Beadle's Half Dime Library, Vol. III, No. 78

1879 · 16 pages

The Yellow Chief's Vengeance, by Capt. Mayne Reid This serialized romance opens on a Mississippi cotton plantation near Vicksburg. Young Blount Blackadder orders the overseer Snively to inflict "the punishment of the pump"—prolonged cold water torture—on Blue Dick, a mulatto slave. The motivation stems from jealousy: both men desired Sylvia, a quadroon girl on the plantation, but she yielded to the young master's power over natural affection. After the brutal punishment, Blue Dick escapes three days later. Sylvia is then found murdered with an axe in the peach orchard, her killing attributed to the vengeful slave. Chapter II digresses into historical commentary on Mississippi plantation slavery, describing the region's reputation for harshness and the character of Squire Blackadder, the property owner and father figure—a Delaware native whose despotic management and reliance on overseer Snively has created a brutal regime despite the plantation's potential profitability.

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