This writing provers that I have bold & recieved amid Coming. negro cooman name and her two children, and that み з layments as witness my Ong: I Bankhead LITH.OF SARONY, MAJOR & KNAPP 449 BROADWAY.N.Y. CHAPTER VIII. MR. JEFFERSON'S SERVANTS. MR. JEFFERSON AN INDULGENT MASTER-NOT WILLING TO HAVE HIS SERVANTS OVERWORKED, OR WHIPPED-NAILS STOLEN BY JIM HUBBARD-HIS PENITENCE AND FORGIVENESS-FAVORITE SERVANTS-THE HOUSE SERVANTS— IN THE ROOM WHEN MRS. JEFFERSON DIED-HIS PROMISE NOT TO MARRY AGAIN-MR. JEFFERSON'S INSTRUCTIONS IN REGARD TO HIS CIDER-SALLY HEMINGS CROSSED THE OCEAN WITH MARIA JEFFERSON-THEIR STAY IN LONDON WITH MRS. ADAMS-MRS. ADAMS' LETTERS-URSULA, JOHN HIEMINGS, JOE FOSSET-A FUGITIVE SLAVE-SERVANTS FREED BY MR. JEFFERSON HIS VIEWS OF SLAVERY. "MR. JEFFERSON was always very kind and indul gent to his servants. He would not allow them to be at all overworked, and he would hardly ever allow one of them to be whipped. His orders to me were constant, that if there was any servant that could not be got along with without the chastising that was customary, to dispose of him. He could not bear to have a servant whipped, no odds how much he deserved it. I remember one case in particular. Mr. Jefferson gave written instructions that I should always sell the nails that were made in his nailery. We made from sixpenny to twenty penny nails, and always kept a supply of each kind on hand. I went one day to supply an order, and the eight-penny nails were all gone, and there was a full supply of all the other sizes. Of course they had been stolen. I soon became satisfied that Jim Hubbard, one of the servants that worked in the nailery, had stolen them, and charged him with it. He denied it powerfully. I talked with Grady, the overseer of the nailery, about it, and finally I said, 'Let us drop it. He has hid them somewhere, and if we say no more about it, we shall find them.' I examined his house, and every place I could think of, but for some time I could find nothing of the nails. One day after a rain, as I was following a path through the woods, I saw muddy tracks on the leaves leading off from the path. I followed them until I came to a tree-top, where I found the nails buried in a large box. There were several hundred pounds of them. From circumstances, I knew that Jim had stolen them. Mr. Jefferson was at home at the time, and when I went up to Monticello I told him of it. He was very much surprised, and felt very badly about it. Jim had always been a favorite servant. He told me to be at my house next morning when he took his ride, and he would see Jim there. When he came, I sent for Jim, and I never saw any person, white or black, feel as badly as he did when he saw his mas HIS SERVANT JIM HUBBARD 105 ter. He was mortified and distressed beyond measHe had been brought up in the shop, and we all had confidence in him. ure. Now his character was down his face, and he gone. The tears streamed begged pardon over and over again. I felt very badly myself. Mr. Jefferson turned to me, and said, 'Ah, sir, we can't punish him. He has suffered enough already. He then talked to him, gave him a heap of good advice, and sent him to the shop. Grady had waited, expecting to be sent for to whip him, and he was astonished to see him come back and go to work after such a crime. When he came to dinner-he boarded with me then-he told me, that when Jim came back to the shop, he said, 'Well, I'se been a-seeking religion a long time, but I never heard any thing before that sounded so, or made me feel so, as I did when master said, Go, and don't do so any more;" and now I'se determined to seek religion till I find it;' and sure enough, he afterwards came to me for a permit to go and be baptized. I gave him one, and never knew of his doing any thing of the sort again. He was always a good servant afterwards 66 "Mr. Jefferson had a large number of favorite servants, that were treated just as well as could be. Burwell was the main, principal servant on the place. He did not go to Washington. Mr. Jeffer son had the most perfect confidence in him. He |