Leven Rock was the overseer of Evergreen Plantation from to his death in These letters offer insight into the lives of the enlaved at Evergreen, particularly Leven. Most sizable plantations had at least one overseer who served as a middleman between plantation owners and enslaved people. Overseers were typically hired white men and held a social status between masters and non-slave-owning yeomen farmers. The overseer would do this by delegating tasks, assigning work gangs, and supervising field hands.
Drivers, while being enslaved themselves, took on a leadership role within plantations. They were managers of all enslaved field hands, tasked with keeping production high among the field hands.
They served as foremen of the work gangs. Of the enslaved, they were widely regarded as the most important and knowledgeable concerning crop production and management. At times, drivers used corporal punishment to speed up production and eliminate disobedience. Drivers were placed in a particularly precarious position as they were often ostracized by other enslaved people because of their managerial status. In rare instances, enslaved men were promoted to the position of overseer. This was most common in plantations fully managed by widows.
Female planters often preferred enslaved overseers because they could exact deference from them, whereas white overseers tended to disobey orders and disrespect female planters. As with most of the enslaved population at Evergreen Plantation, Leven was born into slavery at Evergreen Plantation.
Sam Rock was an integral part of the enslaved community at Evergreen Plantation. For the next few years, Leven had an informal leadership role in the community and attempted to fill the hole his father left. In a time when slave revolts were suspected or occurring often, a planter would have to have complete trust in an enslaved person to provide them with a weapon. This was likely achieved through overseeing work in the fields, but it seems that Leven did not use extensive violence and abuse to motivate field hands, unlike past white overseers who were fired for their abuse of enslaved workers.
