“A majority of the large plantations are on the banks of rivers, far from the public eye.  A great deal of low marshy ground lies in the vicinity of most of the rivers at the south; consequently the main roads are several miles from the rivers, and generally no public road passes the plantations.  A stranger traveling on the ridge, would think himself in a miserably poor country; but every two or three miles he will see a road turning off and leading into the swamp; taking one of those roads, and traveling from two to six miles, he will come to a large gate; passing which, he will find himself in a clearing of several hundred acres of the first quality of land; passing on, he will see 30, or 40, or more slaves—­men, women, boys and girls, at their task, every one with a hoe; or, if in cotton picking season, with their baskets.  The overseer, with his whip, either riding or standing about among them; or if the weather is hot, sitting under a shade.  At a distance, on a little rising ground, if such there be, he will see a cluster of huts, with a tolerable house in the midst, for the overseer.  Those huts are from ten to fifteen feet square, built of logs, and covered, not with shingles, but with boards, about four feet long, split out of pine timber with a ‘frow’.  The floors are very commonly made in this way.  Clay is first worked until it is soft; it is then spread upon the ground, about four or five inches thick; when it dries, it becomes nearly as hard as a brick.  The crevices between the logs are sometimes filled with the same.  These huts generally cost the master nothing—­they are commonly built by the negroes at night, and on Sundays.  When a slave of a neighboring plantation takes a wife, or to use the phrase common at the south, ‘takes up’ with one of the women, he builds a hut, and it is called her house.  Upon entering these huts, (not as comfortable in many instances as the horse stable,) generally, you will find no chairs, but benches and stools; no table, no bedstead, and no bed, except a blanket or two, and a few rags or moss; in some instances a knife or two, but very rarely a fork.  You may also find a pot or skillet, and generally a number of gourds, which serve them instead of bowls and plates.  The cruelties practiced on those secluded plantations, the judgment day alone can reveal.  Oh, Brother, could I summon ten slaves from ten plantations that I could name, and have them give but one year’s history of their bondage, it would thrill the land with horror.  Those overseers who follow the business of overseeing for a livelihood, are generally the most unprincipled and abandoned of men.  Their wages are regulated according to their skill in extorting labor.  The one who can make the most bags of cotton, with a given number of hands, is the one generally sought after; and there is a competition among them to see who shall make the largest crop, according to the hands he works.  I ask, what must be the condition of the poor slaves, under the unlimited