When I first knew Mr. Swan’s plantation, his overseer was a man who had been a Methodist minister.  He treated the slaves with great cruelty.  His reason for leaving the ministry and becoming an overseer, as I was informed, was this:  his wife died, at which providence he was so enraged, that he swore he would not preach for the Lord another day.  This man continued on the plantation about three years; at the close of which, on settlement of accounts, Mr. Swan owed him about $400, for which he turned him out a negro woman, and about twenty acres of land.  He built a log hut, and took the woman to live with him; since which, I have been at his hut, and seen four or five mulatto children.  He has been appointed justice of the peace, and his place as overseer was afterwards occupied by a Mr. Galloway.

It is customary in that part of the country, to let the hogs run in the woods.  On one occasion a slave caught a pig about two months old, which he carried to his quarters.  The overseer, getting information of the fact, went to the field where he was at work, and ordered him to come to him.  The slave at once suspected it was something about the pig, and fearing punishment, dropped his hoe and ran for the woods.  He had got but a few rods, when the overseer raised his gun, loaded with duck shot, and brought him down.  It is a common practice for overseers to go into the field armed with a gun or pistols, and sometimes both.  He was taken up by the slaves and carried to the plantation hospital, and the physician sent for.  A physician was employed by the year to take care of the sick or wounded slaves.  In about six weeks this slave got better, and was able to come out of the hospital.  He came to the mill where I was at work, and asked me to examine his body, which I did, and counted twenty-six duck shot still remaining in his flesh, though the doctor had removed a number while he was laid up.

There was a slave on Mr. Swan’s plantation, by the name of Harry, who, during the absence of his master, ran away and secreted himself is the woods.  This the slaves sometimes do, when the master is absent for several weeks, to escape the cruel treatment of the overseer.  It is common for them to make preparations, by secreting a mortar, a hatchet, some cooking utensils, and whatever things they can get that will enable them to live while they are in the woods or swamps.  Harry staid about three months, and lived by robbing the rice grounds, and by such other means as came in his way.  The slaves generally know where the runaway is secreted, and visit him at night and on Sundays.  On the return of his master, some of the slaves were sent for Harry.  When he came home, he was seized and confined in the stocks.  The stocks were built in the barn, and consisted of two heavy pieces of timber, ten or more feet in length, and about seven inches wide; the lower one, on the floor, has a number of holes or places cut in it, for the ancles; the upper piece, being of the same