Slave Life in Georgia - African American History

Slave Life in Georgia 30
24.03.2006
Stevens about ten years when Morgan
Page 55
came into our neighbourhood. He did not like Slavery, though he was not what
people called an Abolitionist. He came quite resolved to employ only freelabour,
and he hired free men, both coloured and white, to whom he paid regular
wages, as agreed upon between them. He did much better than the planters his
neighbours. His cotton was much better, and fetched a higher price in the
market. The reason was that his men were not forced to pick the cotton in the
wet, so the fibre came out cleaner. He made a good deal of money, and it was
known to all the people about, that he said free-labour was better and more
profitable than slave-labour. He was a good man, too, of a kind, Christian
disposition, and always spoke gently to the black folks as well as to the white.
The planters got jealous of him, because he always had the best of the market,
and they began to frown upon him. They said he would spoil all their niggers,
injure the settlement, and damage the system of Slavery, so he must be got rid
of. They used to get together and talk the matter over, and they met in this way a
good many times. We slaves knew something was going on, but we durst not
say a word. At last Stevens was spoken to.
Page 56
They asked him to try and "get shut" of Morgan. Stevens said he would consider
how it was to be done. Some days after, he told them he had hit upon a plan. It
was to buy his land. It seems the plan met their views, for they got very merry
over it, and went away laughing and joking. But Morgan did not all at once fall
into the trap. He declined parting with his land, because it was bringing him in a
good living. Stevens, however, offered him a double price. The bait took, and he
was paid in promissory notes. Soon after the purchase was completed, he left his
own farm-house, on the estate, and went to live in a smaller dwelling on the top
of an adjoining hill, quite away from any other inhabited house, though still in
the neighbourhood of the plantations. He soon found out that he had been
tricked, for when the bills he held fell due, the parties who had signed them did
not meet the demand, and Morgan could not get his money. On his applying to
them, and complaining of the hardship of his case, they laughed at him; and
when he threatened he would take the law of them, they defied him. And well
they might, as they knew they could secure the lawyers on their side.
Well, John Morgan went to law, bringing suits