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
other things that the State left to the control of its officials.
“Am I to be punished in this miserable place? Why, I cannot see where
I'm going; and have I nothing to lay down upon but the floor, and that
creeping with live creatures?” inquired Manuel of those who were already
inured to the hardship.
“Nothing! nothing! Bring your mind to realize the worst, and forget the
cruelty while you are suffering it; they let us out a part of the day.
We are locked up to-day because one of the assistants stole my friend's
liquor, and he dared to accuse him of the theft, because he was a white
man,” said a tall, fine-looking mulatto man by the name of James Redman,
who was steward on board a Thomastown (Maine) ship, and declared that he
had visited Charleston on a former occasion, and by paying five dollars
to one of the officers, remained on board of the ship unmolested.
“And how long shall I have to suffer in this manner?” inquired Manuel.
“Can I not have my own bed and clothing?”
“Oh, yes,” said Redman; “you can have them, but if you bring them here,
they'll not be worth anything when you leave; and the prisoners upon
this floor are so starved and destitute, that necessity forces them
to steal whatever comes in their way; and the assistants are as much
implicated as the prisoners. You'll fare hard; but just do as we do in
a calm, wait for the wind to blow, and pray for the best. If you say any
thing, or grumble about it, the sheriff will order you locked, up on the
third story, and that's worse than death itself. The first thing you do,
make preparations for something to eat. We pay for it here, but don't
get it; and you'd starve afore you'd eat what they give them poor white
prisoners. They suffer worse than we do, only they have cleaner rooms.”
“I pray for my deliverance from such a place as this.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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