The Pedee Plantation
by: Marcus Rediker
The difficulty which most frequently daunts the historian,
in dealing with evidence, is precisely that which most often
disturbs judge and jury: there is not enough of it….
History is frequently an attempt to find the correct answer
To equations which have been half erased.
--Allen Nevins
Your assignment is to read the following documents in a critical and imaginative manner and to
reconstruct, as fully and as accurately as you can, life as it existed on Pedee Plantation in the
year 1760. It is your task to analyze these documents, to scrutinize them and extract what can
be learned from them. You are first to pick a topic in consultation with the instructor.
All of the information you need for this assignment is contained herein. The eleven documents
contain a wide variety of themes and they permit many different kinds of analysis. You must
realize that you cannot analyze everything in the documents. You must therefore pick a topic
with several interrelated dimensions and explore it systematically. Be sure that your paper is
well organized.
Pedee Plantation
1760
3 Oxcarts
2 Large iron pots for Negro Victuals
15
7
We the Subscribers do Certifie that we have duly appraised the estate of William Butler, Esq.
this 16th day of November 1760, witness our hands
Samuel Waddingham, head overseer; Stephen Brown, overseer; John O’Neill, Overseer;
William Butler Jr., manager; Josiah Smith, attorney
Document 2: Letter from William Butler, Jr. to William Butler Sr., November 30, 1760.
Dear Father,
So far Henry’s wounds are doing well & unless an abscess should form in the lower one I
apprehend no serious result. They are beginning to heal. I cut loose the stitches today &
afterwards reapplied the adhesive plaster with some healing salve. Doubtless Henry’s rib is the
only thing that saved his life.
I told O’Neill very flatly & solemnly that I could not justify him in cutting Henry nor do I
believe anyone could, even by his own account. He says tho’ that as negroe and whiteman he can
free his conscience & it is this relation& this alone that he can justify himself in his intent to
Murder. The circumstances are these:
Henry & Quackow was ordered to have the negroes rise before days 2 hours and get to
the fields, says O’Neill, and when he got up it was nearly day and nobody was out. He met
Quackow & whipped him & afterward Henry; he ordered him to take his britches down but
Henry said he didn’t deserve no whipping. O’Neill repeated his order, was again refused. He
then attempted to whip Henry but the latter grabbed O’Neill and threw him on his back. In this
position, O’Neill Threatened him to let go or he would cut him. Henry refused and O’Neill
stabbed.
Now in the first place the negroes were up on time & nobody deserved a whipping. The
truth is I think that O’Neill got up in the morning in a passion, came across Henry, and wanted to
whip someone; when Henry resisted, O’Neill tried to kill him. At least in your settlement I hope
you will require the Doctor’s bill of him.
I have talked the matter over with him calmly (though he is much disposed to rise in
temper) and have decided to fire him. We can’t tolerate such treatment of out people. I had the
whole crowd that run off after this incident whipped. I fear that the firing of O’Neill might
occasion the slaves to think that they had won some kind of victory since they didn’t like him
anyway. I’ll probably have to tighten up discipline a bit.
I sent Pompey and Primus down the river this week with several barrels. Rice prices seem
to be declining. I got old Boston back to work today; that old cagey devil has been laying up
complaining of the toothache which I doubt he had. Cumberland and Eva have been sick a bit
with fever, likewise a few of the children. Liverpool just returned having been run way for two
weeks. I wanted to go into town this week to buy some supplies but couldn’t leave Henry in this
condition. All is going fairly well.
Yours affectionately
W.B. Jr.
DOCUMENT 3: Letter from Samuel Waddingham to Josiah Smith requesting the purchase of materials
in Charleston, October 12, 1760.
Dear Mr. Smith,
I have been instructed by William Butler, Jr. to requisition you for the material to have some
Comfortable Negro Houses put up which we are much in need of. Six are to be built of lumber on a 2 or 3
brick foundation with a brick Chimney in the Centre. The size is to be 32 by 14 to be able to cleverly
accommodate two families each some of whom are now pretty large. We seek the above all else durability
in building these houses, and likeness to those we have.
Mr. Butler also requests that you keep your eye out for slaves---young Men & Women but not of
the Ebo country. We seek people from Congo and Angola. We are all pretty here now being almost
recovered from the ague season.
Yours,
S. Waddingham
DOCUMENT 4: Letter from William Butler, Sr. to William Butler, Jr., July 22, 1760
Dear Son,
I gladly received your letter of the 12th instant am so pleased to hear that the crops appears
abundant this season. I advise you to encourage the negroes perseverance by treating them with a Suit of
Osnaburgs each, also some Beef & Liquor to be given after hoeing is all over.
I am pleased to hear that brown is very sober, honest & industrious Man and so much unlike the
Worthless Liquor-Loving chap named French that we so recently fired. I trust that Waddingham is doing
his usual fine job and that he has explained much of the work to you.
I am sorry to hear that Cudjo is still plagued by the stubborn venereal disease and that Sampson’s
wife Phillis has passed away with the yaws. Tell all of my people that I will return to Pedee so that I can
spend Christmas with them and with you and your family.
I sincerely hope that you and your dearest wife Lucille are finding the quarters comfortable there
at Pedee. I bid you please mind your health with greatest concern. Contact either myself in London or Mr.
Josiah Smith in Charleston should you need any goods or services.
Affectionately,
Wm Butler, Esquire
DOCUMENT 5: An advertisement placed in the Charleston Courier by William Butler, Jr. on September
2, 1760.
RUNAWAY: A well set, robust Negro Man Slave, much pitted with the small-pox; he was recently
bought from the West Indies where he acquired a peculiar way of Speaking and seems to frown when he
talks. Is of Ebo blood. Answers to the name Quash and is a cunning fellow. Ran away from Pedee
Plantation in early August. May be in Charleston area trying to find his Wife.
DOCUMENT 6: Letter from William Butler, Sr. to William Butler, Jr., September 27, 1760.
Dearest Son,
Thank you for your letter of the 10th. I was most concerned to hear that Lucille is suffering a
bilious fever. Better that than the Pox that I hear rages down the River at the Jackson and Manigault
Plantations. I demand that you cut off all visits between our People and those nearby until the illness
passes. I should hope that you have already done so since you must recall the horrible Times six years ago
when our rice lay rotting in the fields due to our Incapacities with the Small Pox. Regarding troubles with
the grubworm, Waddingham knows full well what to do. You need not send all such questions to me.
Running away and laying are common this time of Year, so do not be distressed. But neither
should you accept every trifling Excuse offered up for the Rice must be harvested quickly. Certainly we
do not have enough Man-power to hire-out any of our people; I am generally opposed to the practice
besides.
Both Liverpool and Jack should be severely punished for their running. Daniel less so. That Paris
should run makes me suspect that he was mistreated. Look into this matter and punish as seems
necessary. Quakow should be heavily censured for his dishonesty and told that I personally will degrade
him from his present Office as Driver to that of Field Hand if he does not again walk the straight and
narrow, and soon. These things are all the more worrying because of the horrid news from Jamaica.
Nonetheless, you should soon begin ordering necessaries for the Christmas Festivities. As always
I will be there to partake of the Merriment. I think often of the whole family, both white and black.
Affectionately,
Wm Butler, Esquire
DOCUMENT 7: Fragments from a diary kept by William Butler, Sr.
April 14, 1760: Tarter has sense and industry enough to be a Driver but is lacking Honesty. I believe he
leads the thief rings that butcher the plantation livestock at all hours of the night. Whipping him seems to
make all the more defiant his Bearing. Very soon I shall have to get Cupid to train two boys as carpenter.
April 24, 1760: The Negroes complained bitterly to me that O’Neill and Waddingham and French have
been working them too hard. This I doubt but took great pains to listen closely to their claims. I have
decided to give them half day off on Saturday provided they work well until then.
May 10, 1760: Had to administer a rash of whippings today after I was informed that six Cattle and three
Sows had been killed by the Slaves. It became clear that Quaco was behind all this, and had to personally
give him prolonged beating and then put him in the Stocks for the greater Ridicule. Besides this, the
hearts of so many Planters in this region are in aching condition because of a sudden and almost general
Spread of the Catterpillar worm that made sad Havock on several Plantations.
May 19, 1760: I have finally made my arrangements to go to visit Brother in London. Though I greatly
fear what will become of the Plantation in my Absence. Waddingham is dependable as is Henry and if he
can hold his temper, O’Neill. But French is much too Saucy and woefully irresponsible. I hope that my
son does not meet with impossible times. The Slaves will surely test him, but I have forewarned him of
Matters of this type.
May 21, 1760: unfortunate news from Mr. Manigault up the River today. It appears that either due to the
careless or the malicious behaviour of his Slaves, a most Serious Destructive fire broke out on his
Plantation late last night. Much of his produce is Lost. I believe that his Misfortunes might be connected
to his recent purchase of that lot of unseasoned New Negroes. I have on several occasions advised him
never to buy in Groups larger than ten.
DOCUMENT 8: Travelers’s account of Basil Hall, an Englishman who visited Pedee and several other
rice Plantations in the year 1758.
Pedee Plantation, at the time of my arrival, consisted of 300 acres of rice and 30 of Indian corn,
besides some minor plots for vegetables; the whole being cultivated by eighty working hands. During my
stay at several plantations I had an opportunity of being initiated into the mysteries of the cultivation of
rice, a staple of Carolina. This grain is sown in rows, in the bottom trenches made by Slave labor entirely.
These ridges lie about seventeen inches apart, from center to center. The rice is put in with the hand,
generally by the women, and is never scattered, but cast so as to fall in a line. This is done about the 17th
of March. By means of floodgates, the water is then permitted to flow over the fields, and to remain on
the ground five days, at the depth of several inches. The object of this drenching is to sprout the seeds, as
it is technically called. The water is next drawn off, and the ground allowed to dry, until rice has risen to
what is termed four leaves high, or between three and four inches. This requires about a month. The fields
are then again overflowed, and they remain submerged for upwards of a fortnight, to destroy the grass and
weeds. These processes bring matters to the 17th of May, after which the ground is allowed to remain dry
till the 15th of July, during which interval it is repeatedly hoed, to remove such weeds as have not been
effectually drowned, and also to loosen the soil. The water is then for the last time introduced, in order
that the rice may be brought to maturity—and it actually ripens while standing in the water. The Harvest
commences about the end of August, and extends into October. It is all cut by the male Slaves, who use a
sickle, while he women made it up into bundles. As it seems that no ingenuity has been able to overcome
the difficulty of thrashing the grains out by machinery, with breaking them, the whole of this part of the
process is done with hand flails in a court yard.
The cultivation of rice was described to me as by far the most unhealthy work in which the slaves
were employed; and, in spite of every care, that they sank under it in great numbers. The causes of this
dreadful mortality, are the constant moisture and heat of the atmosphere, together with the alternate
floodings and dryings of the fields, on which the negroes are perpetually at work, often ankle deep in
mud, with their bare heads exposed to the fierce rays of the sun. At such seasons, most white men leave
the spot as a matter of course, and proceed to the high grounds; or, if they can afford it, travel northward
to the springs of Saratoga or the lakes of Canada.
In most cases, planters contrived to make everything which they require on their own estates. All
the cooper’s and carpenter’s work, for example, was done by the slaves of each plantation. Domestic
slaves, I discovered, were better fed and clothed and generally better treated than those employed out of
doors; but what was odd enough, that everywhere the slaves preferred the field work, chiefly, as far as I
could learn, from its being definite in amount, which left them a certain portion of the day entirely to
themselves. This privilege has become virtually a right in many places.
DOCUMENT 9: Account of Emily Burke, a Northern schoolteacher who served in South Carolina for a
number of years in the 1760s. Fragments form a memoir published in 1784.
The slaves proceeded to prepare the ground for planting. The ground there is reckoned by tasks
instead of acres. The work is generally executed by hand, and the women are engaged as well as the men.
If a person is asked the extent of a certain piece of land, he is told it contains so many tasks, accordingly
so many tasks are assigned for a day’s work. In hoeing corn, three tasks are considered a good day’s work
for a man, two for a woman and one and a half for a boy or girl fourteen or fifteen years old.
Though the slaves in general, notwithstanding all their hard day’s toils, had their happy hours,
their was one old woman on the plantation who always looked cast down and sorrowful, and never
appeared to take any interest in what caused the joy and mirth of those around her. She was one of
Africa’s own home born daughters, and she never had forgotten those who nursed her infancy, nor the
playmates of her childhood’s happy hours. She told me she was stolen one day while gathering shells into
a little basket on the seashore, when she was about ten years old, and crowded into a vessel with a good
many of her own race, and from that day she had never seen one of her own kindred, though she had
always hoped that providence might bring some of them her way; “but now,” she replied, “I begin to
despair of ever seeing those faces which are still fresh in my memory, for now I am an old woman, and
shall soon get through all my troubles and sorrows, and I only think now of meeting them in heaven.”
Of all the house-servants, I thought the task of cook was most laborious. Though Phebe did no
other housework, she was obliged to do everything belonging to the kitchen department. After having
cooked the victuals and washed the dishes she goes about making preparations for the next morning’s
meal. In the first place she goes into the woods to gather sticks and dried limbs of trees, which she ties in
bundles and brings to the kitchen on her head, with which to kindle the morning fire. When this is done
she has all the corn to grind for the hominy and bread, then the evening’s preparations are completed. In
the morning she is obliged to rise very early, for she has every article of food which comes onto the table
to cook, nothing ever being prepared until the hour it is needed. When she has gone through with all the
duties connected with the morning’s repast, then she goes about the dinner, bringing fuel from the woods,
grinding corn, etc.
DOCUMENT 10: Traveler’s account of William Thompson, a Scottish weaver who visited South
Carolina in the 1760s.
On my arrival in South Carolina, the first thing that particularly attracted my attention was negro
slavery. Two days after my arrival at Pedee Plantation, the quarterly meeting of the Baptist Church
occurred, being Sunday the 11th of October 1763; and, as I understood that some sixteen or eighteen negro
slaves were baptized, I went to the river at seven o’ clock, and found the banks crowded with some
hundreds of black faces, and few white people.
I almost expected to see something ridiculous, but in reality the whole affair had a rather
imposing and solemn effect. The black people behaved themselves decently, and with great propriety,
much more so than a parcel of young gentlemen who were looking on. The Parson, who was dressed in
white, went into the river, till the water came up to his waist. A very large fat negro man, Old Epsom, one
of the deacons of the church, led the people into the river, and stood by while the parson immersed them.
They went into the river one by one, the men first and then the women. The effect was really solemn, as
the clear voice of the pastor resounded through the crowd, and along the banks of the river, with the
words—“I baptize thee in the name of the father, and the son, and the Holy Ghost- - Amen”; and when all
was done they came up from the river singing a beautiful hymn.
At eleven o’clock, we went to church, which was very crowded. I believe there are about twelve
or fourteen hundred negro members, partly house servants, but mostly slaves from the neighboring
plantations. In the church, the negroes were seated in the gallery, the men on one side, the women on the
other. In their outward appearance they were the most serious and attentive congregation I have ever seen.
All churches admit them members, after instructing them in the great features of Christianity, and some of
the most practical and useful dogmas. They generally had a tolerable scriptural idea of Hell and the Devil,
of God and Heaven, and of Jesus Christ who died for their sins; or, with the ideas of a little schoolboy,
they would tell me that heaven is good and that Hell is bad, -- that the wicked will be punished in the one,
and the good enjoy the other. Yet some of them are learned in the scriptures. I have heard them praying
and exhorting in their own homely way; but, as with their white brethren, this does not appear to have any
practical effect on their conduct.
In the afternoon the Sacrament of the Supper was administered. There were black deacons, who
handed round the bread and wine to the negroes. They all used the same wine and bread. The whites did
not use any of the cups that the blacks drank out of, but the cups that the whites had used were then used
by the slaves. The negroes have generally fine voices, and they joined in the psalmody of the church.
They, of course, do not use any books; but the pastor gives out the hymn in two lines at a time. They
appeared to pay great attention to the service; but I was sorry to observe that the minister never turned his
head to the galleries, nor addressed himself to the limited capacities of the slaves. Judging from the
discourse, and the manner of the minister, one would have not known there was an ignorant negro in the
house, although there were five or six times as many black skins as white.
It would be a hard task to describe the dress of the slaves. The men could not have presented a
greater variety of clothes – beggars’ duds, gentlemen’s dresscoats, with silk-velvet collars, white castors
that served a severe apprenticeship to their masters, and all sorts of inexpressible. Their plantation dress,
although coarse, is far more becoming; but, they prefer when going to a meeting, the very rags of an old
dress coat to their Osnaburg jacket. The dress of the women was about as varied as the men’s, but they
wore gaudy-colored handkerchiefs on their head as well, a la turban.
DOCUMENT 11: Narrative of Shifnal Washington, recorded in 1789, describing experiences on the
Pedee Plantation in the 1760’s.
The only respite from constant labor the slave has through the whole year, is during the Christmas
holidays. Butler allowed us four – others allowed three and five days, according to their generosity. It is
the only time we looked forward to with much interest or pleasure. It is hailed with equal delight by the
old and young; even Boston ceased to glorify the rebels at Stono, Old Kate forgot her many sorrows,
amid the general hilarity of the holidays. It is the time of feasting and frolicking, and fiddling – the
carnival season with the children of bondage.
It is the custom for one planter to give a “Christmas Supper,” inviting the slaves from
neighboring plantations to join his own on this occasion. Usually from three to five hundred are
assembled, coming together on foot, in carts, on horseback, or mules, riding double and triple. Then, of all
days in the year, they arrayed themselves in their best attire. The cotton coat had been washed clean, the
stump of a tallow candle had been applied to the shoes, and if so fortunate as to possess a rimless or
crownless hat, it was placed jauntily on the head. As a general thing, the women wore kerchiefs tied
about their heads, but if chance had thrown in their way a fiery red ribbon, or a castoff bonnet of their
mistress’ grandmother, it was sure to be worn on such occasions. Red – the deep blood red – is decidedly
the favorite color among the enslaved damsels.
The table is spread in the open air, and loaded with chickens, ducks, turkeys, pigs, and not
infrequently the entire body of a wild ox, and piles of vegetables. They are furnished also with flour, of
which biscuits are made, and often with peach and other preserves, with tarts, and every manner and
descriptions of pies. Only the slave who has lived all year on his scanty allowance of meal and bacon can
appreciate such suppers. White people in great numbers assembled to witness such gastronomical
enjoyments. The slaves seated themselves at the rustic table – Males on one side females on the other.
The two between whom there may have been an exchange of tenderness, invariably managed to sit
opposite. Giggling and laughter and clattering of cutlery and crockery filled the air. Pompey’s elbow
hunches his neighbor’s side, impelled by an involuntary impulse of delight; Satira shakes her finger at
Gumbra and laughs, she knows not why.
Next in the order of amusement was the Christmas dance. My business on these gala days was
always to play the fiddle. The African race is a music-loving one proverbially; and many were among my
fellow bondsman whose organs of tune were strikingly developed. My master often received letters,
sometimes from a distance of ten miles, requesting him to send me to play at a ball or festival of the
whites. He received his compensation, and usually I returned with many picayune’s jingling in my
pockets – the extra contributions of those to whose delight I had administered.
Alas, had it not been for my beloved fiddle, I can scarcely see how I could have endured the long
years of bondage. It introduced me to great houses – relieved me of many days of labor in the field –
supplied me with many conveniences for my cabin – with pipes and tobacco, extra pairs of shoes, a new
kerchief for Satira.
On this particular Christmas I have in mind, a description whereof will serve as a description of
the day generally, Miss Murriah and Mr. Dam, the first belonging to Mr. Butler and latter to Mr. Roberts,
started the ball. Miss Murriah soon outwinded three partners, amidst hurrahs and shouts, fully sustaining
her reputation as the “fastest gal” in Carolina. So the dancing continued until broad daylight. It did not
stop with the sound of the fiddle, but continued with a music peculiar to the Africans, called “patting.”
The patting is performed by striking the hands on the knees, then striking the right shoulder with
one hand, the left with the other – all the while keeping time with the feet and singing perhaps this song:
Harper’s creek and roarin’ ribber,
Thar, my dear, we’ll live forebber;
Den we’ll go to de Ingin nation,
All I want is dis creation,
Is pretty little wife and big plantation.
During the remaining holidays succeeding Christmas, we are provided with passes, and permitted to go
where we pleased within a limited distance, or we might remain and labor on the plantation, in which case
we were paid for it. It was rarely, however, that the latter alternative was accepted. Marriage was
frequently contracted during the holidays, if such an institution can be said to have existed. The only
ceremony required before entering into the “holy estate” was to obtain consent of the respective owners.
It was usually encouraged by the masters of female slaves. The law in relation to divorce and bigamy was
not applicable to property, of course. If the wife did not belong on the same plantation with the husband,
the latter was allowed to visit her on Saturday nights, if the distance is not too far. Old Hercules’ wife
lived seven miles from Butler’s. He had permission to visit her once a fortnight, but he was growing old,
and truth to say, had latterly well nigh forgotten her.