Manuel Pereira Or The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina Part 14

"Better take it," said Copeland. "There's no choice, and hunger don't stand for dainties, especially in this jail, where everybody is famished for punishment. If we don't eat it, we can give it to some of the poor prisoners up-stairs."

"While I have good s.h.i.+p-owners, and a good Captain, I never will eat such stuff as that; oh! no," returned Manuel.

The meat was laid in a corner for the benefit of the flies; and when dinner time arrived, the same hard extreme arrived with it-bread and water. And n.o.body seemed to have any anxieties on their behalf; for two of them had written notes to their Captains, on the day previous, but they remained in the office for want of a messenger to carry them.

Fortunately, Jane called upon them in the afternoon, and brought a nice dish of rice and another of h.o.m.ony.

We will here insert a letter we received from a very worthy friend, who, though he had done much for the Charleston people, and been repaid in persecutions, was thrown into jail for a paltry debt by a ruthless creditor. Cleared by a jury of twelve men, he was held in confinement through the wretched imperfection of South Carolina law, to await nearly twelve months for the sitting of the "Appeal Court," more to appease the vindictiveness of his enemies than to satisfy justice, for it was well understood that he did not owe the debt. His letter speaks for itself.

Charleston Jail, March 31, '52.

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I could not account for your absence during the last few days, until this morning, when Mr. F***** called upon me for a few moments, and from him I learnt that you had been quite unwell. If you are about to-morrow, do call upon me; for a more dreary place, or one where less regard is paid to the calls of humanity, cannot be found among the nations of the earth.

Such is the ordinary condition of suffering within this establishment, that men, and even women, are forced to all kinds of extremes to sustain life; and, to speak what experience has taught me, crime is more increased than reduced by this wretched system. There seems to be little distinction among the prisoners, and no means to observe it, except in what is called Mount Rascal on the third story. Pilfering is so common, that you cannot leave your room without locking your door. The jailer is a good, kind-hearted old man, very often giving from his own table to relieve the wants of debtors, many of whom repay him with ingrat.i.tude. I have suffered many privations from s.h.i.+pwreck and cold, but never until I came to South Carolina was I compelled to endure imprisonment and subsist several days upon bread and water.

Talk about chivalry and hospitality! How many men could join with me and ask, "Where is it?" But why should I demur, when I see those abroad who have been driven from this State to seek bread; when I hear the many voices without tell of struggling to live, for want of system in mechanical employment, and when I look upon several within these sombre walls who are even worse than me. Here is a physician, with a wife and large family, committed for a debt which he was unable to pay.

His father's name stands among the foremost of the State--a General of distinction, who offered his life for her in time of war, and whose name honors her triumphs, and has since graced the councils of state.

General Hammond, whose name occupies such a conspicuous place in the military history of South Carolina. The father's enthusiasm for his country's cause led him to sacrifice his all, and by it he entailed misfortune upon his descendants. When I consider the case of Shannon, whose eleven years and seven months' imprisonment for debt, as it was called, but which eventually proved to be a question turning upon technicalities of law, gave him, body and soul, to the vindictiveness of a persecutor, whose unrelenting malignity was kept up during that long s.p.a.ce of time. It was merely a breach of limitation between merchants, the rights of which should be governed by commercial custom. Shannon had, ama.s.sed about twenty thousand dollars by hard industry; his health was waning, and he resolved to retire with it to his native county.

The gem proved too glaring for the lynx eye of a "true Carolinian,"

who persuaded him to invest his money in cotton. Moved by flattering inducements, he authorized a factor to purchase for him upon certain restrictions, which, unfortunately for himself, were not drawn up with regard to legal enforcement-one of those singular instruments between a merchant and an inexperienced man which a professional quibbler can take advantage of. Cotton was at the tip-top, and very soon Shannon was presented with an account of purchase, and draft so far beyond his limits, that he demurred, and rejected the purchase entirely; but some plot should be laid to entrap him. The factor undertook the force game, notified him that the cotton was held subject to his order, and protested the draft for the appearance of straightforwardness. Cotton shortly fell to the other extreme, the lot was "shoved up" for sale on Shannon's account, Shannon was sued for the balance, held to bail, and in default committed to prison. His confinement and endurance of it would form a strange chapter in the history of imprisonment for debt.

Carrying his money with him, he closed the door of his cell, and neither went out nor would allow any one but the priest to enter for more than three years; and for eleven years and seven months he paced the room upon a diagonal line from corner to corner, until he wore the first flooring, of two-and-a-quarter-inch pine, entirely through.

I might go on and tell of many others, whose poverty was well known, and yet suffered years of imprisonment for debt; but I find I have digressed. I must relate an amusing affair which took place this morning between Manuel Pereira, the steward of the English brig Janson, which put into this port in distress, and the jailer. He is the man about whom so much talk and little feeling has been enlisted--a fine, well-made, generous-hearted Portuguese. He is olive-complexioned--as light as many of the Carolinians--intelligent and obliging, and evidently unaccustomed to such treatment as he receives here.

Manuel appeared before the jailer's office this morning with two junks of disgusting-looking meat, the neck-bones, tainted and b.l.o.o.d.y, in each hand. His Portuguese ire was up. "Mister Poulnot, what you call dis? In South Carolina you feed man on him, ah? In my country, ah yes! we feed him to dog. What you call him? May-be somethin' what me no know him. In South Carolina, prison sailor when he s.h.i.+pwreck, starve him on nosin', den tell him eat this, ah! I sails 'round ze world, but never savage man gives me like zat to eat! No, I starve 'fore I eat him, be gar! Zar, you take him," said he, throwing the pieces of meat upon the floor in disdain.

"Meat! Yes, it's what's sent here for us. You mustn't grumble at me; enter your complaints to the sheriff, when he comes," said the jailer, with an expression of mortification on his countenance.

"Meat, ah! You call dat meat in South Carolina? I call him bull-neck, not fit for dog in my country. I see, when Capitan come, vat he do,"

said Manuel, turning about and going to his room in a great excitement.

"You'd better be careful how you talk, or you may get locked up when the sheriff comes."

It seems that the Captain had received a note from him, addressed by one of the white prisoners on the same floor, and reached the jail just as Manuel had ascended the stairs. He rang the bell and requested to see Manuel.

"Manuel Pereira?" inquired the jailer.

"Yes," said the Captain, "he is my steward."

He heard the Captain's voice, and immediately returned to the lobby. The tears ran down his cheeks as soon as he saw his old protector. "Well, Manuel, I am glad to see you, but sorry that it is in imprisonment.

Tell me what is the matter. Don't they use you well here?" inquired the Captain.

Stepping within the office door, he caught up the pieces of meat, and bringing them out in his hands, held them up. "There, Capitan, that no fit for man, is it?" said he. "Law send me prison, but law no give not'ing to eat. What I do dat people treat me so? Ah, Capitan, bull neck, by gar, yes-bull born in South Carolina, wid two neck. Ils sont reduits l'extremit," said he, concluding with broken French.

"That cannot be; it's against the law to kill bulls in South Carolina,"

interrupted the jailer jocosely.

"Must be. I swear he bull-neck, 'cas he c.u.m every day just like him.

Bull born wid one neck no c.u.m so many. What I get for breakfast, Capitan, ah?--piece bad bread. What I get for dinner, ah?--bull-neck.

Yes, what I get for supper, too?--piece bread and bucket o' water.

May-be he bad, may be he good, just so he come. You think I live on dat, Capitan?" said he, in reply to the Captain's questions.

The Captain felt incensed at such treatment, and excused himself for not calling before; yet he could not suppress a smile that stole upon his countenance in consequence of Manuel's quaint earnestness.

"That is certainly strange fare for a human being; but the supper seems rather a comical one. Did you drink the bucket of water, Manuel?"

inquired the Captain, retaining a sober face.

"Capitan, you know me too well for dat. I not ask 'em nozin' what he no get, but I want my coffee for suppe'. I no eat him like zat," throwing the putrid meat upon the floor again.

"Hi, hi! That won't do in this jail. You're dirtying up all my floor,"

said the jailer, calling a negro boy and ordering him to carry the bull-necks, as Manuel called them, into the kitchen.

"You call him dirt, ah, Miser Jailer? Capitan, just come my room; I shown him," said Manuel, leading the way up-stairs, and the Captain followed. A sight at the cell was enough, while the sickly stench forbid him to enter beyond the threshold. He promised Manuel that he would provide for him in future, and turning about suddenly, retreated into the lower lobby.

"Jailer, what does all this mean? Do you allow men to starve in a land of plenty, and to suffer in a cell like that?" asked the Captain in a peremptory tone.

"I feel for the men, but you must enter your complaints to the sheriff-the ration of the jail is entirely in his hands."

"But have you no voice in it, by which you can alleviate their situation?"

"Not the least! My duty is to keep every thing-every thing to rights, as far as people are committed. You will find the sheriff in his office, any time between this and two o'clock," said the jailer. And the Captain left as suddenly as he came.

You will think I have written you an essay, instead of a letter inviting you to come and see me. Accept it for its intention, and excuse the circ.u.mstances. Your obedient servant,

CHAPTER XXI. THE CAPTAIN'S INTERVIEW WITH MR. GRIMSHAW.

THE appearance of things at the jail was forlorn in the extreme.

The Captain knew the integrity of Manuel, and not only believed his statement, but saw the positive proofs to confirm them. He repaired to the sheriff's office, and inquiring for that functionary, was pointed to Mr. Grimshaw, who sat in his large chair, with his feet upon the table, puffing the fumes of a very fine-flavored Havana, as unconcerned as if he was lord in sovereignty over every thing about the city. "I am captain of the Janson, and have called to inquire about my steward?"

said the Captain.

"Ah! yes,--you have a n.i.g.g.e.r fellow in jail. Oh! by-the-by, that's the one there was so much fuss about, isn't it?" said Mr. Grimshaw, looking up.

"It is an imperative duty on me to seek the comfort of my officers and crew," said the Captain. "I received a note from my steward, this morning,--here it is, (handing him the note,) you can read it. He requested me to call upon him at the jail, where I lost no time in going, and found what he stated there to be too true. How is it! From the great liberality of tone which everywhere met my ears when I first arrived, I was led to believe that he would be made comfortable; and that the mere confinement was the only feature of the law that was a grievance. Now I find that to be the only tolerable part of it. When a man has committed no crime, and is imprisoned to satisfy a caprice of public feeling, it should be accompanied with the most favoring attendants. To couple it with the most disgraceful abuses, as are shown here, makes it exceedingly repugnant. If we pay for confining these men, and for their living while they are confined, in G.o.d's name let us get what we pay for!"

The reader will observe that Mr. Grimshaw was a man of coa.r.s.e manners and vulgar mind, with all their traces preserved on the outer man. He looked up at the Captain with a presumptuous frown, and then said, "Why, Mr. Captain, how you talk! But that kind o' talk won't do here in South Carolina. That n.i.g.g.e.r o' yourn gives us a mighty site of trouble, Captain. He doesn't seem to understand that he must be contented in jail, and live as the other prisoners do. He gets what the law requires, and if he gives us any further trouble, we shall lock him up in the third story."

"You cannot expect him to be contented, when you furnish the means of discontent. But I did not come here to argue with you, nor to ask any thing as a favour, but as a right. My steward has been left to suffer!

Am I to pay for what he does not get? Or am I to pay you for the pretence, and still be compelled to supply him on account of the owners?

You must excuse my feelings, for I have had enough to provoke them!"

returned the Captain.

"That business is entirely my own! He gets what the State allows, and I provide. Your steward never wrote that note; it was dictated by some of them miserable white prisoners. I can hear no complaints upon such cases as them. If I were to listen to all these nonsensical complaints, it would waste all my time. I wish the devil had all the n.i.g.g.e.r stewards and their complaints; the jail's in a fuss with them all the time. I can hear nothing further, sir-nothing further!" said Grimshaw emphatically, interrupting the Captain as he attempted to speak; at which the Captain became so deeply incensed, that he relieved his feelings in that sort of plain English which a Scotchman can best bestow in telling a man what he thinks of his character.

"You must remember, sir, you are in the office of the sheriff of the county-parish, I mean,--and I am, sir, ent.i.tled to proper respect.