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 nigger 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 nigger 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.
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