the third call was given, Denby stood his ground firmly; and
this raised the question, in the minds of the by-standing slaves--"Will
he dare to shoot?" Mr. Gore, without further parley, and without making
any further effort to induce Denby to come out of the water, raised his
gun deliberately to his face, took deadly aim at his standing victim,
and, in an instant, poor Denby was numbered with the dead. His mangled
body sank out of sight, and only his warm, red blood marked the place
where he had stood.

This devilish outrage, this fiendish murder, produced, as it was well
calculated to do, a tremendous sensation. A thrill of horror flashed
through every soul on the plantation, if I may except the guilty wretch
who had committed the hell-black deed. While the slaves generally were
panic-struck, and howling with alarm, the murderer himself was calm
and collected, and appeared as though nothing unusual had happened. The
atrocity roused my old master, and he spoke out, in reprobation of it;
but the whole thing proved to be less than a nine days' wonder. Both
Col. Lloyd and my old master arraigned Gore for his cruelty in the
matter, but this amounted to nothing. His reply, or explanation--as
I remember to have heard it at the time was, that the extraordinary
expedient was demanded by necessity; that Denby had become unmanageable;
that he had set a dangerous example to the other slaves; and that,
without some such prompt measure as that to which he had resorted, were
adopted, there would be an end to all rule and order on the plantation.
That very convenient covert for all manner of cruelty and outrage
that cowardly alarm-cry, that the slaves would _"take the place,"_ was
pleaded, in extenuation of this revolting crime, just as it had been
cited in defense of a thousand similar ones. He argued, that if one
slave refused to be corrected, and was allowed to escape with his life,
when he had been told that he should lose it if he persisted in his
course, the other slaves would soon copy his example; the result of
which would be, the freedom of the slaves, and the enslavement of
the{97} whites. I have every reason to believe that Mr. Gore's defense,
or explanation, was deemed satisfactory--at least to Col. Lloyd. He was
continued in his office on the plantation. His fame as an overseer
went abroad, and his horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial
investigation. The murder was committed in the presence of slaves, and
they,