Page:The cotton kingdom (Volume 1).djvu/165

 Arrived at their destination, a rude camp is made; huts of logs, poles, shingles, and boughs being built, usually, upon some places where shingles have been worked before, and in which the shavings have accumulated in small hillocks upon the soft surface of the ground.

The slave lumberman then lives measurably as a free man; hunts, fishes, eats, drinks, smokes and sleeps, plays and works, each when and as much as he pleases. It is only required of him that he shall have made, after half a year has passed, such a quantity of shingles as shall be worth to his master so much money as is paid to his owner for his services, and shall refund the value of the clothing and provisions he has required.

No "driving" at his work is attempted or needed. No force is used to overcome the indolence peculiar to the negro. The overseer merely takes a daily account of the number of shingles each man adds to the general stock, and employs another set of hands, with mules, to draw them to a point from which they can be shipped, and where they are, from time to time, called for by a schooner.

At the end of five months the gang returns to dry land, and a statement of account from the overseer's book is drawn up, something like the following:—

Sam Bo to John Doe, Dr.

Feb. 1. To clothing (outfit)                                 $5 00 Mar. 10. To clothing, as per overseer's account               2 25 Feb. 1. To bacon and meal (outfit)                           19 00 July 1. To stores drawn in swamp, as per overseer's account   4 75 July 1. To half-yearly hire, paid his owner. 50 00                                                            $81 00

Per Contra, Cr.

July 1. By 10,000 shingles, as per overseer's account, 10c  100 00 Balance due Sambo                                             $19 00