him, gave him the statement and the money, and told him he must go. He knew that he had failed of his duty, and that the law would sustain me, and we parted in a friendly manner, he expressing regret that his temper had driven him from a situation which had been agreeable and satisfactory to him. The probability is, that this single experience educated him so far that his next employer would have no occasion to complain of his "rascality;" and I very much doubt if any amount of corporeal punishment would have improved his temper in the least.
"Sogering."—That slaves have to be "humoured" a great
deal, and that they very frequently cannot be made to do their
master's will, I have seen much evidence. Not that they often
directly refuse to obey an order, but when they are directed
to do anything for which they have a disinclination, they
undertake it in such a way that the desired result is sure
not to be accomplished. They cannot be driven by fear of
punishment to do that which the labourers in free communities
do cheerfully from their sense of duty, self-respect, or
regard for their reputation and standing with their employer.
A gentleman who had some free men in his employment in
Virginia, that he had procured in New York, told me that
he had been astonished, when a dam that he had been building
began to give way in a freshet, to see how much more
readily than negroes they would obey his orders, and do
their best without orders, running into the water waist-deep,
in mid-winter, without any hesitation or grumbling.
The manager of a large candle-factory in London, in which the labourers are treated with an unusual degree of confidence and generosity, writes thus in a report to his directors:—
"The present year promises to be a very good one as regards profit, in
consequence of the enormous increase in the demand for candles. No
