"_From dawn till dark_, the slaves are required to bend to their work."
Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, Waterford, Conn., a resident in North Carolina eleven winters.
"The slaves are obliged to work _from daylight till dark_, as long as they can see."
Mr. Eleazar Powel, Chippewa, Beaver county, Penn., who lived in Mississippi in 1836 and 1837.
"The slaves had to cook and eat their breakfast and be in the field by _daylight, and continue there till dark_."
Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer in Elyria, Ohio, who resided in Florida in 1834 and 1835.
"The slaves commence labor _by daylight_ in the morning, and do not leave the field _till dark_ in the evening."
"Travels in Louisiana," page 87.
"Both in summer and winter the slave must _be in the field by the first dawning of day_."
Mr. Henry E. Knapp, member of a Christian church in Farmington, Ohio, who lived in Mississippi in 1837 and 1838.
"The slaves were made to work, from _as soon as they could see_ in the morning, till as late as they could see at night. Sometimes they were made to work till nine o"clock at night, in such work as they could do, as burning cotton stalks, &c."
A New Orleans paper, dated March 23, 1826, says: "To judge from the activity reigning in the cotton presses of the suburbs of St. Mary, and the _late hours_ during which their slaves work, the cotton trade was never more brisk."
Mr. GEORGE W. WESTGATE, a member of the Congregational Church at Quincy, Illinois, who lived in the south western slaves states a number of years says, "the slaves are driven to the field in the morning _about four o"clock_, the general calculation is to get them at work by daylight; the time for breakfast is between nine and ten o"clock, this meal is sometimes eaten "_bite and work_," others allow fifteen minutes, and this is the only rest the slave has while in the field. I have never known a case of stopping for an hour, in Louisiana; in Mississippi the rule is milder, though entirely subject to the will of the master. On cotton plantations, in cotton picking time, that is from October to Christmas, each hand has a certain quant.i.ty to pick, and is flogged if his task is not accomplished; their tasks are such as to keep them all the while busy."
The preceding testimony under this head has sole reference to the actual labor of the slaves _in the field_. In order to determine how many hours are left for sleep, we must take into the account, the time spent in going to and from the field, which is often at a distance of one, two and sometimes three miles; also the time necessary for pounding, or grinding their corn, and preparing, overnight, their food for the next day; also the preparation of tools, getting fuel and preparing it, making fires and cooking their suppers, if they have any, the occasional mending and washing of their clothes, &c. Besides this, as everyone knows who has lived on a southern plantation, many little errands and _ch.o.r.es_ are to be done for their masters and mistresses, old and young, which have acc.u.mulated during the day and been kept in reserve till the slaves return from the field at night.
To this we may add that the slaves are _social_ beings, and that during the day, silence is generally enforced by the whip of the overseer or driver.[3] When they return at night, their pent up social feelings will seek vent, it is a law of nature, and though the body may be greatly worn with toil, this law cannot be wholly stifled.
Sharers of the same woes, they are drawn together by strong affinities, and seek the society and sympathy of their fellows; even "_tired_ nature" will joyfully forego for a time needful rest, to minister to a want of its being equally permanent and imperative as the want of sleep, and as much more profound, as the yearnings of the higher nature surpa.s.s the instincts of its animal appendage.
[Footnote 3: We do not mean that they are not suffered to _speak_, but, that, as conversation would be a hindrance to labour, they are generally permitted to indulge in it but little.]
All these things make drafts upon _time_. To show how much of the slave"s time, which is absolutely indispensable for rest and sleep, is necessarily spent in various labors after his return from the field at night, we subjoin a few testimonies.
Mr. CORNELIUS JOHNSON, Farmington, Ohio, who lived in Mississippi in the years 1837 and 38, says:
"On all the plantations where I was acquainted, the slaves were kept in the field till dark; after which, those who had to grind their own corn, had that to attend to, get their supper, attend to other family affairs of their own and of their master, such as bringing water, washing, clothes, &c. &c., and be in the field as soon as it was sufficiently light to commence work in the morning."
Mr. GEORGE W. WESTGATE, of Quincy, Illinois, who has spent several years in the south western slave states, says:
"Their time, after full dark until four o"clock in the morning is their own; this fact alone would seem to say they have sufficient rest, but there are other things to be considered; much of their making, mending and washing of clothes, preparing and cooking food, hauling and chopping wood, fixing and preparing tools, and a variety of little nameless jobs must be done between those hours."
PHILEMON BLISS, Esq. of Elyria, Ohio, who resided in Florida in 1834 and 5, gives the following testimony:
"After having finished their field labors, they are occupied till nine or ten o"clock in doing _ch.o.r.es_, such as grinding corn, (as all the corn in the vicinity is ground by hand,) chopping wood, taking care of horses, mules, &c., and a thousand things necessary to be done on a large plantation. If any extra job is to be done, it must not hinder the "n.i.g.g.e.rs" from their work, but must be done in the night."
W.C. GILDERSLEEVE, Esq., a native of Georgia, an elder of the Presbyterian Church at Wilkes-barre, Pa. says:
"The corn is ground in a handmill by the slave _after his task is done_--generally there is but one mill on the plantation, and as but one can grind at a time, the mill is going sometimes _very late at night_."
We now present another cla.s.s of facts and testimony, showing that the slaves engaged in raising the large staples, are _overworked_.
In September, 1831, the writer of this had an interview with JAMES G.
BIRNEY, Esq., who then resided in Kentucky, having removed with his family from Alabama the year before. A few hours before that interview, and on the morning of the same day, Mr. B. had spent a couple of hours with Hon. Henry Clay, at his residence, near Lexington. Mr. Birney remarked, that Mr. Clay had just told him, he had lately been led to mistrust certain estimates as to the increase of the slave population in the far south west--estimates which he had presented, I think, in a speech before the Colonization Society. He now believed, that the births among the slaves in that quarter were _not equal to the deaths_--and that, of course, the slave population, independent of immigration from the slave-selling states, was _not sustaining itself_.
Among other facts stated by Mr. Clay, was the following, which we copy _verbatim_ from the original memorandum, made at the time by Mr.
Birney, with which he has kindly furnished us.
"Sept. 16, 1834.--Hon. H. Clay, in a conversation at his own house, on the subject of slavery, informed me, that Hon. Outerbridge Horsey, formerly a senator in Congress from the state of Delaware, and the owner of a sugar plantation in Louisiana, declared to him, that his overseer worked his hands so closely, that one of the women brought forth a child whilst engaged in the labors of the field.
"Also, that a few years since, he was at a brick yard in the environs of New Orleans, in which one hundred hands were employed; among them were from _twenty to thirty young women_, in the prime of life. He was told by the proprietor, that there had _not been a child born among them for the last two or three years, although they all had husbands_."
The preceding testimony of Mr. Clay, is strongly corroborated by advertis.e.m.e.nts of slaves, by Courts of Probate, and by executors administering upon the estates of deceased persons. Some of those advertis.e.m.e.nts for the sale of slaves, contain the names, ages, accustomed employment, &c., of all the slaves upon the plantation of the deceased. These catalogues show large numbers of young men and women, almost all of them between twenty and thirty-eight years old; and yet the number of young children is _astonishingly small_. We have laid aside many lists of this kind, in looking over the newspapers of the slaveholding states; but the two following are all we can lay our hands on at present. One is in the "Planter"s Intelligencer,"
Alexandria, La., March 22, 1837, containing one hundred and thirty slaves; and the other in the New Orleans Bee, a few days later, April 8, 1837, containing fifty-one slaves. The former is a "Probate sale"
of the slaves belonging to the estate of Mr. Charles S. Lee, deceased, and is advertised by G.W. Keeton, Judge of the Parish of Concordia, La. The s.e.x, name, and age of each slave are contained in the advertis.e.m.e.nt which fills two columns. The following are some of the particulars.
The whole number of slaves is _one hundred and thirty_. Of these, _only three are over forty years old_. There are _thirty-five females_ between the ages of _sixteen and thirty-three_, and yet there are only THIRTEEN children under the age of _thirteen years!_
It is impossible satisfactorily to account for such a fact, on any other supposition, than that these thirty-five females were so overworked, or underfed, or both, as to prevent child-bearing.
The other advertis.e.m.e.nt is that of a "Probate sale," ordered by the Court of the Parish of Jefferson--including the slaves of Mr. William Gormley. The whole number of slaves is fifty-one; the s.e.x, age, and accustomed labors of each are given. The oldest of these slaves is but _thirty-nine years old_: of the females, _thirteen_ are between the ages of sixteen and thirty-two, and the oldest female is but _thirty-eight_--and yet there are but _two children under eight years old!_
Another proof that the slaves in the south-western states are over-worked, is the fact, that so few of them live to old age. A large majority of them are _old_ at middle age, and few live beyond fifty-five. In one of the preceding advertis.e.m.e.nts, out of one hundred and thirty slaves, only _three_ are over forty years old! In the other, out of fifty-one slaves, only _two_ are over _thirty-five_; the oldest is but thirty-nine, and the way in which he is designated in the advertis.e.m.e.nt, is an additional proof, that what to others is "middle age," is to the slaves in the south-west "old age:" he is advertised as "_old_ Jeffrey."
But the proof that the slave population of the south-west is so over-worked that it cannot _supply its own waste_, does not rest upon mere inferential evidence. The Agricultural Society of Baton Rouge, La., in its report, published in 1829, furnishes a labored estimate of the amount of expenditure necessarily incurred in conducting "a well-regulated sugar estate." In this estimate, the annual net loss of slaves, over and above the supply by propagation, is set down at TWO AND A HALF PER CENT! The late Hon. Josiah S. Johnson, a member of Congress from Louisiana, addressed a letter to the Secretary of the United States" Treasury, in 1830, containing a similar estimate, apparently made with great care, and going into minute details. Many items in this estimate differ from the preceding; but the estimate of the annual _decrease_ of the slaves on a plantation was the same--TWO AND A HALF PER CENT!
The following testimony of Rev. Dr. Channing, of Boston, who resided some time in Virginia, shows that the over-working of slaves, to such an extent as to abridge life, and cause a decrease of population, is not confined to the far south and south-west.
"I heard of an estate managed by an individual who was considered as singularly successful, and who was able to govern the slaves without the use of the whip. I was anxious to see him, and trusted that some discovery had been made favorable to humanity. I asked him how he was able to dispense with corporal punishment. He replied to me, with a very determined look, "The slaves know that the work _must_ be done, and that it is better to do it without punishment than with it." In other words, the certainty and dread of chastis.e.m.e.nt were so impressed on them, that they never incurred it.
"I then found that the slaves on this well-managed estate, _decreased_ in number. I asked the cause. He replied, with perfect frankness and ease, "The gang is not large enough for the estate." In other words, they were not equal to the work of the plantation, and, yet were _made to do it_, though with the certainty of abridging life.
"On this plantation the huts were uncommonly convenient. There was an unusual air of neatness. A superficial observer would have called the slaves happy. Yet they were living under a severe, subduing discipline, and were _over-worked_ to a degree that _shortened life_."--_Channing on Slavery_, page 162, first edition.
PHILEMON BLISS, Esq., a lawyer of Elyria, Ohio, who spent some time in Florida, gives the following testimony to the over-working of the slaves:
"It is not uncommon for hands, in hurrying times, beside working all day, to labor half the night. This is usually the case on sugar plantations, during the sugar-boiling season; and on cotton, during its gathering. Beside the regular task of picking cotton, averaging of the short staple, when the crop is good, 100 pounds a day to the hand, the ginning (extracting the seed,) and baling was done in the night.
Said Mr. ---- to me, while conversing upon the customary labor of slaves, "I work my n.i.g.g.e.rs in a hurrying time till 11 or 12 o"clock at night, and have them up by four in the morning."