The Pedee Plantation By: Marcus Rediker
The Pedee Plantation
by: Marcus Rediker
The difficulty which most frequently daunts the historian,
in dealing with evidence, is precisely that which most often
disturbs judge and jury: there is not enough of it….
History is frequently an attempt to find the correct answer
To equations which have been half erased.
--Allen Nevins
Your assignment is to read the following documents in a critical and imaginative manner and to reconstruct, as fully and as accurately as you can, life as it existed on Pedee Plantation in the year 1760. It is your task to analyze these documents, to scrutinize them and extract what can be learned from them. You are first to pick a topic in consultation with the instructor.
All of the information you need for this assignment is contained herein. The eleven documents contain a wide variety of themes and they permit many different kinds of analysis. You must realize that you cannot analyze everything in the documents. You must therefore pick a topic with several interrelated dimensions and explore it systematically. Be sure that your paper is well organized.
Pedee Plantation
1760
3 Oxcarts 15
2 Large iron pots for Negro Victuals7
We the Subscribers do Certifie that we have duly appraised the estate of William Butler, Esq. this 16th day of November 1760, witness our hands
Samuel Waddingham, head overseer; Stephen Brown, overseer; John O’Neill, Overseer; William Butler Jr., manager; Josiah Smith, attorney
Document 2: Letter from William Butler, Jr. to William Butler Sr., November 30, 1760.
Dear Father,
So far Henry’s wounds are doing well & unless an abscess should form in the lower one I apprehend no serious result. They are beginning to heal. I cut loose the stitches today & afterwards reapplied the adhesive plaster with some healing salve. Doubtless Henry’s rib is the only thing that saved his life.
I told O’Neill very flatly & solemnly that I could not justify him in cutting Henry nor do I believe anyone could, even by his own account. He says tho’ that as negroe and whiteman he can free his conscience & it is this relation& this alone that he can justify himself in his intent to Murder. The circumstances are these:
Henry & Quackow was ordered to have the negroes rise before days 2 hours and get to the fields, says O’Neill, and when he got up it was nearly day and nobody was out. He met Quackow & whipped him & afterward Henry; he ordered him to take his britches down but Henry said he didn’t deserve no whipping. O’Neill repeated his order, was again refused. He then attempted to whip Henry but the latter grabbed O’Neill and threw him on his back. In this position, O’Neill Threatened him to let go or he would cut him. Henry refused and O’Neill stabbed.
Now in the first place the negroes were up on time & nobody deserved a whipping. The truth is I think that O’Neill got up in the morning in a passion, came across Henry, and wanted to whip someone; when Henry resisted, O’Neill tried to kill him. At least in your settlement I hope you will require the Doctor’s bill of him.
I have talked the matter over with him calmly (though he is much disposed to rise in temper) and have decided to fire him. We can’t tolerate such treatment of out people. I had the whole crowd that run off after this incident whipped. I fear that the firing of O’Neill might occasion the slaves to think that they had won some kind of victory since they didn’t like him anyway. I’ll probably have to tighten up discipline a bit.
I sent Pompey and Primus down the river this week with several barrels. Rice prices seem to be declining. I got old Boston back to work today; that old cagey devil has been laying up complaining of the toothache which I doubt he had. Cumberland and Eva have been sick a bit with fever, likewise a few of the children. Liverpool just returned having been run way for two weeks. I wanted to go into town this week to buy some supplies but couldn’t leave Henry in this condition. All is going fairly well.
Yours affectionately
W.B. Jr.
DOCUMENT 3: Letter from Samuel Waddingham to Josiah Smith requesting the purchase of materials in Charleston, October 12, 1760.
Dear Mr. Smith,
I have been instructed by William Butler, Jr. to requisition you for the material to have some Comfortable Negro Houses put up which we are much in need of. Six are to be built of lumber on a 2 or 3 brick foundation with a brick Chimney in the Centre. The size is to be 32 by 14 to be able to cleverly accommodate two families each some of whom are now pretty large. We seek the above all else durability in building these houses, and likeness to those we have.
Mr. Butler also requests that you keep your eye out for slaves---young Men & Women but not of the Ebo country. We seek people from Congo and Angola. We are all pretty here now being almost recovered from the ague season.
Yours,
S. Waddingham
DOCUMENT 4: Letter from William Butler, Sr. to William Butler, Jr., July 22, 1760
Dear Son,
I gladly received your letter of the 12th instant am so pleased to hear that the crops appears abundant this season. I advise you to encourage the negroes perseverance by treating them with a Suit of Osnaburgs each, also some Beef & Liquor to be given after hoeing is all over.
I am pleased to hear that brown is very sober, honest & industrious Man and so much unlike the Worthless Liquor-Loving chap named French that we so recently fired. I trust that Waddingham is doing his usual fine job and that he has explained much of the work to you.
I am sorry to hear that Cudjo is still plagued by the stubborn venereal disease and that Sampson’s wife Phillis has passed away with the yaws. Tell all of my people that I will return to Pedee so that I can spend Christmas with them and with you and your family.
I sincerely hope that you and your dearest wife Lucille are finding the quarters comfortable there at Pedee. I bid you please mind your health with greatest concern. Contact either myself in London or Mr. Josiah Smith in Charleston should you need any goods or services.
Affectionately,
Wm Butler, Esquire
DOCUMENT 5: An advertisement placed in the CharlestonCourier by William Butler, Jr. on September 2, 1760.
RUNAWAY: A well set, robust Negro Man Slave, much pitted with the small-pox; he was recently bought from the West Indies where he acquired a peculiar way of Speaking and seems to frown when he talks. Is of Ebo blood. Answers to the name Quash and is a cunning fellow. Ran away from Pedee Plantation in early August. May be in Charleston area trying to find his Wife.
DOCUMENT 6: Letter from William Butler, Sr. to William Butler, Jr., September 27, 1760.
Dearest Son,
Thank you for your letter of the 10th. I was most concerned to hear that Lucille is suffering a bilious fever. Better that than the Pox that I hear rages down the River at the Jackson and Manigault Plantations. I demand that you cut off all visits between our People and those nearby until the illness passes. I should hope that you have already done so since you must recall the horrible Times six years ago when our rice lay rotting in the fields due to our Incapacities with the Small Pox. Regarding troubles with the grubworm, Waddingham knows full well what to do. You need not send all such questions to me.
Running away and laying are common this time of Year, so do not be distressed. But neither should you accept every trifling Excuse offered up for the Rice must be harvested quickly. Certainly we do not have enough Man-power to hire-out any of our people; I am generally opposed to the practice besides.
Both Liverpool and Jack should be severely punished for their running. Daniel less so. That Paris should run makes me suspect that he was mistreated. Look into this matter and punish as seems necessary. Quakow should be heavily censured for his dishonesty and told that I personally will degrade him from his present Office as Driver to that of Field Hand if he does not again walk the straight and narrow, and soon. These things are all the more worrying because of the horrid news from Jamaica.
Nonetheless, you should soon beginordering necessaries for the Christmas Festivities. As always I will be there to partake of the Merriment. I think often of the whole family, both white and black.
Affectionately,
Wm Butler, Esquire
DOCUMENT 7: Fragments from a diary kept by William Butler, Sr.
April 14, 1760: Tarter has sense and industry enough to be a Driver but is lacking Honesty. I believe he leads the thief rings that butcher the plantation livestock at all hours of the night. Whipping him seems to make all the more defiant his Bearing. Very soon I shall have to get Cupid to train two boys as carpenter.
April 24, 1760: The Negroes complained bitterly to me that O’Neill and Waddingham and French have been working them too hard. This I doubt but took great pains to listen closely to their claims. I have decided to give them half day off on Saturday provided they work well until then.
May 10, 1760: Had to administer a rash of whippings today after I was informed that six Cattle and three Sows had been killed by the Slaves. It became clear that Quaco was behind all this, and had to personally give him prolonged beating and then put him in the Stocks for the greater Ridicule. Besides this, the hearts of so many Planters in this region are in aching condition because of a sudden and almost general Spread of the Catterpillar worm that made sad Havock on several Plantations.
May 19, 1760: I have finally made my arrangements to go to visit Brother in London. Though I greatly fear what will become of the Plantation in my Absence. Waddingham is dependable as is Henry and if he can hold his temper, O’Neill. But French is much too Saucy and woefully irresponsible. I hope that my son does not meet with impossible times. The Slaves will surely test him, but I have forewarned him of Matters of this type.
May 21, 1760: unfortunate news from Mr. Manigault up the River today. It appears that either due to the careless or the malicious behaviour of his Slaves, a most Serious Destructive fire broke out on his Plantation late last night. Much of his produce is Lost. I believe that his Misfortunes might be connected to his recent purchase of that lot of unseasoned New Negroes. I have on several occasions advised him never to buy in Groups larger than ten.
DOCUMENT 8: Travelers’s account of Basil Hall, an Englishman who visited Pedee and several other rice Plantations in the year 1758.
Pedee Plantation, at the time of my arrival, consisted of 300 acres of rice and 30 of Indian corn, besides some minor plots for vegetables; the whole being cultivated by eighty working hands. During my stay at several plantations I had an opportunity of being initiated into the mysteries of the cultivation of rice, a staple of Carolina. This grain is sown in rows, in the bottom trenches made by Slave labor entirely. These ridges lie about seventeen inches apart, from center to center. The rice is put in with the hand, generally by the women, and is never scattered, but cast so as to fall in a line. This is done about the 17th of March. By means of floodgates, the water is then permitted to flow over the fields, and to remain on the ground five days, at the depth of several inches.The object of this drenching is to sprout the seeds, as it is technically called. The water is next drawn off, and the ground allowed to dry, until rice has risen to what is termed four leaves high, or between three and four inches. This requires about a month. The fields are then again overflowed, and they remain submerged for upwards of a fortnight, to destroy the grass and weeds. These processes bring matters to the 17th of May, after which the ground is allowed to remain dry till the 15th of July, during which interval it is repeatedly hoed, to remove such weeds as have not been effectually drowned, and also to loosen the soil. The water is then for the last time introduced, in order that the rice may be brought to maturity—and it actually ripens while standing in the water. The Harvest commences about the end of August, and extends into October. It is all cut by the male Slaves, who use a sickle, while he women made it up into bundles. As it seems that no ingenuity has been able to overcome the difficulty of thrashing the grains out by machinery, with breaking them, the whole of this part of the process is done with hand flails in a court yard.
The cultivation of rice was described to me as by far the most unhealthy work in which the slaves were employed; and, in spite of every care, that they sank under it in great numbers. The causes of this dreadful mortality, are the constant moisture and heat of the atmosphere, together with the alternate floodings and dryings of the fields, on which the negroes are perpetually at work, often ankle deep in mud, with their bare heads exposed to the fierce rays of the sun. At such seasons, most white men leave the spot as a matter of course, and proceed to the high grounds; or, if they can afford it, travel northward to the springs of Saratoga or the lakes of Canada.
In most cases, planters contrived to make everything which they require on their own estates. All the cooper’s and carpenter’s work, for example, was done by the slaves of each plantation. Domestic slaves, I discovered, were better fed and clothed and generally better treated than those employed out of doors; but what was odd enough, that everywhere the slaves preferred the field work, chiefly, as far as I could learn, from its being definite in amount, which left them a certain portion of the day entirely to themselves. This privilege has become virtually a right in many places.
DOCUMENT 9: Account of Emily Burke, a Northern schoolteacher who served in South Carolina for a number of years in the 1760s. Fragments form a memoir published in 1784.
The slaves proceeded to prepare the ground for planting. The ground there is reckoned by tasks instead of acres. The work is generally executed by hand, and the women are engaged as well as the men. If a person is asked the extent of a certain piece of land, he is told it contains so many tasks, accordingly so many tasks are assigned for a day’s work. In hoeing corn, three tasks are considered a good day’s work for a man, two for a woman and one and a half for a boy or girl fourteen or fifteen years old.
Though the slaves in general, notwithstanding all their hard day’s toils, had their happy hours, their was one old woman on the plantation who always looked cast down and sorrowful, and never appeared to take any interest in what caused the joy and mirth of those around her. She was one of Africa’s own home born daughters, and she never had forgotten those who nursed her infancy, nor the playmates of her childhood’s happy hours. She told me she was stolen one day while gathering shells into a little basket on the seashore, when she was about ten years old, and crowded into a vessel with a good many of her own race, and from that day she had never seen one of her own kindred, though she had always hoped that providence might bring some of them her way; “but now,” she replied, “I begin to despair of ever seeing those faces which are still fresh in my memory, for now I am an old woman, and shall soon get through all my troubles and sorrows, and I only think now of meeting them in heaven.”
Of all the house-servants, I thought the task of cook was most laborious. Though Phebe did no other housework, she was obliged to do everything belonging to the kitchen department. After having cooked the victuals and washed the dishes she goes about making preparations for the next morning’s meal. In the first place she goes into the woods to gather sticks and dried limbs of trees, which she ties in bundles and brings to the kitchen on her head, with which to kindle the morning fire. When this is done she has all the corn to grind for the hominy and bread, then the evening’s preparations are completed. In the morning she is obliged to rise very early, for she has every article of food which comes onto the table to cook, nothing ever being prepared until the hour it is needed. When she has gone through with all the duties connected with the morning’s repast, then she goes about the dinner, bringing fuel from the woods, grinding corn, etc.
DOCUMENT 10: Traveler’s account of William Thompson, a Scottish weaver who visited South Carolina in the 1760s.
On my arrival in South Carolina, the first thing that particularly attracted my attention was negro slavery. Two days after my arrival at Pedee Plantation, the quarterly meeting of the Baptist Church occurred, being Sunday the 11th of October 1763; and, as I understood that some sixteen or eighteen negro slaves were baptized, I went to the river at seven o’ clock, and found the banks crowded with some hundreds of black faces, and few white people.