[A driver] is a confidential servant

Nicholas Brandus
Mother: Hannah Goodwin, Wife: Renah, Children: Nelly, William, Tilla
At age 23 Nicholas was made a driver for a gang of women known as
the Sucklers Gang, composed of women who were pregnant or nursing. It would have been an opportunity to show his master that he
could control a larger gang in the regular work force. He was later
made a temporary head driver, possibly at Cowden Plantation, in 1857.
Apr 13, 1847 - Started Nicholas as driver over sucklers & pregnant women.

Alonzo
Wife: Abbie Glaze, Children: Easter, Julius, Peggy, Della, Thomas, Jane
Despite having runaway three times after his initial purchase by Hammond back in 1843, Alonzo was elevated to a position of authority just
eight years later in 1851 when he was made driver at Cathwood Plantation. He died at Redcliffe Plantation on the 9th of August in 1864.
Other drivers mentioned in James H. Hammonds journals include
Marcus a driver at Silver Bluff and later at Cathwood in the late 1940s.
Charley was a plough driver who was flogged in 1854 for breaking
ploughs while the next year he received a $3.00 Christmas bonus.
May 7, 1854 - Flogged Tom Kollock (driver) for bad hoeing &
Charley (plough driver) for breaking ploughs.

A Slave Drivers Responsibilities

The head driver had charge of and blew the horn that signaled the beginning
of work each morning and signaled the night curfew.
The driver visited the home of every slave family just after second horn blow
in the morning to make sure that everyone had gone out to the fields.
The plow driver summoned the gang that operated the plows 15 minutes
before everyone else in the mornings.
A driver maintained discipline among the work gangs and could administer
punishment to fellow slaves who were idle or did bad work.
This brochure is a product of Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site, 181 Redcliffe Rd.,
Beech Island, SC 29842. To contact call 803-827-1473 or email redcliffe@scprt.com.

Here is the story of the slave drivers of Silver

Bluff, Cathwood and Cowden Plantations.
The head driver is the most important negro on the
plantation & is not required to work like the other
hands. He is to be treated with more respect than
any other negro by both master & overseer.

The most important negro on the plantation

A slave driver was a male slave who was given a special position of
authority over his fellow field slaves. He worked directly under a white
overseer and was trained to guide and oversee the work of his fellow
slaves in the cotton and corn fields.
Being a driver afforded a slave a great deal of authority and perks.
Every Christmas James Henry Hammond gave his drivers a gift of
$5.00. They could visit the master at anytime without acquiring a pass
to leave the plantation where they worked and could borrow a cart to
visit town.
The quality of their work could be questioned at any time but a driver
could only be flogged by his master, not the overseer. Head driver Tom
Collick was flogged several times by his master for unsatisfactory work.

PLANTATION HIERARCHY
Master
Overseer
Head Driver
Ditch Drivers

Other Drivers

Plow Drivers

Common Field Hands, Hoers, Ditchers, Plowers & Sucklers

The head driver was higher up in the plantation hierarchy but regular
drivers also over saw the work of the men digging ditches out in the
fields (ditchers), over the men doing the plow work and over pregnant
women and nursing women in the Sucklers gang.

Tom Collick (Kollock) - Head Driver

1st Wife: Hannah Shubrick, 2nd Wife: Eliza

Tom Collick was head driver, primarily at the Hammonds Silver Bluff
Plantation, for almost thirty years. In James H. Hammonds 1833
estimate of the Value of Stock Tom is the only slave valued at
$1,000. Although flogged several times for poor supervision Tom was
actually made a overseer at Silver Bluff for a few months while Hammond hired a new white overseer.

John Simmons - Retired Driver

Wife: Binah Scott, Children: Pink, Fortune, Gabriel

From the Plantation Manual of James Henry Hammond, 1857-1858,

James Henry Hammond Papers, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division.

On the 17th of January 1839 James H. Hammond recorded the death

of 65-year-old Driver John with a lingering case of old age. John had
probably been a driver on the plantation in his younger days before
Hammond became the owner of Silver Bluff Plantation in 1831.
Jan 18, 1839 Old Driver John died last night a lingering case of old age.