Upon this individual I would fix particular attention; for under his rule there was more suffering from violence and bloodshed than had--according to the older slaves ever been experienced before on this plantation.

I confess, I hardly know how to bring this man fitly before the reader.
He was, it is true, an overseer, and possessed, to a large extent, the peculiar characteristics of his class; yet, to call him merely an overseer, would not give the reader a fair notion of the man.

I speak of overseers as a class.

They are such.

They are as distinct from the slaveholding gentry of the south, as are the fishwomen of Paris, and the coal-heavers of London, distinct from other members of society.