[Footnote 34:  Olmsted, Seaboard Slave States, pp. 550, 551.]

Truancy was a problem in somewhat the same class with disease, disability and death, since for industrial purposes a slave absent was no better than a slave sick, and a permanent escape was the equivalent of a death on the plantation.  The character of the absconding was various.  Some slaves merely took vacations without leave, some fled in postponement of threatened punishments, and most of the rest made resolute efforts to escape from bondage altogether.

Occasionally, however, a squad would strike in a body as a protest against severities.  An episode of this sort was recounted in a letter of a Georgia overseer to his absent employer:  “Sir:  I write you a few lines in order to let you know that six of your hands has left the plantation—­every man but Jack.  They displeased me with their worke and I give some of them a few lashes, Tom with the rest.  On Wednesday morning they were missing.  I think they are lying out until they can see you or your uncle Jack, as he is expected daily.  They may be gone off, or they may be lying round in this neighbourhood, but I don’t know.  I blame Tom for the whole.  I don’t think the rest would of left the plantation if Tom had not of persuaded them of for some design.  I give Tom but a few licks, but if I ever get him in my power I will have satisfaction.  There was a part of them had no cause for leaving, only they thought if they would all go it would injure me moore.  They are as independent a set for running of as I have ever seen, and I think the cause is they have been treated too well.  They want more whipping and no protecter; but if our country is so that negroes can quit their homes and run of when they please without being taken they will have the advantage of us.  If they should come in I will write to you immediately and let you know.” [35]

[Footnote 35:  Letter of I.E.H.  Harvey, Jefferson County, Georgia, April 16, 1837, to H.C.  Flournoy, Athens, Ga.  MS. in private possession.  Punctuation and capitals, which are conspicuously absent in the original, have here been supplied for the sake of clarity.]

Such a case is analogous to that of wage-earning laborers on strike for better conditions of work.  The slaves could not negotiate directly at such a time, but while they lay in the woods they might make overtures to the overseer through slaves on a neighboring plantation as to terms upon which they would return to work, or they might await their master’s posthaste arrival and appeal to him for a redress of grievances.  Humble as their demeanor might be, their power of renewing the pressure by repeating their flight could not be ignored.  A happy ending for all concerned might be reached by mutual concessions and pledges.  That the conclusion might be tragic is illustrated in a Louisiana instance where the plantation was in charge of a negro foreman.  Eight slaves after lying out for some weeks because of his cruelty and