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SLAVE DRIVERS.              225
ready to expiate the wrong by the sacrifice of his life.
He was led to the scaffold, and while the rope was
around his neck, maintained an undismayed and
fearless bearing, and with his last words justified the
act.
   Besides the overseer, there are drivers under him
the number being in proportion to the number of
hands in the field. The drivers are black, who, in
addition to the performance of their equal share of
work, are compelled to do the whipping of their
several gangs. Whips hang around their necks, and
if they fail to use them thoroughly, are whipped 
themselves. They have a few privileges, however; 
for example, in cane-cutting the hands are not allow-
ed to sit down long enough to eat their dinners. Carts
filled with corn cake, cooked at the kitchen, are driv-
en into the field at noon. The cake is distributed by
the drivers, and must be eaten with the least possible
delay.
    When the slave ceases to perspire, as he often does
when taxed beyond his strength, he falls to the ground
and becomes entirely helpless. It is then the duty
of the driver to drag him into the shade of the stand-
ing cotton or cane, or of a neighboring tree, where
he dashes buckets of water upon him, and uses other
means of bringing out perspiration again, when he is
ordered to his place, and compelled to continue his
labor.
    At Huff Power, when I first came to Epps', Tom,
one of Roberts' negroes, was driver. He was a burly
        J*                             15