hat the master or the overseer
should _seem_ to have been wrong in the presence of the slave.
_Everything must be absolute here_. Guilty or not guilty, it is enough
to be accused, to be sure of a flogging. The very presence of this
man Gore was{95} painful, and I shunned him as I would have shunned a
rattlesnake. His piercing, black eyes, and sharp, shrill voice, ever
awakened sensations of terror among the slaves. For so young a man (I
describe him as he was, twenty-five or thirty years ago) Mr. Gore was
singularly reserved and grave in the presence of slaves. He indulged
in no jokes, said no funny things, and kept his own counsels. Other
overseers, how brutal soever they might be, were, at times, inclined to
gain favor with the slaves, by indulging a little pleasantry; but Gore
was never known to be guilty of any such weakness. He was always
the cold, distant, unapproachable _overseer_ of Col. Edward Lloyd's
plantation, and needed no higher pleasure than was involved in a
faithful discharge of the duties of his office. When he whipped, he
seemed to do so from a sense of duty, and feared no consequences. What
Hopkins did reluctantly, Gore did with alacrity. There was a stern will,
an iron-like reality, about this Gore, which would have easily made him
the chief of a band of pirates, had his environments been favorable to
such a course of life. All the coolness, savage barbarity and freedom
from moral restraint, which are necessary in the character of a
pirate-chief, centered, I think, in this man Gore. Among many other
deeds of shocking cruelty which he perpetrated, while I was at Mr.
Lloyd's, was the murder of a young colored man, named Denby. He was
sometimes called Bill Denby, or Demby; (I write from sound, and the
sounds on Lloyd's plantation are not very certain.) I knew him well. He
was a powerful young man, full of animal spirits, and, so far as I know,
he was among the most valuable of Col. Lloyd's slaves. In something--I
know not what--he offended this Mr. Austin Gore, and, in accordance with
the custom of the latter, he under took to flog him. He gave Denby but
few stripes; the latter broke away from him and plunged into the creek,
and, standing there to the depth of his neck in water, he refused to
come out at the order of the overseer; whereupon, for this refusal,
_Gore shot him dead!_ It is said that Gore gave Denby three calls,
telling him that{96} if he did not obey the last call, he would shoot
him. When