9. Slaves under overseers whose wages are proportioned to the crop which they raise. This is an arrangement common in the slave states, and in its practical operation is equivalent to a bounty on hard driving—­a virtual premium offered to overseers to keep the slaves whipped up to the top of their strength.  Even where the overseer has a fixed salary, irrespective of the value of the crop which he takes off, he is strongly tempted to overwork the slaves, as those overseers get the highest wages who can draw the largest income from a plantation with a given number of slaves; so that we may include in this last class of slaves, the majority of all those who are under overseers, whatever the terms on which those overseers are employed.

Another class of slaves may be mentioned; we refer to the slaves of masters who bet upon their crops.  In the cotton and sugar region there is a fearful amount of this desperate gambling, in which, though money is the ostensible stake and forfeit, human life is the real one.  The length to which this rivalry is carried at the south and south west, the multitude of planters who engage in it, and the recklessness of human life exhibited in driving the murderous game to its issue, cannot well be imagined by one who has not lived in the midst of it.  Desire of gain is only one of the motives that stimulates them;—­the eclat of having made the largest crop with a given number of hands, is also a powerful stimulant; the southern newspapers, at the crop season, chronicle carefully the “cotton brag,” and the “crack cotton picking,” and “unparalleled driving,” &c.  Even the editors of professedly religious papers, cheer on the melee and sing the triumphs of the victor.  Among these we recollect the celebrated Rev. J.N.  Maffit, recently editor of a religious paper at Natchez, Miss. in which he took care to assign a prominent place, and capitals to “THE COTTON BRAG.”  The testimony of Mr. Bliss, page 38, details some of the particulars of this betting upon crops.  All the preceding classes of slaves are in circumstances which make it “for the interest of their masters,” or those who have the management of them, to treat them cruelly.

Besides the operation of the causes already specified, which make it for the interest of masters and overseers to treat cruelly certain classes of their slaves, a variety of others exist, which make it for their interest to treat cruelly the great body of their slaves.  These causes are, the nature of certain kinds of products, the kind of labor required in cultivating and preparing them for market, the best times for such labor, the state of the market, fluctuations in prices, facilities for transportation, the weather, seasons, &c. &c.  Some of the causes which operate to produce this are—­

1. The early market.  If the planter can get his crop into market early, he may save thousands which might be lost if it arrived later.