The overseers of his many plantations, and his “master” carpenters, millers, and gardeners, were quite as great trials as his slaves. First “young Stephens” gave him much trouble, which his diary reports in a number of sententious entries: “visited my Plantation. Severely reprimanded young Stephens for his Indolence, and his father for suffering it;” “forbid Stephens keeping any horses upon my expence;” “visited my quarters & ye Mill, according to custom found young Stephens absent;” “visited my Plantation and found to my great surprise Stephens constantly at work;” “rid out to my Plantn. and to my Carpenters. Found Richard Stephens hard at work with an ax—Very extraordinary this!” Again he records, “Visited my Plantations—found Foster had been absent from his charge since the 28th ulto. Left orders for him to come immediately to me upon his return, and repremanded him severely.” Of another, Simpson, “I never hear … without a degree of warmth & vexation at his extreme stupidity,” and elsewhere he expresses his disgust at “that confounded fellow Simpson.” A third spent all the fall and half the winter in getting in his crop, and “if there was any way of making such a rascal as Garner pay for such conduct, no punishment would be too great for him. I suppose he never turned out of mornings until the sun had warmed the earth, and if _he_ did not, the _negros_ would not.” His chief overseer was directed to “Let Mr. Crow know that I view with a very evil eye the frequent reports made by him of sheep dying;… frequent _natural deaths_ is a very strong evidence to my mind of the want of care or something worse.” Curious distinctions were made oftentimes. Thus, in the contract with an overseer, one clause was inserted to the effect, “And whereas there are a number of whiskey stills very contiguous to the said Plantations, and many idle, drunken and dissolute People continually resorting to the same, priding themselves in debauching sober and well-inclined Persons, the said Edd Voilett doth promise as well for his own sake as his employers to avoid them as he ought.” To the contrary, in hiring a gardener, it was agreed as part of the compensation that the man should have “four dollars at Christmas, with which he may be drunk for four days and four nights; two dollars at Easter to effect the same purpose; two dollars at Whitsuntide to be drunk for two days; a dram in the morning, and a drink of grog at dinner at noon.”