ail, and Stocks.--Instructions to the Overseer.--His Duties and
Responsibilities.--The Order of General Banks.--Management of
Plantations in the Department of the Gulf.--The two Documents
Contrasted.--One of the Effects of "an Abolition War."

Nearly every planter in the South required the manager of his
plantation to keep a record of all events of importance. Books were
prepared by a publishing house in New Orleans, with special reference
to their use by overseers. These books had a blank for every day in
the year, in which the amount and kind of work performed were to be
recorded by the overseer. There were blanks for noting the progress
during the picking season, and the amount picked by each person daily.
There were blanks for monthly and yearly inventories of stock, tools,
etc., statements of supplies received and distributed, lists of births
and deaths (there were no blanks for marriages), time and amount
of shipments of cotton, and for all the ordinary business of a
plantation. In the directions for the use of this book, I found the
following:--

"On the pages marked I, the planter himself will make a careful record
of all the negroes upon the plantation, stating their ages as nearly
as possible, and their cash value, at the commencement of the year.
At the close, he will again enter their individual value at that time,
adding the year's increase, and omitting those that may have died. The
difference can then be transferred to the balance-sheet. The year's
crop is chargeable with any depreciation in the value of the negroes,
occasioned by overwork and improper management, in the effort,
perhaps, to make an extra crop independent of every other
consideration. On the other hand, should the number of children have
greatly increased during the year; the strength and usefulness of the
old been sustained by kind treatment and care; the youngsters taught
to be useful, and, perhaps, some of the men instructed in trades and
the women in home manufactures, the increased value of the entire
force will form a handsome addition to the side of _profits_."

On the pages where the daily incidents of the plantation were
recorded, I frequently discovered entries that illustrated the
"peculiar institution." Some of them read thus:--

_June 5th_.
Whipped Harry and Sarah to-day, because they didn't keep up their
rows. _July 7th_. Aleck ran away to the woods, because I threatened
to whip him.

_July 9th_.
Got Mr. Hall'