They hired slaves to the
slaves themselves whether legally permitted or not; they sent them on
responsible errands to markets dozens of miles away, often without
providing them with passes; they sanctioned and encouraged assemblies under
conditions prohibited by law; they taught their slaves at will to read and
write, and used them freely in forbidden employments. Such practices as
these were often noted and occasionally complained of in the press, but
they were seldom obstructed. When outside parties took legal steps to
interfere in the master's routine administration, indeed, they were
prompted probably as often by personal animosity as by devotion to the
law. An episode of the sort, where the complainants were envious poorer
neighbors, was related with sarcasm and some philosophical moralizing by
W.B. Hodgson, of whose plantation something has been previously said, in
a letter to Senator Hammond: "I am somewhat 'riled' with Burke. The
benevolent neighbors have lately had me in court under indictment for cruel
treatment of my fat, lazy, rollicking sambos. For fifty years they have
eaten their own meat and massa's too; but inasmuch as rich massa did not
_buy_ meat, the _poor Benevolens_ indicted him.
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