duty of the nurse to see that
none are heated when nursing, as well as of the overseer and his
wife occasionally to do so. They are allowed forty-five minutes
at each nursing to be with their children. They return
three times a day until their children are eight months old—in
the middle of the forenoon, at noon, and in the middle of the
afternoon; till the twelfth month but twice a day, missing at
noon; during the twelfth month at noon only. . . . The amount
of work done by a suckler is about three fifths of that done by
a full hand, a little increased toward the last. . . . Pregnant
women at five months are put in the sucklers' gang. No plowing;
or lifting must be required of them. Sucklers, old, infirm and
pregnant receive the same allowances as full-work hands. The
regular plantation midwife shall attend all women in confinement.
Some other woman learning the art is usually with her
during delivery. The confined woman lies up one month, and
the midwife remains in constant attendance for seven days.

Each woman on confinement has a bundle given her containing
articles of clothing for the infant, pieces of cloth and rag, and
some nourishment, as sugar, coffee, rice and flour for the
mother."

The instructions with one accord required that the rations issued
to the negroes be never skimped. Corbin wrote, "They
ought to have their belly full, but care must be taken with this
plenty that no waste is committed." Acklen, closely followed by
Fowler, ordered his overseer to "see that their necessities be supplied,
that their food and clothing be good and sufficient, their
houses comfortable; and be kind and attentive to them in sickness
and old age." And further: "There will be stated hours
for the negroes to breakfast and dine [in the field], and those
hours must be regularly observed. The manager will frequently
inspect the meals as they are brought by the cook—see that they
have been properly prepared, and that vegetables be at all times
served with the meat and bread." At the same time he forbade
his slaves to use ardent spirits or to have such about their houses,
Weston wrote: "Great care should be taken that the negroes
should never have less than their regular allowance. In all cases
of doubt, it should be given in favor of the largest quantity.
The measure should not be struck, but rather heaped up over.
None but provisions of the best quality should be used." Telfair
specified as follows: "The allowance for every grown negro,
however old and good for nothing, and every young one
that works in the field, is a peck of corn each week and a pint of
salt, and a piece of meat, not exceeding fourteen pounds, per
month. . . . The suckling children, and all other small ones who
do not work in the field, draw a half allowance of corn and salt.
. . . Feed everything plentifully, but waste nothing." He
added that beeves were to be killed for the negroes in July, August
and September. Hammond's allowance to each working hand
was a heaping peck of meal and three pounds of bacon or
pickled pork every week. In the winter, sweet potatoes were
issued when preferred, at the rate of a bushel of them in lieu
of the peck of meal; and fresh beef, mutton or pork, at increased
weights, were to be substituted for the salt pork from time to

time. The ditchers and drivers were to have extra allowances
in meat and molasses. Furthermore, "Each ditcher receives
every night, when ditching, a dram (jigger) consisting of two-thirds
whiskey and one-third water, with as much asafoetida
as it will absorb, and several strings of red peppers added in
the barrel. The dram is a large wine-glass full. In cotton
picking time when sickness begins to be prevalent, every field
hand gets a dram in the morning before leaving for the field.
After a soaking rain all exposed to it get a dram before changing
their clothes; also those exposed to the dust from the sheller
and fan in corn shelling, on reaching the quarter at night; or
anyone at any time required to keep watch in the night. Drams
are not given as rewards, but only as medicinal. From the
second hoeing, or early in May, every work hand who uses it
gets an occasional allowance of tobacco, about one sixth of a
pound, usually after some general operation, as a hoeing, plowing,
etc. This is continued until their crops are gathered, when
they can provide for themselves." The families, furthermore,
shared in the distribution of the plantation's peanut crop every
fall. Each child was allowed one third as much meal and meat
as was given to each field hand, and an abundance of vegetables
to be cooked with their meat. The cooking and feeding was
to be done at the day nursery. For breakfast they were to
have hominy and milk and cold corn bread; for dinner, vegetable
soup and dumplings or bread; and cold bread or potatoes
were to be kept on hand for demands between meals. They were
also to have molasses once or twice a week. Each child was
provided with a pan and spoon in charge of the nurse.

Hammond's clothing allowance was for each man in the
fall two cotton shirts, a pair of woolen pants and a woolen
jacket, and in the spring two cotton shirts and two pairs of
cotton pants, with privilege of substitution when desired; for
each woman six yards of woolen cloth and six yards of cotton
cloth in the fall, six yards of light and six of heavy cotton cloth
in the spring, with needles, thread and buttons on each occasion.
Each worker was to have a pair of stout shoes in the fall, and
a heavy blanket every third year. Children's cloth allowances

were proportionate and their mothers were required to dress
them in clean clothes twice a week.

In the matter of sanitation, Acklen directed the overseer to
see that the negroes kept clean in person, to inspect their houses
at least once a week and especially during the summer, to
examine their bedding and see to its being well aired, to require
that their clothes be mended, "and everything attended to which
conduces to their comfort and happiness." In these regards,
as in various others, Fowler incorporated Acklen's rules in
his own, almost verbatim. Hammond scheduled an elaborate
cleaning of the houses every spring and fall. The houses were
to be completely emptied and their contents sunned, the walls
and floors were to be scrubbed, the mattresses to be emptied
and stuffed with fresh hay or shucks, the yards swept and the
ground under the houses sprinkled with lime. Furthermore,
every house was to be whitewashed inside and out once a year;
and the negroes must appear once a week in clean clothes,
"and every negro habitually uncleanly in person must be washed
and scrubbed by order of the overseer—the driver and two
other negroes officiating."

As to schedules of work, the Carolina and Georgia lowlanders
dealt in tasks.; all the rest in hours. Telfair wrote briefly: "The
negroes to be tasked when the work allows it. I require a
reasonable day's work, well done—the task to be regulated by
the state of the ground and the strength of the negro." Weston
wrote with more elaboration: "A task is as much work as the
meanest full hand can do in nine hours, working industriously.
. . . This task is never to be increased, and no work is
to be done over task except under the most urgent necessity;
which over-work is to be reported to the proprietor, who will pay
for it. No negro is to be put into a task which [he] cannot
finish with tolerable ease. It is a bad plan to punish for not
finishing tasks; it is subversive of discipline to leave tasks unfinished,
and contrary to justice to punish for what cannot be done.
In nothing does a good manager so much excel a bad as in
being able to discern what a hand is capable of doing, and in
never attempting to make him do more." In Hammond's schedule

the first horn was blown an hour before daylight as a summons
for work-hands to rise and do their cooking and other
preparations for the day. Then at the summons of the plow
driver, at first break of day, the plowmen went to the stables
whose doors the overseer opened. At the second horn, "just
at good daylight," the hoe gang set out for the field. At half
past eleven the plowmen carried their mules to a shelter house
in the fields, and at noon the hoe hands laid off for dinner to
resume work at one o'clock, except that in hot weather the intermission
was extended to a maximum of three and a half hours.
The plowmen led the way home by a quarter of an hour in
the evening, and the hoe hands followed at sunset. "No work"
said Hammond, "must ever be required after dark." Acklen contented
himself with specifying that "the negroes must all rise
at the ringing of the first bell in the morning, and retire when
the last bell rings at night, and not leave their houses after that
hour unless on business or called." Fowler's rule was of the
same tenor: "All hands should be required to retire to rest and
sleep at a suitable hour and permitted to remain there until
stick time as it will be necessary to get out in time to reach their
work by the time they can see well how to work."

Telfair, Fowler and Hammond authorized the assignment of
gardens and patches to such slaves as wanted to cultivate them
at leisure times. To prevent these from becoming a cloak for
thefts from the planter's crops, Telfair and Fowler forbade the
growing of cotton in the slaves' private patches, and Hammond
forbade both cotton and corn. Fowler specifically gave his
negroes the privilege of marketing their produce and poultry
"at suitable leisure times." Hammond had a rule permitting
each work hand to go to Augusta on some Sunday after harvest;
but for some reason he noted in pencil below it: "This is objectionable
and must be altered." Telfair and Weston directed
that their slaves be given passes on application, authorizing them
to go at proper times to places in the neighborhood. The negroes,
however, were to be at home by the time of the curfew horn
about nine o'clock each night. Mating with slaves on other

plantations was discouraged as giving occasion for too much
journeying.

"Marriage is to be encouraged," wrote Hammond, "as it adds
to the comfort, happiness and health of those who enter upon
it, besides insuring a greater increase. Permission must always
be obtained from the master before marriage, but no marriage
will be allowed with negroes not belonging to the master. When
sufficient cause can be shewn on either side, a marriage may
be annulled; but the offending party must be severely punished.
Where both are in wrong, both must be punished, and if they
insist on separating must have a hundred lashes apiece. After
such a separation, neither can marry again for three years.
For first marriage a bounty of $5.00, to be invested in household
articles, or an equivalent of articles, shall be given. If
either has been married before, the bounty shall be $2.50. A
third marriage shall be not allowed but in extreme cases, and in
such cases, or where both have been married before, no bounty
will be given."

"Christianity, humanity and order elevate all, injure none,"
wrote Fowler, "whilst infidelity, selfishness and disorder curse
some, delude others and degrade all. I therefore want all of
my people encouraged to cultivate religious feeling and morality,
and punished for inhumanity to their children or stock, for
profanity, lying and stealing." And again: "I would that every
human being have the gospel preached to them in its original
purity and simplicity. It therefore devolves upon me to have
these dependants properly instructed in all that pertains to the
salvation of their souls. To this end whenever the services of a
suitable person can be secured, have them instructed in these
things. In view of the fanaticism of the age, it behooves the
master or overseer to be present on all such occasions. They
should be instructed on Sundays in the day time if practicable;
if not, then on Sunday night." Acklen wrote in his usual peremptory
tone: "No negro preachers but my own will be permitted
to preach or remain on any of my places. The regularly
appointed minister for my places must preach on Sundays during
daylight, or quit. The negroes must not be suffered to continue

their night meetings beyond ten o'clock." Telfair in his rules
merely permitted religious meetings on Saturday nights and
Sunday mornings. Hammond encouraged his negroes to go to
church on Sundays, but permitted no exercises on the plantation
beyond singing and praying. He, and many others, encouraged
his negroes to bring him their complaints against drivers
and overseers, and even against their own ecclesiastical authorities
in the matter of interference with recreations.

Fighting among the negroes was a common bane of planters.
Telfair prescribed: "If there is any fighting on the plantation,
whip all engaged in it, for no matter what the cause may have
been, all are in the wrong." Weston wrote: "Fighting, particularly
amongst women, and obscene or abusive language, is to be
always rigorously punished."

"Punishment must never be cruel or abusive," wrote Acklen,
closely followed by Fowler, "for it is absolutely mean and
unmanly to whip a negro from mere passion and malice, and any
man who can do so is utterly unfit to have control of negroes;
and if ever any of my negroes are cruelly or inhumanly treated,
bruised, maimed or otherwise injured, the overseer will be
promptly discharged and his salary withheld." Weston recommended
the lapse of a day between the discovery of an offense
and the punishment, and he restricted the overseer's power in
general to fifteen lashes. He continued: "Confinement (not in
the stocks) is to be preferred to whipping; but the stoppage of
Saturday's allowance, and doing whole task on Saturday, will
suffice to prevent ordinary offenses. Special care must be taken
to prevent any indecency in punishing women. No driver or
other negro is to be allowed to punish any person in any way
except by order of the overseer and in his presence." And
again: "Every person should be made perfectly to understand
what they are punished for, and should be made to perceive that
they are not punished in anger or through caprice. All abusive
language or violence of demeanor should be avoided; they reduce
the man who uses them to a level with the negro, and are hardly
ever forgotten by those to whom they are addressed." Hammond

directed that the overseer "must never threaten a negro,
but punish offences immediately on knowing them; otherwise he
will soon have runaways." As a schedule he wrote: "The following
is the order in which offences must be estimated and
punished: 1st, running away; 2d, getting drunk or having
spirits; 3d, stealing hogs; 4th, stealing; 5th, leaving plantation
without permission; 6th, absence from house after horn-blow at
night; 7th, unclean house or person; 8th, neglect of tools; 9th,
neglect of work. The highest punishment must not exceed a
hundred lashes in one day, and to that extent only in extreme
cases. The whip lash must be one inch in width, or a strap of
one thickness of leather 1 1/2 inches in width, and never severely
administered. In general fifteen to twenty lashes will be a sufficient
flogging. The hands in every case must be secured by a
cord. Punishment must always be given calmly, and never when
angry or excited." Telfair was as usual terse: "No negro
to have more than fifty lashes for any offense, no matter how
great the crime." Manigault said nothing of punishments in
his general instructions, but sent special directions when a case
of incorrigibility was reported: "You had best think carefully
respecting him, and always keep in mind the important old
plantation maxim, viz: 'never to threaten a negro,' or he will
do as you and I would when at school—he will run. But with
such a one, . . . if you wish to make an example of
him, take him down to the Savannah jail and give him prison
discipline, and by all means solitary confinement, for three
weeks, when he will be glad to get home again., . . Mind
then and tell him that you and he are quits, that you will never
dwell on old quarrels with him, that he has now a clear track
before him and all depends on himself, for he now sees how
easy it is to fix 'a bad disposed nigger.' Then give my compliments
to him and tell him that you wrote me of his conduct,
and say if he don't change for the better I'll sell him to a slave
trader who will send him to New Orleans, where I have already
sent several of the gang for misconduct, or their running away
for no cause." In one case Manigault lost a slave by suicide
in the river when a driver brought him tip for punishment but
allowed him to run before it was administered.[5]

As to rewards, Hammond was the only one of these writers
to prescribe them definitely. His head driver was to receive five
dollars, the plow driver three dollars, and the ditch driver
and stock minder one dollar each every Christmas day, and the
nurse a dollar and the midwife two dollars for every actual
increase of two on the place. Further, "for every infant thirteen
months old and in sound health, that has been properly
attended to, the mother shall receive a muslin or calico frock"

"The head driver," Hammond wrote, "is the most important
negro on the plantation' and is not required to work like other
hands. He is to be treated with more respect than any other
negro by both master and overseer. . . . He is to be required
to maintain proper discipline at all times; to see that
no negro idles or does bad work in the field, and to punish it
with discretion on the spot. . . . He is a confidential servant,
and may be a guard against any excesses or omissions of the
overseer." Weston, forbidding his drivers to inflict punishments
except at the overseer's order and in his presence, described
their functions as the maintenance of quiet in the quarter
and of discipline at large, the starting of the slaves to the fields
each morning, the assignment and supervision of tasks, and
the inspection of "such things as the overseer only generally
superintends." Telfair informed his overseer: "I have no
driver. You are to task the negroes yourself, and each negro
is responsible to you for his own work, and nobody's else."

Of the master's own functions Hammond wrote in another
place: "A planter should have all his work kid out, days, weeks,
months, seasons and years ahead, according to the nature of it.
He must go from job to job without losing a moment in turning
round, and he must have all the parts of his work so arranged
that due proportion of attention may be bestowed upon each
at the proper time. More is lost by doing work out of season,
and doing it better or worse than is requisite, than can readily
be supposed. Negroes are harassed by it, too, instead of being

indulged; so are mules, and everything else. A halting, vacillating,
undecided course, now idle, now overstrained, is more
fatal on a plantation than in any other kind of business—
ruinous as it is in any."[6]

In the overseer all the virtues of a master were desired,
with a deputy's obedience added. Corbin enjoined upon his staff
that they "attend their business with diligence, keep the negroes
in good order, and enforce obedience by the example of their
own industry, which is a more effectual method in every respect
than hurry and severity. The ways of industry," he continued,
"are constant and regular, not to be in a hurry at one time
and do nothing at another, but to be always usefully and steadily
employed. A man who carries on business in this manner will
be prepared for every incident that happens. He will see what
work may be proper at the distance of some time and be
gradually and leisurely preparing for it By this foresight he
will never be in confusion himself, and his business, instead
of a labor, will be a pleasure to him." Weston wrote: "The
proprietor wishes particularly to impress upon the overseer the
criterions by which he will judge of his usefullness and capacity.
First, by the general well-being of all the negroes; their cleanly
appearance, respectful manners, active and vigorous obedience;
their completion of their tasks well and early; the small amount
of punishment; the excess of births over deaths; the small number
of persons in hospital; and the health of the children. Secondly,
the condition and fatness of the cattle and mules; the
good repair of all the fences and buildings, harness, boats,
flats and ploughs; more particularly the good order of the banks
and trunks, and the freedom of the fields from grass and volunteer
[rice]. Thirdly, the amount and quality of the rice and provision
crops. . . . The overseer is expressly forbidden from three
things, viz.: bleeding, giving spirits to any negro without a doctor's
order, and letting any negro on the place have or keep any
gun, powder or shot." One of Acklen's prohibitions upon his
overseers was: "Having connection with any of my female

servants will most certainly be visited with a dismissal from
my employment, and no excuse can or will be taken."

Hammond described the functions as follows: "The overseer
will never be expected, to work in the field, but he must always
be with the hands when not otherwise engaged in the employer's
business. . . . The overseer must never be absent a
single night, nor an entire day, without permission previously
obtained. Whenever absent at church or elsewhere he must be
on the plantation by sundown without fail. He must attend
every night and morning at the stables and see that the mules
are watered, cleaned and fed, and the doors locked. He must
keep the stable keys at night, and all the keys, in a safe place,
and never allow anyone to unlock a barn, smoke-house or other
depository of plantation stores but himself. He must endeavor,
also, to be with the plough hands always at noon." He must
also see that the negroes are out promptly in the morning, and
in their houses after curfew, and must show no favoritism among
the negroes. He must carry on all experiments as directed by
the employer, and use all new implements and methods which
the employer may determine upon; and he must keep a full
plantation diary and make monthly inventories. Finally, "The
negroes must be made to obey and to work, which may be done,
by an overseer who attends regularly to his business, with very
little whipping. Much whipping indicates a bad tempered or
inattentive manager, and will not be allowed." His overseer might
quit employment on a month's notice, and might be discharged
without notice. Acklen's dicta were to the same general effect.

As to the relative importance of the several functions of an
overseer, all these planters were in substantial agreement. As
Fowler put it: "After taking proper care of the negroes, stock,
etc., the next most important duty of the overseer is to make,
if practicable, a sufficient quantity of corn, hay, fodder, meat,
potatoes and other vegetables for the consumption of the plantation,
and then as much cotton as can be made by requiring
good and reasonable labor of operatives and teams." Likewise
Henry Laurens, himself a prosperous planter of the earlier time
as well as a statesman, wrote to an overseer of whose heavy

tasking he had learned: "Submit to make less rice and keep
my negroes at home in some degree of happiness in preference to
large crops acquired by rigour and barbarity to those poor creatures."
And to a new incumbent: "I have now to recommend to
you the care of my negroes in general, but particularly the sick
ones. Desire Mrs. White not to be sparing of red wine for
those who have the flux or bad loosenesses; let them be well
attended night and day, and if one wench is not sufficient add
another to nurse them. With the well ones use gentle means
mixed with easy authority first—if that does not succeed, make
choice of the most stubborn one or two and chastise them
severely but properly and with mercy, that they may be convinced
that the end of correction is to be amendment," Again,
alluding to one of his slaves who had been gathering the pennies
of his fellows: "Amos has a great inclination to turn rum
merchant. If his confederate comes to that plantation, I charge
you to discipline him with thirty-nine sound lashes and turn him
out of the gate and see that he goes quite off."[7]

The published advice of planters to their fellows was quite in
keeping with these instructions to overseers. About 1809, for
example, John Taylor, of Caroline, the leading Virginian advocate
of soil improvement in his day, wrote of the care and control
of slaves as follows: "The addition of comfort to mere necessaries
is a price paid by the master for the advantages he will
derive from binding his slave to his service by a ligament stronger
than chains, far beneath their value in a pecuniary point of
view; and he will moreover gain a stream of agreeable reflections
throughout life, which will cost him nothing." He recommended
fireproof brick houses, warm clothing, and abundant, varied food.
Customary plenty in meat and vegetables, he said, would not
only remove occasions for pilfering, but would give the master
effective power to discourage it; for upon discovering the loss
of any goods by theft he might put his whole force of slaves upon
a limited diet for a time and thus suggest to the thief that on
any future occasion his fellows would be under pressure to inform
on him as a means of relieving their own privations. "A daily

allowance of cyder," Taylor continued, "will extend the success
of this system for the management of slaves, and particularly
its effect of diminishing corporal punishments. But the reader
is warned that a stern authority, strict discipline and complete
subordination must be combined with it to gain any success at
all."[8]

Another Virginian's essay, of 1834, ran as follows: Virginia
negroes are generally better tempered than any other people;
they are kindly, grateful, attached to persons and places, enduring
and patient in fatigue and hardship, contented and cheerful.
Their control should be uniform and consistent, not an
alternation of rigor and laxity. Punishment for real faults should
be invariable but moderate. "The best evidence of the good
management of slaves is the keeping up of good discipline with
little or no punishment." The treatment should be impartial
except for good conduct which should bring rewards. Praise
is often a better cure for laziness than stripes. The manager
should know the temper of each slave. The proud and high
spirited are easily handled: "Your slow and sulky negro, although
he may have an even temper, is the devil to manage. The
negro women are all harder to manage than the men. The only
way to get along with them is by kind words and flattery. If
you want to cure a sloven, give her something nice occasionally to
wear, and praise her up to the skies whenever she has on anything
tolerably decent." Eschew suspicion, for it breeds dishonesty.
Promote harmony and sound methods among your neighbors.
"A good disciplinarian in the midst of bad managers of
slaves cannot do much; and without discipline there cannot be
profit to the master or comfort to the slaves." Feed and clothe
your slaves well. The best preventive of theft is plenty of pork.
Let them have poultry and gardens and fruit trees to attach them
to their houses and promote amenability. "The greatest bar
to good discipline in Virginia is the number of grog shops in
every farmer's neighborhood." There is no severity in the state,

and there will be no occasion for it again if the fanatics will
only let us alone.[9]

An essay written after long experience by Robert Collins,
of Macon, Georgia, which was widely circulated in the 'fifties,
was in the same tone: "The best interests of all parties are
promoted by a kind and liberal treatment on the part of the
owner, and the requirement of proper discipline and strict obedience
on the part of the slave. . . Every attempt to force
the slave beyond the limits of reasonable service by cruelty or
hard treatment, so far from extorting more work, only tends
to make him unprofitable, unmanageable, a vexation and a curse."
The quarters should be well shaded, the houses free of the ground,
well ventilated, and large enough for comfort; the bedding and
blankets fully adequate. "In former years the writer tried many
ways and expedients to economize in the provision of slaves
by using more of the vegetable and cheap articles of diet, and
less of the costly and substantial. But time and experience have
fully proven the error of a stinted policy. . . . The allowance
now given per week to each hand . . . is five pounds
of good clean bacon and one quart of molasses, with as much
good bread as they require; and in the fall, or sickly season of
the year, or on sickly places, the addition of one pint of strong
coffee, sweetened with sugar, every morning before going to
work." The slaves may well have gardens, but the assignment
of patches for market produce too greatly "encourages a traffic
on their own account, and presents a temptation and opportunity,
during the process of gathering, for an unscrupulous
fellow to mix a little of his master's produce with his own.
It is much better to give each hand whose conduct has been
such as to merit it an equivalent in money at the end of the year;
it is much less trouble, and more advantageous to both parties."
Collins further advocated plenty of clothing, moderate hours,
work by tasks in cotton picking and elsewhere when feasible,
and firm though kindly discipline. "Slaves," he said, "have no
respect or affection for a master who indulges them over much

. . . Negroes are by nature tyrannical in their dispositions,
and if allowed, the stronger will abuse the weaker, husbands
will often abuse their wives and mothers their children, so that
it becomes a prominent duty of owners and overseers to keep
peace and prevent quarrelling and disputes among them; and
summary punishment should follow any violation of this rule.
Slaves are also a people that enjoy religious privileges. Many
of them place much value upon it; and to every reasonable
extent that advantage should be allowed them. They are never
injured by preaching, but thousands become wiser and better
people and more trustworthy servants by their attendance at
church. Religious services should be provided and encouraged
on every plantation. A zealous and vehement style, both in
doctrine and manner, is best adapted to their temperament. They
are good believers in mysteries and miracles, ready converts, and
adhere with much pertinacity to their opinions when formed."[10] It
is clear that Collins had observed plantation negroes long and well.

Advice very similar to the foregoing examples was also printed
m the form of manuals at the front of blank books for the keeping
of plantation records;[11] and various planters described their
own methods in operation as based on the same principles. One
of these living at Chunnennuggee, Alabama, signing himself
"N. B. P.," wrote in 1852 an account of the problems he had met
and the solutions he had applied. Owning some 150 slaves,
he had lived away from his plantation until about a decade prior
to this writing; but in spite of careful selection he could never
get an overseer combining the qualities necessary in a good manager.
"They were generally on extremes; those celebrated for
making large crops were often too severe, and did everything by

coercion. Hence turmoil and strife ensued. The negroes were
ill treated and ran away. On the other hand, when he employed
a good-natured man there was a want of proper discipline; the
negroes became unmanageable and, as a natural result, the farm
was brought into debt." The owner then entered residence himself
and applied methods which resulted in contentment, health
and prolific increase among the slaves, and in consistently good
crops. The men were supplied with wives at home so far as
was practicable; each family had a dry and airy house to itself,
with a poultry house and a vegetable garden behind; the rations
issued weekly were three and a half pounds of bacon to each
hand over ten years old, together with a peck of meal, or more
if required; the children in the day nursery were fed from the
master's kitchen with soup, milk, bacon, vegetables and bread;
the hands had three suits of working clothes a year; the women
were given time off for washing, and did their mending in bad
weather; all hands had to dress up and go to church on Sunday
when preaching was near; and a clean outfit of working clothes
was required every Monday. The chief distinction of this plantation,
however, lay in its device for profit sharing. To each
slave was assigned a half-acre plot with the promise that if he
worked with diligence in the master's crop the whole gang would
in turn be set to work his crop. This was useful in preventing
night and Sunday work by the negroes. The proceeds of their
crops, ranging from ten to fifty dollars, were expended by the
master at their direction for Sunday clothing and other supplies.[12]
On a sugar plantation visited by Olmsted a sum of as
many dollars as there were hogsheads in the year's crop was
distributed among the slaves every Christmas.[13]

Of overseers in general, the great variety in their functions,
their scales of operation and their personal qualities make sweeping
assertions hazardous. Some were at just one remove from
the authority of a great planter, as is suggested by the following
advertisement: 'Wanted, a manager to superintend several
rice plantations on the Santee River. As the business is extensive,

a proportionate salary will be made, and one or two young men
of his own selection employed under him.[14] A healthful summer
residence on the seashore is provided for himself and family.
Others were hardly more removed from the status of common
field hands. Lawrence Tompkins, for example, signed with his
mark in 1779 a contract to oversee the four slaves of William
Allason, near Alexandria, and to work steadily with them. He
was to receive three barrels of corn and three hundred pounds
of pork as his food allowance, and a fifth share of the tobacco,
hemp and flax crops and a sixth of the corn; but if he neglected
his work he might be dismissed without pay of any sort.[15] Some
overseers were former planters who had lost their property, some
were planters' sons working for a start in life, some were English
and German farmers who had brought their talents to what
they hoped might prove the world's best market, but most of them
were of the native yeomanry which abounded in virtually all
parts of the South. Some owned a few slaves whom they put on
hire into their employers' gangs, thereby hastening their own attainment
of the means to become planters on their own score.[16]

If the master lived on the plantation, as was most commonly
the case, the overseer's responsibilities were usually confined to
the daily execution of orders in supervising the slaves in the
fields and the quarters. But when the master was an absentee
the opportunity for abuses and misunderstandings increased.
Jurisdiction over slaves and the manner of its exercise were the
grounds of most frequent complaint. On the score of authority,
for example, a Virginia overseer in the employ of Robert Carter
wrote him in 1787 in despair at the conduct of a woman named
Suckey: "I sent for hir to Come in the morning to help Secoure
the foder, but She Sent me word that She would not come to
worke that Day, and that you had ordered her to wash hir
Cloaiths and goo to Any meeting She pleased any time in the
weke without my leafe, and on monday when I Come to Reken
with hir about it She Said it was your orders and She would

do it in Defiance of me. . . . I hope if Suckey is aloud
that privilige more than the Rest, that she will bee moved
to some other place, and one Come in her Room."[17] On the
score of abuses, Stancil Barwick, an overseer in southwestern
Georgia, wrote in 1855 to John B. Lamar: "I received your
letter on yesterday ev'ng. Was vary sorry to hear that you
had heard that I was treating your negroes so cruely. Now,
sir, I do say to you in truth that the report is false. Thear
is no truth in it. No man nor set of men has ever seen me
mistreat one of the negroes on the place." After declaring that
miscarriages by two of the women had been due to no requirement
of work, he continued: "The reports that have been sent
must have been carried from this place by negroes. The fact
is I have made the negro men work, an made them go strait.
That is what is the matter, an is the reason why my place is
talk of the settlement. I have found among the negro men two
or three hard cases an I have had to deal rite ruff, but not cruly
at all. Among them Abram has been as triflin as any man on
the place. Now, sir, what I have wrote you is truth, and it cant
be disputed by no man on earth."[18]

To diminish the inducement for overdriving, the method of
paying the overseers by crop shares, which commonly prevailed
in the colonial period, was generally replaced in the nineteenth
century by that of fixed salaries. As a surer preventive of
embezzlement, a trusty slave was in some cases given the storehouse
keys in preference to the overseer; and sometimes even
when the master was an absentee an overseer was wholly dispensed
with and a slave foreman was given full charge. This
practice would have been still more common had not the laws
discouraged it.[19] Some planters refused to leave their slaves
in the full charge of deputies of any kind, even for short periods.
For example, Francis Corbin in 1819 explained to James Madison
that he must postpone an intended visit because of the absence
of his son. "Until he arrives," Corbin wrote, "I date not, in
common prudence, leave my affairs to the sole management of

overseers, who in these days are little respected by our intelligent
negroes, many of whom are far superior in mind, morals and
manners to those who are placed in authority over them."[20]

Various phases of the problem of management are illustrated
in a letter of A. H. Pemberton of the South Carolina midlands
to James H. Hammond at the end of 1846. The writer described
himself as unwilling to sacrifice his agricultural reading
in order to superintend his slaves in person, but as having too
small a force to afford the employment of an overseer pure and
simple. For the preceding year he had had one charged with
the double function of working in person and supervising the
slaves' work also; but this man's excess of manual zeal had impaired
his managerial usefulness. What he himself did was well
done, said Pemberton, "and he would do all and leave the negroes
to do virtually nothing; and as they would of course take advantage
of this, what he did was more than counterbalanced by
what they did not." Furthermore, this employee, "who worked
harder than any man I ever saw," used little judgment or foresight
"Withal, he has always been accustomed to the careless
Southern practice generally of doing things temporarily and in a
hurry, just to last for the present, and allowing the negroes
to leave plows and tools of all kinds just where they use them, no
matter where, so that they have to be hunted all over the place
when wanted. And as to stock, he had no idea of any more
attention to them than is common in the ordinarily cruel and
neglectful habits of the South." Pemberton then turned to lamentation
at having let slip a recent opportunity to buy at auction
"a remarkably fine looking negro as to size and strength, very
black, about thirty-five or forty, and so intelligent and trustworthy
that he had charge of a separate plantation and eight or
ten hands some ten or twelve miles from home." The procuring
of such a foreman would precisely have solved Pemberton's
problem; the failure to do so left him in his far from hopeful
search for a paragon manager and workman combined.[21]

On the whole, the planters were disposed to berate the overseers

as a class for dishonesty, inattention and self indulgence.
The demand for new and better ones was constant. For example;
the editor of the American Agriculturist, whose office was at
New York, announced in 1846: "We are almost daily beset with
applications for properly educated managers for farms and plantations
—we mean for such persons as are up to the improvements
of the age, and have the capacity to carry them into
effect."[22] Youths occasionally offered themselves as apprentices.
One of them, in Louisiana, published the following notice in
1822: "A young man wishing to acquire knowledge of cotton
planting would engage for twelve months as overseer and keep
the accounts of a plantation. . . . Unquestionable reference
as to character will be given."[23] And a South Carolinian in 1829
proposed that the practice be systematized by the appointment
of local committees to bring intelligent lads into touch with
planters willing to take them as indentured apprentices.[24] The
lack of system persisted, however, both in agricultural education
and in the procuring of managers. In the opinion of Basil Hall
and various others the overseers were commonly better than the
reputation of their class,[25] but this is not to say that they were
conspicuous either for expertness or assiduity. On the whole
they had about as much human nature, with its merits and failings,
as the planters or the slaves or anybody else.

It is notable that George Washington was one ot the least
tolerant employers and masters who put themselves upon record.[26]
This was doubtless due to his own punctiliousness and through
devotion to system as well as to hi often baffled wish to diversify
his corps and upbuild his fields. When in 1793 he engaged
William Pearce as a new steward for the group of plantations
comprising the Mount Vernon estate, he enjoined strict supervision

of his overseers "to keep them from running about and
to oblige them to remain constantly with their people, and moreover
to see at what time they turn out in the morning—for,"
said he, "I have strong suspicions that this with some of them
is at a late hour, the consequences of which to the negroes is
not difficult to foretell." "To treat them civilly," Washington
continued, "is no more than what all men are entitled to; but
my advice to you is, keep them at a proper distance, for they
will grow upon familiarity in proportion as you will sink in
authority if you do not. Pass by no faults or neglects, particularly
at first, for overlooking one only serves to generate another,
and it is more than probable that some of them, one in particular,
will try at first what lengths he may go." Particularizing
as to the members of his staff, Washington described their several
characteristics: Stuart was intelligent and apparently honest and
attentive, but vain and talkative, and usually backward in his
schedule; Crow would be efficient if kept strictly at his duty,
but seemed prone to visiting and receiving visits. "This of
course leaves his people too much to themselves, which produces
idleness or slight work on the one side and flogging on
the other, the last of which, besides the dissatisfaction which it
creates, has in one or two instances been productive of serious
consequences." McKay was a "sickly, slothful and stupid sort
of fellow," too much disposed to brutality in the treatment of
the slaves in his charge; Butler seemed to have "no more authority
over the negroes . . . than an old woman would have";
and Green, the overseer of the carpenters, was too much on at
level with the slaves for the exertion of control. Davy, the negro
foreman at Muddy Hole, was rated in his master's esteem higher
than some of his white colleagues, though Washington had suspicions
concerning the fate of certain lambs which had vanished
while in his care. Indeed the overseers all and several were
suspected from time to time of drunkenness, waste, theft and
miscellaneous rascality. In the last of these categories Washington
seems to have included their efforts to secure higher
wages.

The slaves in their turn were suspected of ruining horses by

riding them at night, and of embezzling grain issued for planting,
as well as of lying and malingering in general. The carpenters,
Washington said, were notorious piddlers: and not a
slave about the mansion house was worthy of trust. Pretences
of illness as excuses for idleness were especially annoying. "Is
there anything particular in the cases of Ruth, Hannah and
Pegg," he enquired, "that they have been returned as sick
for several weeks together? . . . If they are not made to
do what their age and strength will enable them, it will be a
very bad example to others, none of whom would work if by
pretexts they can avoid it." And again: "By the reports I
perceive that for every day Betty Davis works she is laid up
two. If she is indulged in this idleness she will grow worse and
worse, for she has a disposition to be one of the most idle
creatures on earth, and is besides one of the most deceitful."
Pearce seems to have replied that he was at a loss to tell the false
from the true. Washington rejoined: "I never found so much
difficulty as you seem to apprehend in distinguishing between real
and feigned sickness, or when a person is much afflicted with
pain. Nobody can be very sick without having a fever, or any
other disorder continue long upon anyone without reducing them.
. . . But my people, many of them, will lay up a month, at
the end of which no visible change in their countenance nor the
loss of an ounce of flesh is discoverable; and their allowance of
provision is going on as if nothing ailed them." Runaways were
occasional. Of one of them Washington directed: "Let Abram
get his deserts when taken, by way of example; but do not trust
Crow to give it to him, for I have reason to believe he is swayed
more by passion than by judgment in all his corrections." Of
another, whom he had previously described as an idler beyond
hope of correction: "Nor is it worth while, except for the sake
of example, . . . to be at much trouble, or any expence over
a trifle, to hunt him up." Of a third, who was thought to have
escaped in company with a neighbor's slave: "If Mr. Dulany
is disposed to pursue any measure for the purpose of recovering
his man, I will join him in the expence so far as it may respect
Paul; but I would not have my name appear in any advertisement,
or other measure, leading to it." Again, when asking"
that a woman of his who had fled to New Hampshire be seized
and sent back if it could be done without exciting a mob: "However
well disposed I might be to gradual abolition, or even to an
entire emancipation of that description of people (if the latter
was in itself practicable), at this moment it would neither be
politic nor just to reward unfaithfulness with a premature preference,
and thereby discontent beforehand the minds of all her
fellow serv'ts who, by their steady attachment, are far more
deserving than herself of favor."[27] Finally: "The running off
of my cook has been a most inconvenient thing to this family,
and what rendered it more disagreeable is that I had resolved
never to become the master of another slave by purchase. But
this resolution I fear I must break. I have endeavored to hire,
black or white, but am not yet supplied." As to provisions, the
slaves were given fish from Washington's Potomac fishery while
the supply lasted, "meat, fat and other things . . . now and
then," and of meal "as much as they can eat without waste, and
no more." The housing and clothing appear to have been adequate.
The "father of his country" displayed little tenderness
for his slaves. He was doubtless just, so far as a business-like
absentee master could be; but his only generosity to them seems
to have been the provision in his will for their manumission after
the death of his wife.

Lesser men felt the same stresses in plantation management
An owner of ninety-six slaves told Olmsted that such was the
trouble and annoyance his negroes caused him, in spite of his
having an overseer, and such the loneliness of his isolated life,
that he was torn between a desire to sell out at once and a
temptation to hold on for a while in the expectation of higher
prices. At the home of another Virginian, Olmsted wrote: "During
three hours or more in which I was in company with the
proprietor I do not think there were ten consecutive minutes
uninterrupted by some of the slaves requiring his personal direction
or assistance. He was even obliged three times to leave
the dinner table. 'You see,' said he smiling, as he came in the

last time, 'a farmer's life in this country is no sinecure." A
third Virginian, endorsing Olmsted's observations, wrote that
a planter's cares and troubles were endless; the slaves, men,
women and children, infirm and aged, had wants innumerable;
some were indolent, some obstinate, some fractious, and each
class required different treatment. With the daily wants of
food, clothing and the like, "the poor man's time and thoughts,
indeed every faculty of mind, must be exercised on behalf of
those who have no minds of their own."[28]

Harriet Martineau wrote on her tour of the South: "Nothing
struck me more than the patience of slave-owners . . . with
their slaves. . . . When I considered how they love to be
called 'fiery Southerners,' I could not but marvel at their mild
forbearance under the hourly provocations to which they are
liable in their homes. Persons from New England, France or
England, becoming slave-holders, are found to be the most severe
masters and mistresses, however good their tempers may
always have appeared previously. They cannot, like the native
proprietor, sit waiting half an hour for the second course, or
see everything done in the worst possible manner, their rooms
dirty, their property wasted, their plans frustrated, their infants
slighted,—themselves deluded by artifices—they cannot, like the
native proprietor, endure all this unruffled."[29] It is clear from
every sort of evidence, if evidence were needed, that life among
negro slaves and the successful management of them promoted,
and wellnigh necessitated, a blending of foresight and firmness
with kindliness and patience. The lack of the former qualities
was likely to bring financial ruin; the lack of the latter would
make life not worth living; the possession of all meant a toleration
of slackness in every concern not vital to routine. A
plantation was a bed of roses only if the thorns were turned
aside. Charles Elliot Norton, who like Olmsted, Hall, Miss
Martineau and most other travelers, was hostile to slavery,
wrote after a journey to Charleston in 1855: "The change
to a Northerner in coming South is always a great one when

he steps over the boundary of the free state; and the farther
you go towards the South the more absolutely do shiftlessness
and careless indifference take the place of energy and active.
precaution and skilful management. . . . The outside first
aspect of slavery has nothing horrible and repulsive about it.
The slaves do not go about looking unhappy, and are with
difficulty, I fancy, persuaded to feel so. Whips and chains,
oaths and brutality, are as common, for all that one sees, in
the free as the slave states. We have come thus far, and might
have gone ten times as far, I dare say, without seeing the first
sign of negro misery or white tyranny."[30] If, indeed, the neatness
of aspect be the test of success, most plantations were
failures; if the test of failure be the lack of harmony and good
will, it appears from the available evidence that most plantations
were successful.

The concerns and the character of a high-grade planter may
be gathered from the correspondence of John B. Lamar, who
with headquarters in the town of Macon administered half a,
dozen plantations belonging to himself and his kinsmen scattered
through central and southwestern Georgia and northern
Florida.[31] The scale of his operations at the middle of the
nineteenth century may be seen from one of his orders for summer
cloth, presumably at the rate of about five yards per slave. This
was to be shipped from Savannah to the several plantations
as follows: to Hurricane, the property of Howell Cobb, Lamar's
brother-in-law, 760 yards; to Letohatchee, a trust estate in
Florida belonging to the Lamar family, 500 yards; and to Lamar's
own plantations the following: Swift Creek, 486; Harris Place,
360; Domine, 340; and Spring Branch, 229. Of his course of
life Lamar wrote: "I am one half the year rattling over rough
roads with Dr. Physic and Henry, stopping at farm houses in
the country, scolding overseers in half a dozen counties and
two states, Florida and Georgia, and the other half in the
largest cities of the Union, or those of Europe, living on dainties

and riding on rail-cars and steamboats. When I first emerge
from Swift Creek into the hotels and shops on Broadway of a
summer, I am the most economical body that you can imagine.
The fine clothes and expensive habits of the people strike me
forcibly. . . . In a week I become used to everything, and
in a month I forget my humble concern on Swift Creek and
feel as much a nabob as any of them. . . . At home where
everything is plain and comfortable we look on anything beyond
that point as extravagant. When abroad where things are on
a greater scale, our ideas keep pace with them. I always find
such to be my case; and if I live to a hundred I reckon it will
always be so."

Lamar could command strong words, as when a physician
demanded five hundred dollars for services at Hurricane in
1844, or when overseers were detected in drunkenness or cruelty;
but his most characteristic complaints were of his own shortcomings
as a manager and of the crotchets of his relatives. His
letters were always cheery, and his repeated disappointments in
overseers never damped his optimism concerning each new incumbent.
His old lands contented him until he found new and
more fertile ones to buy, whereupon his jubilation was great.
When cotton was low he called himself a toad under the harrow;
but rising markets would set him to counting bales before
the seed had more than sprouted and to building new plantations
in the air. In actual practice his log-cabin slave quarters
gave place to frame houses; his mules were kept in full force;
his production of corn and bacon was nearly always ample for
the needs of each place; his slaves were permitted to raise
nankeen cotton on their private accounts; and his own frequent
journeys of inspection and stimulus, as he said, kept up an
esprit du corps. When an overseer reported that his slaves
were down with fever by the dozen and his cotton wasting in
the fields, Lamar would hasten thither with a physician and a
squad of slaves impressed from another plantation, to care for
the sick and the crop respectively. He redistributed slaves
among his plantations with a view to a better balancing of
land and labor, but was deterred from carrying this policy as

far as he thought might be profitable by his unwillingness to
separate the families. His absence gave occasion sometimes for
discontent among his slaves; yet when the owners of others
who were for sale authorized them to find their own purchasers
his well known justice, liberality and good nature made
"Mas John" a favorite recourse.

As to crops and management, Lamar indicated his methods
in criticizing those of a relative: "Uncle Jesse still builds air
castles and blinds himself to his affairs. Last year he tinkered
away on tobacco and sugar cane, things he knew nothing about.
. . . He interferes with the arrangements of his overseers,
and has no judgment of his own. . . . If he would employ
a competent overseer and move off the plantation with his family
he could make good crops, as he has a good force of hands
and good lands. . . . I have found that it is unprofitable
to undertake anything on a plantation out of the regular routine.
If I had a little place off to itself, and my business would
tdrnit of it, I should delight in agricultural experiments." In
his reliance upon staple routine, as in every other characteristic,
Lamar rings true to the planter type.