"We are informed that a negro man, the property of Mr. William Mays, of this city, was killed last Thursday by a youth, the son of Mr. William Payne, of Campbell county. The following are the circumstances, as we have received them. Two sons of Mr. Payne were shooting pigeons on the plantation of Mr. Mays, about twenty miles from this place, and went to the tobacco-house, where the overseer and hands were housing tobacco; one of the boys had a string of pigeons and the other had none. On reaching the house, the negro who was killed asked the boy who had no pigeons, 'where his were.' He replied that he killed none, but could kill him (the negro), and raised his gun and fired. The load took effect in the head, and caused death in a few hours. The negro was a valuable one. Mr. Mays had refused $1,200 for him."—Lynchburg Virginian.
"A valuable negro boy, the property of W. A. Phipps, living in the upper end of this county, was accidentally drowned in the Holston river a few days ago."—Rogersville Times.
"Mr. Tilghman Cobb's barn at Bedford, Va., was set fire to by lightning on Friday, the 11th, and consumed. Two negroes and three horses perished in the flames."—New Orleans Daily Crescent.
I have repeated these accounts, not to convey to the reader's
mind the impression that slaves are frequently shot by their
masters, which would be, no doubt, a mistaken inference, but
to show in what manner I was made to feel, as I was very
strongly in my journey, that what we call the sacredness of
human life, together with a great range of kindred instincts,
scarcely attaches at all, with most white men, to the slaves,
and also in order to justify the following observation:—that I
found the lives and the comfort of negroes, in the rich cotton-planting
districts especially, habitually regarded, by all
classes, much more from a purely pecuniary point of view
than I had ever before supposed they could be; and yet
that, as property, negro life and negro vigour were generally
much less carefully economized than I had always before
imagined them to be.
As I became familiar with the circumstances, I saw reasons for this, which, in looking from a distance, or through the eyes of travellers, I had not been able adequately to appreciate. I will endeavour to state them:—
