Whenever a slave committed a crime against the State, his master usually
had to pay for the damage done or pay the slave's fine. It was then up
to him to see that the offender was punished.

Mr. Coxton once saw him (Mr. Bland) beat another slave (who was a guest
at a frolic) when this visitor attempted to draw a pistol on him. Mr.
Bland was upheld in his action and told by Mr. Coxton that he had better
always fight back when anyone struck him, whether the person was white
or black. Further, if he (Mr. Coxton) heard of his not fighting back a
whipping would be in store for him.

Mr. Coxton was different from some of the slave owners in that he gave
the head of each family spending money at Christmas time--the amount
varying with the size of the family.

"When the Civil war was begun the master seemed to be worried all the
time" states Mr. Bland. "He was afraid that we would be freed and then
he would have to hire us to do his work."

When asked to describe his feelings about the war and the possibility of
his being freed, Mr. Bland said that he had no particular feeling of
gladness at all. The outcome of the war did not interest him at all
because Mr. Coxton was such a good master he didn't care whether he was
freed or not. His fellow slaves felt the same way.

When Sherman and the Yankees were marching through they took all of the
live stock but bothered nothing else. The buildings on the adjoining
plantation were all burned. A small skirmish took place about 2 miles
away from Mr. Coxton's plantation when the Yankees and Confederates met.