"You had better carry him up to the house and throw some water on him," he said to the negroes, and then turned to go away.As he did so, the slave who had been flogged broke from the others, who had indeed loosened their hold, and ran up to Vincent, threw himself on his knees, and taking the lad's hand pressed it to his lips.
"I am afraid I haven't done you much good," Vincent said."You will be none the better off for my interference; but I couldn't help it." So saying he made his way through the shrubbery, cleared the fence, mounted, and route homeward.
"I have been a fool," he said to himself as he rode along."It will be all the worse for that poor beggar afterward; still I could not help it.I wonder will there be any row about it.I don't much expect there will, the Jacksons don't stand well now, and this would not do them any good with the people round; besides I don't think Jackson would like to go into court to complain of being thrashed by a fellow a head shorter than himself.It's blackguards like him who give the Abolitionists a right to hold up the slave-owners as being tyrants and brutes."The Jacksons were newcomers in Virginia.Six years before, the estate, of which the Cedars, as their place was called, formed a part, was put up for sale.It was a very large one, and having been divided into several portions to suit buyers, the Cedars had been purchased by Jackson, who, having been very successful as a storekeeper at Charleston, had decided upon giving up the business and leaving South Carolina, and settling down as a land-owner in some other State.His antecedents, however, were soon known at Richmond, and the old Virginian families turned a cold shoulder to the newcomer.
Had he been a man of pleasant manners, he would gradually have made his way; but he was evidently not a gentleman.The habits of trade stuck to him, and in a very short time there were rumors that the slaves, whom he had bought with the property, found him a harsh and cruel master.This in itself would have been sufficient to bring him disrepute in Virginia, where as a rule the slaves were treated with great kindness, and indeed considered their position to be infinitely superior to that of the poorer class of whites.Andrew Jackson had been for a few months at school with Vincent; lie was unpopular there, and from the rumors current as to the treatment of the slaves on the estate, was known by the nickname of the "slave-driver."Had Vincent been the son of a white trader, or a small cultivator, he knew well enough that his position would he a very serious one, and that he would have bad to ride to the border of the State with all speed.He would have been denounced at once as an Abolitionist, and would have been accused of stirring up the slaves to rebellion against their masters; a crime of the most serious kind in the Southern States.But placed as he was, as the heir of a great estate worked by slaves, such a cry could hardly be raised against him.He might doubtless be filled and admonished for interfering between a master and his slave; but the sympathy of the better classes in Virginia would be entirely with him.Vincent, therefore, was but little concerned for himself; but he doubted greatly whether his interference had not done much more harm than good to the slave and his wife, for upon them Andrew Jackson would vent his fury.He rode direct to the stables instead of alighting as usual at the door.Dan, who had been sitting in the veranda waiting for him, ran down to the stables as he saw him coming.
"Give the horse to one of the others, Dan; I want to speak to you.
Dan," he went on when he had walked with him a short distance from the stables, "I suppose yen know some of the bands on Jackson's plantation."Dan grinned, for although there was not supposed to be any communication between the slaves on the different estates, it was notorious that at night they were in the habit of slipping out of their huts and visiting each other.
"I know some oh dem, Massa Vincent.What you want ob dem?
Berry bad master, Massa Jackson.Wust master hereabouts."Vincent related what had happened, to Dan's intense delight.
"Now, Dan," he went on, "I am afraid that after my interference they will treat that poor fellow and his wife worse than before.Iwant yen to find out for me what is going on at Jackson's.I do not know that I can do anything, however badly they treat them; but Ihave been thinking that if they ill-treat them very grossly, I will get together a party of fifteen or twenty of my friends and we will go in a body to Jackson's, and warn him that if he behaves with cruelty to his slaves, we will make it so hot for him that he will have to leave the state.I don't say that we could do anything; but as we should represent most of the large estates round here, I don't think old Jackson and his son would like being sent to Coventry.
The feeling is very strong at present against ill-treatment of the slaves.If these troubles lead to war almost all of us will go into the army, and we do not like the thought of the possibility of troubles among the hands when the whites are all away.""I will find out all about it for you to-night, sah.I don't suspect dat dey will do nuffin to-day.Andrew Jackson too sick after dat knock against de tump.He keep quiet a day or two.""Well, Dan, you go over to-night and find out all about it.I expect I had better have left things alone, but now I have interfered I shall go on with it."Mrs.Wingfield was much displeased when Vincent told her at dinner of his incident at Jackson's plantation and even his sisters were shocked at this interference between a master and his slave.
"You will get yourself into serious trouble with these fanciful notions of yours," Mrs.Wingfield said angrily."You know as well as I do how easy it is to get up a cry against any one as an Abolitionist and how difficult to disprove the accusation; and just at present, when the passions of every man in the South are inflamed to the utmost, such an accusation will be most serious.
