With a third less in
number of hands, did they raise more and better cotton than their
neighbours; and then everything was so neat and bright about the
plantation, and everybody looked so cheerful and sprightly. When
Rosebrook's cotton was sent into the market, factors said it was
characteristic of his systemised negroes; and when his negroes
rolled into the city, as they did on holidays, all brightened up
with new clothes, everybody said-There were Rosebrook's dandy, fat,
and saucy "niggers." And then the wise prophets, who had all along
predicted that Rosebrook's project would never amount to much, said
it was all owing to his lady, who was worth her weight in gold at
managing negroes. And she did conceive the project, too; and her
helping hand was felt like a quickening spring, giving new life to
the physical being. That the influence might not be lost upon others
of her sex in the same sphere of life, she was ever reasoning upon
the result of female sympathy. She felt that, were it exercised
properly, it could raise up the menial slave, awaken his inert
energies, give him those moral guides which elevate his passive
nature, and regenerate that manhood which provides for its own good.
They had promised their people that all children born at and after a
given date should be free; that all those over sixty should be
nominally free, the only restriction being the conditions imposed by
the state law; that slaves under fifteen years of age, and able to
do plantation work, should, during the ten years prescribed, be
allowed for their extra labour at a given rate, and expected to have
the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars set to their credit; that
all prime people should be required to work a given number of hours,
as per task, for master, beyond which they would be allotted a
"patch" for cultivation, the products of which were entrusted to
Rosebrook for sale, and the proceeds placed in missus' savings bank
to their credit.
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