Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South CarolinaAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
African Americans -- Fiction; Biographical fiction; Pereira, Manuel -- Fiction; South Carolina -- Fiction
“My good fellow,” said the mate, “if you can get our steward out a
limbo, you'll be doing us all a good turn, and we'll remember you as
long as we pull a brace.”
“You may reckon on me, Mister Mate; and if I a'n't down before six
o'clock, my father will certainly take the matter in hand; and he and
Mazyck belong to the secession party, and control things just as they
please at Columbia.” So saying, George bid the old mate good morning,
and bent his course for the head of the wharf.
“There,” said the old mate, “it's just what I thought all along; I knew
my presentiment would come true. I'll wager a crown they treat Manuel
like a dog in that old prison, and don't get him out until he is
mildewed; or perhaps they'll sell him for a slave a'cos he's got curly
black hair and a yellow skin. Now I'm a hardy sailor, but I've sailed
around the world about three times, and know something of nature. Now ye
may note it as clear as the north star, prisons in slave countries a'n't
fit for dogs. They may tell about their fine, fat, slick, saucy niggers,
but a slave's a slave--his master's property, a piece of merchandise,
his chattel, or his football-thankful for what his master may please to
give him, and inured to suffer the want of what he withholds. Yes,
he must have his thinking stopped by law, and his back lashed at his
master's will, if he don't toe the mark in work. Men's habits and
associations form their feelings and character, and it's just so with
them fellers; they've become so accustomed to looking upon a nigger as
a mere tool of labor--lordin' it over him, starving him, and lashing
him-that they associate the exercise of the same feelings and actions
with every thing connected with labor, without paying any respect to a
poor white man's feelings,” continued the mate, addressing himself to
his second, as they sat upon the companion, waiting for the Captain to
come on board and give further orders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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