Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina

fully, was among the number; and his loss was more severely felt, having done a double duty, and succeeded, as far as the means were at hand, in making everybody on board

, and smooth his forehead with his little hand. "Manuel! I wish poor Manuel was well!" he would say, and again he would lay his little hand on his head and smooth his hair. He wou

at ten o'clock the wind came strong north-west, and drove the Janson some distance to sea again; and it was not until the morning of the 23d that she made Charleston light, and succeeded in working up to the bar. Signal was made for a pilot, and soon, a very fine cutter-looking boat, "Palmetto, No. 4," w

e captain, he surveyed the weather-beaten condition of the craft, made several inquiries in regard to her working, and then said in a sang-froid manner, "Well! I reckon you've seen some knocking, anyhow." Then turning again and giving

e now. I'd a' beached her at the first point, if she'd bin mine; I'd never stand at slapping an old craft like this on. She reminds me of one o' these down-east sugar-box crafts what trade to Cuba," he continued. Then w

season of the year?" he inquired of the mate, who had just co

ld tub as she is. It's the steward, sir-he's got a touch of a fever; but he'll soon be over it. He only wants rest,

a fellow bringer off them capes once in a while.-Th

r's mother never had him, you may bet your 'davie on that. There's as much white blood in his jacket as anybody's got, only them Portuguese a

Manuel with a suspicious look, and took a position near the man at the wheel, where he remained for some time fingering the seals of his watch-chain. The Capta

ve yerself and the owners a d-d site o' bother and expense, y' better keep him close when y' haul in; and sh

hat do they call niggers in Charleston? My

ture of your language? Sir, if the law did not subject me, I would leave your ve

blood of South Carolina held language that mooted a comparison of c

u consider such a man as my steward-poor fellow-a nigger, in yo

ring free niggers into South Carolina, and then go to comparing them to white folks, they better be mighty careful how they stir about. South Carolina ought to've seceded last year, when she talked about it, and sent every Yankee home to make shoe-pegs. We wouldn't bin insulted then, as we are now. I'll

ntention of my reply, sir; and the different manner in which you appropriate its import may be attributed to a custom among yourselves, which makes language offensive that has no offensive meaning. We never carry pistols or any such playthings in my country. We have a moral security for our lives, and ne

al cases where the doubt was in favor of the nigger, but he couldn't prove it, and had to stand aside among the darkies. Dogs take my skin, Cap, if theren't a Jew feller in town as white as anybody, and his father's a doctor. It got whispered round that he was a nigger, and the boarders where he stayed raised a fuss about it. The nigger's father had two of them sued for slan

a white man. It must be a funny law, 'nigger or no nigger.' If a f

! It's easy enough done, and our judges are all very larned in s

ake this a particular branch of jurisprudence? If they do, I'd like to know what they took for their text-books. If the interm

the pilot; "they kn

hen a nice little female has to draw aside her vail before a court of very dign

woman nigger never has the advantage of the law

then? Are your authorities so wise and generous that they ma

seven coppers who they're got by, there's no distinction among niggers in Charleston. I'll put you through some of the bright houses when we get up, and show you some scions of our aristocracy, that are the very worst cases. It's a f

me! do you really think they'll give me trouble with my steward? He certainly is

and he'd skin a bolt-rope for the grease, and sell the steward if he could get a chance. He has sold a much nearer relation. I'm down upon the law, you'll see, Cap, for I know it plays the dickens with our business, and is a curse to the commerce of the port. Folks what a'n't acquainted with shipping troubles, and a shipowner's interests, think such things are very small affairs. But it's the name that affects us, and when an owner stands at every item in the d

ould pain my feelings very much to see Manuel locked up in a cell for no crime; and then to be deprived of his services,

entangled, nobody'd know how to bring the case, and ev'ry lawyer'd have an opinion of his own. But the worst of all is that it's so unpopular, you can't get a lawyer worth seven cents to undertake it. It would be as dangerous as an attemp

in. "But your people are generous, a'n't they? and treat strangers wi

-top. It was the law that our legislature made to stop free niggers from coming from the abolition States to destroy the affections of our slaves. Some say, the construction given to it and applied to stewards of foreign vessels a'n't legal, and wasn't intended; but now it's controlled by popular w

e world, and I never got among a people yet that wouldn't treat a shipwrecked sailor with humanity. Gracious God! I've known savages to be kind to poor shipwrecked sailors, and to share their food with them. I can't, pilot, imagine a civilization so degraded, nor a public so l

you'd save your own feelings. His sympa

ng from the mattrass, in a manner indicating his feeble condition, he called Tommy, and walking forward, leaned over the rail near the fore-rigging, and inquired wh

y sell me for slave in Charleston, I'll kill mys

red the first mate as he came along,

slave in South Carolina. I'd jump o

e heard 'em tell so much about in the Liverpool docks. He's a regular Jonathan Wild in nigger-dealing; his name's like a fiery dragon among the niggers all over the South; and I hearn our skipper say once when I sailed in a liner, that niggers in Charleston were so 'fraid of him they'd run, like young scorpions away from an old he-devil, when they saw him coming. He s

ored in the blade, which gives the application a sort of percussive effect; The pain is much more acute than with the cowhide; and several instances are known where a master ordered an amount of strokes beyond the endurance of the slave, and it proved fatal at the workhouse. They tell a pretty good story about the old fellow. I don't know if it's true, but the old fellow's rich now, and he does just what he pleases. It was that somebody found one of those little occasional droppings of the aristocracy, very well known among the secrets of the chivalry, and called foundlings, nicely fixed up in a basket.-It's among the secrets though, and mustn't be told abroad.-The finders la

composed of her best blood. The Captain listened to his unsolicited and uninteresting exposition of South Carolina's prowess in silence, now and then looking up at the pilot and nodding assent. He saw that the pilot was intent upon astonishing him with his wonderful advancement in the theory of gov

South Carolina wants is her constitutional rights, which her great men fought for in the Revolution. We want the freedom

same principles that you ask of the Ge

it was intended for the judicio

the dark side. You'll have to lick the Federal Government, as you call it, for t

ap, this don't scare South Carolina nohow. We can show 'em two figures in war tactics that'd blow 'em to thunder. Ye see yonder!" said he, with an earnest look of satisfaction, pointing to the south, "That's Morris Island. We'd take Fort Moultrie for a breakfast spell, and then we'd put it to 'em hot and strong from both sides, until they'd surrender Fort Sumpter. They couldn't stand it from both sides. Yes, sir, they shut Fort Moultrie against us, and wouldn't

isolated case of gasconade peculiar to the man; but which the Captain afterward found to harmonize in sentimen