Slave Life in Georgia - African American History

Slave Life in Georgia 19
24.03.2006
brave look and a noble carriage. He was, moreover, upright in conduct, and of
thrifty habits. In fact, save in one particular, he was altogether such a youth as
would be most likely to find favour in the eyes of the "Lancashire witches." But,
alas, John was as black as a coal, and though many admired, none of the
Liverpool lasses would "have him for a husband at any price:" at least so the
report went out, when it became bruited that he was going to marry the farmer's
daughter. For his part, John said, when he heard it, "that he had never asked
them to have him." He felt, in fact, quite happy in the affection of the girl he had
chosen, and who had consented to take him for a partner, in spite of his
complexion and very woolly hair. So they were
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married, the young woman's relatives taking her view of matters, and coinciding
in the opinion that it was wise in her to marry the man she loved, whose sterling
qualities she had learned to appreciate.
Being married, however, was not all. John had saved money, it is true, but not
sufficient to support a wife in idleness. On the other hand, his spouse's relatives
were not in a position to assist them much. They were in a small way; and
though the farmer worked hard a-field, and his dame tended the dairy and sold
eggs and butter at market, their united labours, aided by the good wife's
economy, proved barely adequate to meet the expenses of a large family, or left
but the smallest surplus sometimes to put by against the contingency of failing
crops. Thus the young couple saw that they must depend upon their own
exertions, and they set to work accordingly. Through the father's interest, they
got into a small farm in the neighbourhood, and John Glasgow invested his
savings in the purchase of three horses, a plough, and a cart. As his wife had
been accustomed to farming operations, she agreed to attend to the concerns of
the farm; whilst John--who, though well acquainted with
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the economy of a vessel, from her kelson to her signal halyards, knew nothing at
all about farming--determined to continue his calling, and therefore engaged
himself as an able-bodied seaman, on board one of the many vessels trading
between Liverpool and the West Indies. At the end of his second voyage he
found himself the father of a fine brown baby, over which he shed many tears
when the time came for him to leave port again. But John and his wife
prospered, he in his vocation, she at her farm; and as he had managed to add