Overseer

“ The overseer is swearing at the men at the windlass and comparing his papers with the slips of the customs officer, the one making a blue check on the bill of lading and the other taking note of each article on his long list. ”

“ Those who know the most, generally, become overseers. In cases where persons hire laborers to work on farms, or in their families, then the master of the house, or the farm, is the overseer, and directs [46] those he hires, because they agree, for a reward, to do as he directs. ”

“ Up one goes to the overseer and asks him to help you, giving the other men a side-grin at the same time. He takes it, looks at it, turns it over, and then can’t make anything of it, though he won’t say so; for overseers must of course seem to know everything. ”

“ He contents himself with giving his overseer orders concerning the emancipation of his serfs, the cessation of corporal punishment, the reasonable regulation of labor, the building of hospitals and schools. The overseer, who sees through his master’s naïveté, constantly plays it upon him, and imposes upon him in regard to the effect of the measures prescribed, but which he carefully refrains from undertaking. ”

“ The still incompleted work is even now being ministered to with the strong, skilled hands of hundreds of men. All the same, the inspecting overseer is a necessary personage in the interests of the State. ”

“ When a more careful superintendence was required than the landowner himself could personally give, the most faithful and capable of his laborers was probably quite frequently appointed overseer. If he had under engagement to himself a servant who was perfectly competent to perform the duties of the position, there could have been little inducement for him to select a man who was in full enjoyment of his freedom. ”

“ Likewise this Overseer for Trades shall see that no man shall be a Housekeeper and have servants under him till he hath served under a Master seven years, and hath learned his Trade: and the reason is, that every Family may be governed by staid and experienced Masters, and not by wanton youth. And this Office of Overseer keeps all people within a peaceful harmony of Trades, Sciences, or Works, that there be neither Beggar nor Idle Person in the Commonwealth. ”

“ Likewise this overseer is to assist any master of a family by his advice and counsel in the secrets of his trades, that by the experience of the elders the young people may learn the inward knowledge of the things which are, and find out the secrets of nature. ”

“ And if this overseer find any youth more capable and fit for another trade than his own, he shall speak to some overseers of another trade, who shall provide him a master, with the consent of his father, and appoint him what family to live in. ”

“ When the overseer makes his appearance in the field, all the drivers collect about him to receive his orders. For the performance of the work assigned to his gang, each driver is himself responsible; and that he may perfectly understand by what means he is to enforce its performance, the overseer usually inducts him into office by giving him a severe castigation with the very whip which he afterwards puts into his hand to be used upon his companions. ”

“ Austin Gore, a man possessing, in an eminent degree, all those traits of character indispensable to what is called a first-rate overseer. Mr. Gore had served Colonel Lloyd, in the capacity of overseer, upon one of the out-farms, and had shown himself worthy of the high station of overseer upon the home or Great House Farm. ”

“ Chapter 3
1 This is a faithful saying: if a man seeks the office of an overseer, he desires a good work. 2 The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching; 3 not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence; 5 (but if a man doesn't know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the assembly of God?) ”

“ The first is an Overseer to preserve peace, in case of any quarrels that may fall out between man and man.... The second office of Overseer is for Trades. This Overseer is to see that young people be put to Masters, to be instructed in some labour, trade, service, or to be waiters in Storehouses, that none may be idly brought up in any family within his circuit.... Truly the Government of the Halls and Companies in London is a very rational and well-ordered government ”

“ When forms are wrought off, and ordered to be kept standing, they are then considered under the care of the overseer. When they are desired to be cleared away, it is done in equal proportions by the companionship. ”

“ The office of overseer took this raw material of vulgarity and brutality, and stamped it as a distinct class in southern life. But in this class, as in all other classes, there were sometimes persons of marked individuality, yet with a general resemblance to the72 mass. Mr. Gore was one of those to whom a general characterization would do no manner of justice. He was an overseer, but he was something more. With the malign and tyrannical qualities of an overseer he combined something of the lawful master. ”

“ Under them, the master is required to exercise the same degree of care for his servant that he should for his own safety, and he is bound to furnish a reasonably safe place in which his servant [Pg 133] is to work, supply reasonably safe implements and machinery, select fellow-servants reasonably competent and prudent, and, where the nature of the business requires an overseer or superintendent, appoint one who is reasonably competent and prudent. ”

“ If any overseer favour any in their idleness, and neglect the execution of the laws, he shall be reproved the first time by the judge's court; the second time cashiered his office, and shall never bear office more, but fall back into the rank of young people and servants to be a worker.
24. New overseers shall at their first entrance into their office look back upon the actions of the old overseers of the last year, to see if they have been faithful in their places, and consented to no breach of law, whereby kingly bondage should any ways be brought in. ”

“ The overseer will report that he himself has worked diligently, but that some slaves have been sick and others truant, the weather has been bad, and that it has been necessary to work the public roads. ”

“ Grant keeps them tolerably straight, ma'am. I can't say it's exactly as 'twas in her time, but they'll break in pretty easy, I reckon. An overseer, no matter how smart and good, ain't a marster or mistis. ”

“ The overseer concluded to receive me on trial;—it was here that I had not only frequent opportunities to see his Royal Majesty in person, in his frequent resorts to this, one of his country retreats, but once had the honour of being addressed by him. ”

“ An overseer attends continually to see that every one performs his work diligently; and in case of the smallest resistance to any of the regulations, the offender is immediately cast into a solitary cell, to subsist on bread and water till he returns to a proper sense of his behaviour ”

“ Turning now to the organization, there are two great choices to be made, with or without Overseers, and by Day pay or Piecework. Each system may be best under particular conditions, and the suitability of each we will note first, before entering on detail.
Overseers are almost always employed. They remove much of the friction; they profess to drive the men on, and be responsible for their regular working; and they seem indispensable parts of the business. The less a master knows of the men and of their language the more essential an overseer seems to be.
Fig. 15. Girls and boys in the work. ”

“ Overseam, ō′vėr-sēm, n. a seam in which the thread is at each stitch passed over the edges sewn together.—n. O′verseaming, the foregoing kind of sewing.
Oversee, ō-vėr-sē′, v.t. to see or look over, to superintend.—n. Oversē′er, one who oversees: a superintendent: an officer who has the care of the poor, and other duties, such as making out lists of voters, of persons who have not paid rates, &c.: one who manages a plantation of slaves: (obs.) a critic.—Overseers of the poor, officers in England who manage the poor-rate.—Be overseen (obs.) , to be deceived: to be fuddled. ”

“ In addition to the overseers, there are one hundred and eight guardians, elected by the inhabitants who pay levies, and they continue in office for three years, during which time they possess all the power and authority of overseers, except making and collecting of rates, from both of which they are exempt, nor can they be compelled to assist therein as guardians ”

“ Some overseers to look after the shepherds, and appoint out such men as are skilled in that work. Some overseers to look after the herdsmen. Some overseers of them who look to horses, and some for the dairies. And the work of these overseers is to see that every family send in their assistance to work, both in ploughing and dressing the earth in that season of the year, in seed time; and in reaping the fruits of the earth, and housing them in store-houses in time of harvest. ”

“ The overseers, generally larger and more intelligent than the mass of workers, direct the operations, chastise the indolent, see that all is done with order and regularity, and generally supervise and control the operations. ”

“ In the case of candidates of the more vulgar classes, there are official overseers, who usually drag them through a few mud-puddles, and then set them to work at some hard labor that is especially profitable to the public functionaries, who commonly get the greater part of their own year’s work done in this manner. ”

“ It is altogether impossible, to make a person residing in any of the middle or northern states of the Union, and who has never been in the south, throughly acquainted with all the minute particulars of the life of a slave on a cotton plantation; or to give him an idea of the system of parsimonious economy, that the slave is obliged to exercise and maintain in his little household. Poor as the slave is, and dependant at all times upon the arbitrary will of his master, or yet more fickle caprice of the overseer, his children look up to him in his little cabin, as their protector and supporter. ”

“ The overseers are men whom I could trust to make a crop if I was on the spot myself; but of course the young man had to learn, and circumstances were sure to arise in which your advice would be most val'able. ”

“ To administer it effectually all individuals of the society, as I have just stated, whether men or women, are allowed the power of watching over the conduct of one another for their good, and of interfering if they should see occasion.
But besides this general care two or more persons of age and experience, and of moral lives and character, and two or more women of a similar description, are directed to be appointed, to have the oversight of every congregation or particular meeting in the kingdom. These persons are called overseers, because it is their duty to oversee their respective flocks. ”

“ To preserve good order and harmony among those who were detached upon these working parties, a certain proportion of officers and non-commissioned officers were always sent with them, and those commonly served as overseers of the works, and as such were paid. ”

“ Overseers of the poor are still appointed under the statute of Elizabeth, and the guardians cannot interfere with the appointment. As, however, the relief of the poor is administered by boards of guardians, the principal duties of overseers relate to the making and collection of rates Overseers. ”

“ Other overseers, how brutal soever they might be, would sometimes seek to gain favor with the slaves by indulging in a little pleasantry; but Gore never said a funny thing or perpetrated a joke. He was always cold, distant, and unapproachable—the overseer on Col. ”

“ The executive power is vested in a governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction, who are chosen by the people for a term of four years. ”

“ The executive, therefore, ought to be so constituted as to be the great protector of the mass of the people. It is the duty of the executive to appoint the officers, and to command the forces, of the republic—to appoint, first, ministerial officers for the administration of public affairs ”

“ My competitors for advancement were numerous, and more versed in the ways of the world than I. Like them, I was obliged to begin by paying a most assiduous attention to men in office. Having once gained the privilege of being seated in the mejlis (assembly) of the head of the law, who was in fact my chief, I little by little became noticed by the grand vizier, the lord high treasurer, the secretary of state, the chief executioner, and others. ”

“ When all have the rank and title of assistant general manager, this duality of function is the more pronounced and valuable. For the feudal notion of unbalanced components is substituted the cabinet idea of comprehensive deliberation, unified administration and devotion to a common purpose. ”

“ In practice very large powers, both of office management and of negotiation, are necessarily exercised by the six salaried officers, the President, the General Secretary, and the four Assistant Secretaries, each of whom is responsible for a separate branch of the Union's work. ”

“ The executive government consists of a governor, comptroller, treasurer, commissioner of the general land office, and superintendent of education, elected biennially, with an attorney-general and a secretary of state, appointed by the governor. ”