After remaining a few days in Tallahassee, I took the conveyance to
Macon in Georgia, intending to pursue my route overland to Charleston in
South Carolina. In the diligence (a clumsy apology for a coach) from
Tallahassee to Macon, were several loquacious passengers. One of these
amused and disgusted us by turns; for, after giving an epitome of his
career, which was a chequered one, he related an incident that had
recently occurred on a plantation he had been visiting, and, as it
presents a novel feature in the asserted rights of slave-holders--how
profane, I will not stop to inquire--I think it worth recording. After a
recital of a drunken debauch, in which he had taken a part, described by
him as a frolic, and which had been kept up for several days, his host,
he said, anxious to show the high sense he entertained of the honour of
the visit by making almost any sacrifice (this was said with great
conceit), proposed to put a negro up with an apple on his head, in
imitation of the ordeal imposed on William Tell, the Swiss patriot,
declaring that he who divided the apple, or perforated it with a
rifle-ball, should own the slave.
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