Thus he was an object of special dislike to the overseer; in the first place because he had not succeeded in having his way with regard to him, and in the second because he was a useless hand, and the overseer loved to get as much work as possible out of everyone on the estate.

The message had been a somewhat important one, as he wanted the slaves for some work that was urgently required; and he lost his temper, or he would not have done an act which would certainly bring him into collision with Vincent.
He was well aware that the lad did not really like him, and that his efforts to gain his good will had failed, and he had foreseen that sooner or later there would be a struggle for power between them.
However, he relied upon his influence with Mrs.Wingfield, and upon the fact that she was the life owner of the Orangery, and believed that he would be able to maintain his position even when Vincent came of age.
Vincent on his side objected to the overseer's treatment of the hands of which he heard a good deal from Dan, and had already remonstrated with his mother on the subject.
He, however, gained nothing by this.

Mrs.Wingfield had replied that he was too young to interfere in such matters, that his English ideas would not do in Virginia, and that naturally the slaves were set against the overseer; and that now Pearson had no longer a master to support him, he was obliged to be more severe than before to enforce obedience.

At the same time it vexed her at heart that there should be any severity on the Orangery Estate, where the best relations had always prevailed between the masters and slaves and she had herself spoken to Jonas on the subject.
He had given her the same answer that she had given her son: "The slaves will work for a master, Mrs.Wingfield, in a way they will not for a stranger.

They set themselves against me, and if I were not severe with them I should get no work at all out of them.