Slaves are never allowed to leave the plantation to which they belong,
without a written pass. Should any one venture to disobey this law, he
will most likely be caught by the _patrol_ and given thirty-nine lashes.
This patrol is always on duty every Sunday, going to each plantation under
their supervision, entering every slave cabin, and examining closely the
conduct of the slaves; and if they find one slave from another plantation
without a pass, he is immediately punished with a severe flogging.

I recollect going one Sunday with my mother, to visit my grand-mother; and
while there, two or three of the patrol came and looked into the cabin,
and seeing my mother, demanded her pass. She told them that she had one,
but had left it in another cabin, from whence she soon brought it, which
saved her a whipping but we were terribly frightened.

The reader will obtain a better knowledge of the character of a Virginia
patrol, by the relation of an affair, which came off on the neighboring
plantation of Col. Alexander, in which some forty of Capt. Helm's slaves
were engaged, and which proved rather destructive of human life in the
end.

But I must first say that it is not true, that slave owners are respected
for kindness to their slaves. The more tyrannical a master is, the more
will he be favorably regarded by his neighboring planters; and from the
day that he acquires the reputation of a kind and indulgent master, he is
looked upon with suspicion, and sometimes hatred, and his slaves are
watched more closely than before.

Col. Alexander was a very wealthy planter and owned a great number of
slaves, but he was very justly suspected of being a kind, humane, and
indulgent master. His slaves were always better fed, better clad, and had