The family showed no particular signs of decay until he had married a second time, and had considerably increased his number of children.  It then became evident that his older children were not educated for active business, and were only destined to be a charge.  Of sons, (seven or eight,) not one of them reached the eminence once occupied by the father.  The only one that approached to it, was the eldest, who became an officer in the navy, and obtained the doubtful glory of being killed in the Mexican war.

General R. himself ran through his vast estate, died intemperate, and left a widow and large number of daughters, some minors, destitute, and none of his sons fitted for any employment but in the army and navy.

Slaves have a superstitious dread of passing the dilapidated dwelling of a man who has been guilty of great cruelties to his slaves, and who is dead, or moved away.  I never felt this dread deeply but once, and that was one Sabbath about sunset, as I crossed the yard of General R.’s residence, which was about two miles from us, after he had been compelled to leave it.

To see the once fine smooth gravel walks, overgrown with grass—­the redundances of the shrubbery neglected—­the once finely painted pricket fences, rusted and fallen down—­a fine garden in splendid ruins—­the lofty ceiling of the mansion thickly curtained with cobwebs—­the spacious apartments abandoned, while the only music heard within as a substitute for the voices of family glee that once filled it, was the crying cricket and cockroaches!  Ignorant slave as I was at that time, I could but pause for a moment, and recur in silent horror to the fact that, a strange reverse of fortune, had lately driven from that proud mansion, a large and once opulent family.  What advantage was it now to the members of that family, that the father and head had for near half a century stood high in the counsels of the state, and had the benefit of the unrequited toil of hundreds of his fellowmen, when they were already grappling with the annoyances of that poverty, which he had entailed upon others.

My master’s family, in wealth and influence, was not inferior to General R.’s originally.  His father was a member of the convention that framed the present constitution of the state; he was, also, for some years chief justice of the state.

My master was never equal to his father, although he stood high at one time.  He once lacked but a few votes of being elected Governor of the state:  he once sat in the Assembly, and was generally a leading man in his own county.  His influence was found to be greatest when exerted in favour of any measure in regard to the control of slaves.  He was the first mover in several cruel and rigid municipal regulations in the county, which prohibited slaves from going over a certain number of miles from their master’s places on the Sabbath, and from being seen about the town.  He once instigated the authorities of the town where he attended service, to break up a Sabbath-school some humane members of the Methodist and Lutheran denominations had set up to teach the free negroes, lest the slaves should get some benefit of it.