Books: Manuel Pereira
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F. C. Adams >> Manuel Pereira
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If men who fill high places live by teaching others to gratify their
appetites and pleasures alone, instead of setting a commendable
example for a higher state of existence, by whom can we expect that
justice and moral worth shall be respected?
Connected with the city constabulary are two men whose duty it is to
keep a sharp lookout for all vessels arriving, and see that all
negroes or colored seamen are committed to prison. One is a South
Carolinian, by the name of Dusenberry, and the other an Irishman, by
the name of Dunn. These two men, although their office is despicable
in the eyes of many, assume more authority over a certain class of
persons, who are unacquainted with the laws, than the mayor himself.
The former is a man of dark, heavy features, with an assassin-like
countenance, more inclined to look at you distrustfully than to meet
you with an open gaze. He is rather tall and athletic, but never has
been known to do any thing that would give him credit for bravery.
Several times he has been on the brink of losing his office for
giving too much latitude to his craving for perquisites; yet, by
some unaccountable means, he manages to hold on. The other is a
robust son of the Emerald Isle, with a broad, florid face, low
forehead, short crispy hair very red, and knotted over his forehead.
His dress is usually very slovenly and dirty, his shirt-collar
bespotted with tobacco-juice, and tied with an old striped bandana
handkerchief. This, taken with a very wide mouth, flat nose, vicious
eye, and a countenance as hard as ever came from Tipperary, and a
lame leg, which causes him to limp as he walks, gives our man Dunn
the incarnate appearance of a fit body-grabber. A few words will
suffice for his character. He is known to the official department,
of which the magistrates are a constituent part, as a notorious--l;
and his better-half, who, by-the-way, is what is called a
free-trader, meaning, to save the rascality of a husband, sells
liquor by small portions, to suit the Murphys and the O'Neals. But,
as it pleases our Mr. Dunn, he very often becomes a more than
profitable customer, and may be found snoring out the penalty in
some sequestered place, too frequently for his own character.
Between the hours of ten and twelve in the morning, Dunn, if not too
much incapacitated, may be seen limping his way down Broad street,
to watch vessels arriving and departing, carrying a limp-cane in one
hand, and a large covered whip in the other. We were struck with the
appearance of the latter, because it was similar to those carried in
the hands of a rough, menial class of men in Macon, Georgia, who
called themselves marshals, under a misapplication of the term.
Their office was to keep the negro population "straight," and do the
whipping when called upon, at fifty cents a head. They also did the
whipping at the jails, and frequently made from five to six dollars
a day at this alone; for it is not considered fashionable for a
gentleman to whip his own negro. We noticed the universal carrying
of this whip, when we first visited Macon, some four years ago, and
were curious to know its purport, which was elucidated by a friend;
but we have since seen the practical demonstrations painfully
carried out. Those who visited Boston for the recovery of Crafts and
Ellen--whose mode of escape is a romance in itself--were specimens of
these "marshals." How they passed themselves off for gentlemen, we
are at a loss to comprehend.
During the day, the Messrs. Dusenberry and Dunn may be seen at times
watching about the wharves, and again in low grog-shops--then pimping
about the "Dutch beer-shops and corner-shops"--picking up, here and
there, a hopeful-looking nigger, whom they drag off to limbo, or
extort a bribe to let him go. Again, they act as monitors over the
Dutch corner-shops, the keepers of which pay them large sums to save
themselves the heavy license fine and the information docket. When
they are no longer able to pay over hush-money, they find themselves
walked up to the captain's office, to be dealt with according to the
severe penalty made and provided for violating the law which
prohibits the sale of liquor to negroes without an order. The
failure to observe this law is visited with fine and
imprisonment,--both beyond their proportionate deserts, when the law
which governs the sale of liquor to white men is considered. Things
are very strictly regulated by complexions in South Carolina. The
master sets the most dissipated and immoral examples in his own
person, and allows his children not only to exercise their youthful
caprices, but to gratify such feelings as are pernicious to their
moral welfare, upon his slaves. Now, the question is, that knowing
the negro's power of imitation, ought not some allowance to be made
for copying the errors of his master? Yet such is not the case; for
the slightest deviation from the strictest rule of discipline brings
condign punishment upon the head of the offender.
CHAPTER V.
MR. GRIMSHAW, THE MAN OF THE COUNTY.
ON the 22d of March last, about ten o'clock in the morning, a thin,
spare-looking man, dressed in a black cashmeret suit, swallow-tail
coat, loose-cut pants, a straight-breasted vest, with a very
extravagant shirt-collar rolling over upon his coat, with a black
ribbon tied at the throat, stood at the east corner of Broad and
Meeting street, holding a very excited conversation with officers
Dusenberry and Dunn. His visage was long, very dark--much more so
than many of the colored population--with pointed nose and chin,
standing in grim advance to each other; his face narrow, with high
cheek-bones, small, peering eyes, contracted forehead, reclining
with a sunken arch between the perceptive and intellectual
organs--or, perhaps, we might have said, where those organs should
have been. His countenance was full of vacant restlessness; and as
he stared at you through his glasses, with his silvery gray hair
hanging about his ears and neck in shaggy points, rolling a large
quid of tobacco in his mouth, and dangling a little whip in his
right hand, you saw the index to his office. As he raised his voice--
which he did by twisting his mouth on one side, and working his chin
to adjust his enormous quid--the drawling tone in which he spoke gave
a picture not easily forgotten.
"You must pay more attention to the arrivals," said he in a
commanding tone. "The loss of one of these fellers is a serious
drawback to my pocket; and that British consul's using the
infernalest means to destroy our business, that ever was. He's worse
than the vilest abolitionist, because he thinks he's protected by
that flag of their'n. If he don't take care, we'll tar-and-feather
him; and if his government says much about it, she'll larn what and
who South Carolina is. We can turn out a dozen Palmetto regiments
that'd lick any thing John Bull could send here, and a troop o' them
d--d Yankee abolitionists besides. South Carolina's got to show her
hand yet against these fellers, afore they'll respect the honor and
standing of her institutions. They can't send their navy to hurt us.
And it shows that I always predicts right; for while these
commercial fellers about the wharves are telling about digging out
the channel, I've al'ays said they didn't think how much injury they
were doing; for it was our very best protection in war-time. South
Carolina can lick John Bull, single-fisted, any time; but if that
pack of inconsiderate traders on the wharves get their own way, away
goes our protection, and John Bull would bring his big ships in and
blow us up. And these fellows that own ships are getting so bold,
that a great many are beginning to side with Mathew, the consul.
Yes, they even swear that 'tis the officials that stick to the law
for the sake of the fees. Now, if I only knew that the consul was
the means of that Nassau nigger getting away, I'd raise a mob, and
teach him a lesson that South Carolinians ought to have teached him
before. It took about seventeen dollars out of my pocket, and if I
was to sue him for it, I could get no recompense. The next time you
allow one to escape, I must place some other officer over the port,"
said our man whom, we shall continue to call Mr. Grimshaw.
"Sure I heard the same consul, when spakin to a gintleman, say that
the law was only an abuse of power, to put money into the pockets of
yourself and a few like ye. And whin meself and Flin put the irons
on a big nigger that the captain was endeavoring to skulk by keeping
him in the forecastle of the ship, he interfered between me and me
duty, and began talking his balderdash about the law. Sure, with his
own way, he'd have every nigger in the city an abolitionist in three
weeks. And sure, Mr. Sheriff, and ye'd think they were babies, if
ye'd see himself talk to them at the jail, and send them up things,
as if they were better than the other criminals, and couldn't live
on the jail fare," said officer Dunn, who continued to pledge
himself to the sheriff that the wharves should not be neglected, nor
a hopeful English darky escape his vigilant eye.
"For my own part, I think they're better off in jail than they would
be on the wharf," continued Grimshaw. "They're a worthless set, and
ha'n't half the character that a majority of our slaves have; and
instead of attending the captain on board, they'd be into Elliot
street, spending their money, getting drunk, and associating with
our worst niggers. And they all know so much about law, that they're
always teaching our bad niggers the beauties of their government,
which makes them more unhappy than they are. Our niggers are like a
shoal of fish--when one becomes diseased, he spreads it among all the
rest; and before you know where you are, they're done gone."
"They're not very profitable customers for us, Sheriff," said
Dusenberry. "We have a deal of watching, and a mighty smart lot of
trouble after we get them fellows; and if we get a perquisite, it
never amounts to much, for I seldom knew one that had money enough
to treat as we took him up. These Britishers a'n't like us; they
don't pay off in port and if the fellows get any thing in jail from
the consul, it's by drib-drabs, that a'n't no good, for it all goes
for liquor. And them criminals make a dead haul upon a black
steward, as soon as he is locked up. But if these sympathizing fools
follow up their bugbears about the treatment at the jail, they'll
get things so that our business won't be worth a dollar. For my own
part, I'm not so much beholdin', for I've made myself comfortable
within the last few years, but I want my son to succeed me in the
office. But if this consul of their'n keeps up his objections,
appeals, and his protests in this way, and finds such men as his
honor the district-attorney to second him with his nonsense and his
notions, folks of our business might as well move north of Mason and
Dixon's."
"I can wake him up to a point," said Grimshaw, "that that abolition
consul ha'n't learnt before; and if he'd stuck his old petition in
Charles Sumner's breeches pocket instead of sending it to our
legislature, he might have saved his old-womanish ideas from the
showing' up that Myzeck gave 'em. It takes Myzeck to show these
blue-skin Yankees how to toe the mark when they come to South
Carolina. If South Carolina should secede, I'd say give us Myzeck
and Commander to lead our war, and we'd be as sure to whip 'em as we
won the Mexican war for the Federal Government. There is three
things about an Englishman, Dusenberry, which you may mark for
facts. He is self-conceited, and don't want to be advised;--he
thinks there is no law like the law of England, and that the old
union-jack is a pass-book of nations;--and he thinks everybody's
bound to obey his notions of humanity and the dictates of his
positive opinions. But what's worse than all, they've never seen the
sovereignty of South Carolina carried out, and according to Consul
Mathew's silly notions, they think we could be licked by a gun-boat.
"It's no use arguing this thing, you must keep a keen eye upon the
English niggers; and when a man pretends to dispute the right, tell
him its 'contrary to law,' and to look at the statute-books; tell
him it costs more to keep them than they're all worth; and if they
say the law was never intended for foreign citizens, tell 'em its
'contrary to law.' South Carolina's not bound to obey the voice of
the General Government, and what does she care for the federal
courts? We'll pursue a course according to the law; and any thing
that is contrary to it we will take care of for the better
protection of our institutions. Now, don't let one pass, upon the
peril of your office," continued Mr. Grimshaw.
"It's not a button I'd care for the office," said Dunn. "Sure it's
yerself be's makin' all the fees, and ourselves getting the paltry
dollar; and yerself gives us as much trouble to get that as we'd be
earning two dollars at magistrate Jiles' beyant. Sure! himself's
liberal and doesn't be afraid to give us a division of the fees when
the business is good. And sure ye make yer ten times the fees on an
English nigger, and never gives us beyant the dollar," continued he,
moving off in high dudgeon, and swearing a stream of oaths that made
the very blood chill. There was a covert meaning about Mr.
Grimshaw's language that was not at all satisfactory to Mr. Dunn's
Irish; especially when he knew Mr. Grimshaw's insincerity so well,
and that, instead of being liberal, he pocketed a large amount of
the fees, to the very conscientious benefit of his own dear self.
The reader must remember that in Charleston, South Carolina, there
is a large majority of men who care little for law, less for
justice, and nothing for Christianity. Without compunction of
conscience, and with an inherited passion to set forward the
all-absorbing greatness of South Carolina, these men act as a check
upon the better-disposed citizens. The more lamentable part is, that
forming a large portion of that species of beings known as bar-room
politicians, they actually control the elections in the city; and
thus we may account for the character of the incumbents of office,
and for the tenacity with which those oppressive laws are adhered
to.
This almost incompatible conversation between a high sheriff and two
menial constables, may to many seem inconsistent with the dignity
that should be observed between such functionaries. Nevertheless,
all restraint is not only annihilated by consent, but so prominently
is this carried out, and so well understood by that respectable
class of citizens whose interests and feelings are for maintaining a
good name for the city and promoting its moral integrity, that in
all our conversation with them, we never heard one speak well of
those functionaries or the manner in which the police regulations of
the city were carried out.
CHAPTER VI.
THE JANSON IN THE OFFING.
AFTER several days' suffering for want of wafer and fatigue of
labor, several of the crew were reported upon the sick-list. Manuel,
who had borne his part nobly and cheerfully, 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 comfortable. He had attended upon those who gave up first,
like a good nurse, ready at the call, whether night or day, and with
a readiness that seemed pleasure to him. From the captain to the
little boy Tommy, his loss was felt with regret; and the latter
would often go into the forecastle where he lay, lean over him with
a child-like simplicity, 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
would whisper encouragement in his ear; and having learned a
smattering of Portuguese, would tell him how soon they would be in
port, and what pleasant times they would have together.
On the 21st they descried land, which proved to be Stono, about
twenty-five miles south of Charleston. Tommy announced the news to
Manuel, which seemed to cheer him up. His sickness was evidently
caused by fatigue, and his recovery depended more upon rest and
nourishment than medical treatment. That night 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," was seen shooting out over the bar in the main
channel. Manuel, somewhat recovered, had a few minutes before been
assisted on deck, and through the captain's orders was laid upon a
mattrass, stretched on the starboard side of the companion-way. By
his side sat little Tommy, serving him with some nourishment.
The boat was soon alongside, and the pilot, a middle-sized man, well
dressed, with a frank, open countenance, rather florid and
sun-stained, and a profusion of gold chain and seal dangling from
his fob, came on board. After saluting the 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 some orders in regard, to getting more way upon her, he
viewed the laborious working at the pumps, and walking about
midships on the larboard side, took a sharp survey of her waist.
"Don't she leak around her topsides, Captain?" said he.
Receiving an answer in the affirmative, he gave a glance aloft, and
then at the sky to windward; asked how long he had worked her in
that condition, and where he took the gale. "It's a wonder she
hadn't swamped ye before 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 walking across the
main-hatch to the starboard side, he approached the men who were
pumping, and after inquiring about freeing her, suddenly caught a
glimpse of Manuel, as he lay upon the mattrass with his face
uncovered.
"Heavens! What! have you got the yellow fever on board at this
season of the year?" he inquired of the mate, who had just come aft
to inquire about getting some water from the pilot-boat.
"No, we've had every thing else but the yellow fever; one might as
well bin on a raft as such an infernal unlucky old 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, poor fellow! He's bin a bully at work
ever since the first gale. He'll mend before he gets to town," was
the reply.
"Ah! then you've had a double dose of it. It gives a fellow bringer
off them capes once in a while.--The steward's a nigger, isn't he?"
inquired the pilot.
"Nigger!--not he," said the mate. "He's a Portuguese mixed breed; a
kind o' sun-scorched subject, like a good many of you Southerners. A
nigger'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 are dark-lookin' fellers. He's no fool--his name's
Manuel, a right clever feller, and the owners think as much of him
as they do of the Skipper."
"Gammon," said the pilot to himself. "What would he think if we were
to show him some specimens of our white niggers in Charleston?" And
turning, he walked past 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 Captain had gone into
the cabin a few minutes before, and coming on deck again, walked
toward the place where the pilot stood, and took a seat upon an old
camp-stool.
"Cap," said the pilot, "ye'll have trouble with that nigger of
your'n when ye git to town. If you want to save yerself and the
owners a d--d site o' bother and expense, y' better keep him close
when y' haul in; and ship him off to New York the first chance. I've
seen into the mill, Cap, and y' better take a friend's advice."
"Nigger!" said the Captain indignantly, "what do they call niggers
in Charleston? My steward's no more a nigger than you are!"
"What, sir?" returned the pilot in a perfect rage. "Do you know the
insulting nature of your language? Sir, if the law did not subject
me, I would leave your vessel instantly, and hold you personally
responsible as soon as you landed, sir."
The Captain, unconscious of the tenacity with which the chivalrous
blood of South Carolina held language that mooted a comparison of
colors, considered his answer; but could see nothing offensive in
it.
"You asked me a question, and I gave you a proper answer. If you
consider such a man as my steward--poor fellow--a nigger, in your
country, I'm glad that you are blessed with so many good men."
"We polishes our language, Captain, when we speak of niggers in
South Carolina," said the pilot. "A South Carolinian, sir, is a
gentleman all over the world. It don't want nothin' further than the
name of his State to insure him respect. And when foreign folks and
Northerners from them abolition States bring 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 tell you what it is, Cap," said he, rather cooling off,
"if our folks was only as spunky as they were in eighteen hundred
and thirty-two times, them fellers what come here to feed upon South
Carolina, put the devil in the heads of the niggers, and then go
home again, would see stars and feel bullet-holes."
The Captain listened to the pilot's original South Carolina talk,
or, as the pilot himself had called it, polished language, without
exhibiting any signs of fear and trembling at its sublime dignity;
yet, finding that the pilot had misconstrued the tenor of his
answer, said, "You must have mistaken the intention 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 never look upon death as so great an enemy that we must
carry deadly weapons to defend it. In fact, pilot," he said in a
joking manner, "they're rather cumbersome little bits for a feller's
pocket: I'd rather carry my supper and breakfast in my pocket. Now
tell us, who do you call niggers in South Carolina?"
"Why, Captain, we call all what a'n't white folks. Our folks can
tell 'em right smart. They can't shirk out if it's only marked by
the seventeenth generation. You can always tell 'em by the way they
look--they can't look you in the face, if they are ever so white. The
law snaps 'em up once in a while, and then, if they're ever so
white, it makes 'em prove it. I've known several 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 slander, but they proved the nigger by a
quirk of law that'd make a volume bigger than Blackstone; and
instead of the old Jew getting satisfaction, the judges, as a matter
of policy, granted him time to procure further proof to show that
his son wasn't a nigger. It was a very well-considered insinuation
of the judges, but the young-un stands about A 1 with a prime
nigger-feller."
"I should like to have 'em try me, to see whether I was a nigger or
a white man. It must be a funny law, 'nigger or no nigger.' If a
feller's skin won't save him, what the devil will?" said the
Captain.
"Why, show your mother and her generation were white, to be sure!
It's easy enough done, and our judges are all very larned in such
things--can tell in the twinkling of an eye," said the pilot.
"I should think the distinguishing points would be to show that
their mother had nothing to do with a nigger. Do your judges make
this a particular branch of jurisprudence? If they do, I'd like to
know what they took for their text-books. If the intermixture is as
complex as what you say, I should think some of the judges would be
afraid of passing verdict upon their own kin."
"Not a whit!" said the pilot; "they know enough for that."
"Then you admit there's a chance. It must be an amusing affair, 'pon
my soul! when a nice little female has to draw aside her vail before
a court of very dignified judges, for the purpose of having her
pedigree examined," said the Captain.
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