SLAVERY
Interpreting
Primary Sources
The whole
commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the...most
unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the
other.....Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that
his justice cannot sleep forever.
--Thomas
Jefferson, 1782
An hour
before day light the horn is blown.
Then the slaves arouse, prepare their breakfast, fill a gourd with
water, in another deposit their dinner of cold bacon and corn cake, and hurry
to the field again. It is an offense
invariably followed by a flogging, to be found at the quarters after
daybreak....
The hands
are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning,
and, with the exception of ten or fifteen minutes, which is given them at noon
to swallow their allowance of cold bacon, they are not permitted to be a moment
idle until it is too dark to see, and when the moon is full, they often times
labor till the middle of the night.
They do not dare to stop even at dinner time, nor return to the
quarters, however late it be, until the order to halt is given by the
driver....
Finally, at
a late hour, they reach the quarters, sleepy and overcome with the long day's
toil. All that is allowed them is corn
and bacon, which is given out at the corn-crib and smoke-house every Sunday
morning. Each one receives, as his
weekly allowance, three and a half pounds of bacon, and corn enough to make a
peck of meal. That is all.
--Solomon
Northrup
The laborers
begin work at six o'clock in the morning, have an hour's rest at nine for
breakfast, and many have finished their assigned task by two o'clock, all of
them by three o'clock. In summer, they
divide their work differently, going to bed in the middle of the day, then
rising to finish their task, and afterward spending a great part of the night
in chatting, merry-making, preaching, and psalm-singing....
The laborers
are allowed Indian meal, rice, and milk, and occasionally pork and soup. As their rations are more than they can eat,
they either return part of it at the end of the week, or they keep it to feed
their fowls, which they usually sell, as well as their eggs, for cash, to buy
molasses, tobacco, and other luxuries....
The sight of
the whip was painful to me as a mark of degradation, reminding me that the
lower orders of slaves are kept to their work by mere bodily fear, and that
their treatment must depend on the individual character of the owner or
overseer.
--Sir
Charles Lyell
The Negro
slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in
the world. The children and the aged
and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of
life provided for them. They enjoy
liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care nor labor. The women do little hard work, and are
protected from the despotism of their husbands by their masters. The Negro men and stout boys work, on the
average, in good weather, not more than nine hours a day....Besides they have their
Sabbaths and holidays.
The free
laborer must work or starve. He is more
of a slave than the Negro, because he works longer and harder for less
allowance than the slave, and has no holiday, because the cares of life with
him begin when its labor end. He has no
liberty, and not a single right.
--George
Fitzhugh, Cannibals All! or Slaves Without Masters, 1857
On the 12th
of May, 1828, I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly
appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the
yoke he had borne for the sins of Men, and that I should take it on and fight
against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be
last and the last should be first.
Question: Do you not find yourself mistaken now?
Answer: Was not Christ crucified?
Since 1830,
I had been living with Mr. Joseph Travis, who was a kind master who had placed
great trust in me. On Saturday evening,
August 20th [1831] we decided to meet the next day for a meal and to work out
our plan of attack....It was quickly agreed we should start at home (Mr. J.
Travis') on that night.
I took my
station in the rear, and, as it was my object to carry terror and destruction
wherever we went, I placed fifteen or twenty of the best armed and most to be
relied on in front, who generally approached the houses as fast as their horses
could run. This was for two purposes--to prevent their escape and strike terror
to the inhabitants.
--Confessions
of Nat Turner, 1831
Follow the
Drinking Gourd
When the sun
comes back and the first quail calls,
Follow the
drinking gourd.
for the old
man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom,
If you
follow the drinking gourd
The river
bank will make a very good road,
The dead trees
show you the way.
Left foot,
peg foot traveling on,
Follow the
drinking gourd.
--Negro
spiritual
Questions to
think about:
1. Which account offers the most accurate
description of slavery?
2. On what grounds did apologists defend slavery?
3. Why does Nat Turner say he led a revolt
against slavery? What does his account
tell us about the radical potential of slave religion?
INTERPRETING
STATISTICS: SLAVES AND SLAVEHOLDINGS
Slaveholding,
1860
Nonslaveholders 76.1
percent
1-9
slaves 17.2
10-99 6.6
over
100 0.1
Distribution
of Slaves
Number of
slaves held 0
1-6 7-39 40+
Percent of
white families 75 15
9 1
Percent of
slaves held 0 16 53
31
Growth of
the African American Population
1820 1.77
million 13 percent free
1830 2.33
million 14 percent free
1840 2.87
million 13 percent free
1850 3.69
million 12 percent free
1860 4.44
million 11 percent free
Questions
to think about:
1. How many slaves did a typical white
Southerner own?
2. On what size farm or plantation did a
typical slave live? How many slave
families might have lived on such a plantation? How likely was it that a slave
could find a spouse on a plantation of that
size?
3. How rapidly was the slave population growing? Why do you think the U.S. slave population grew while the slave populations elsewhere in the New World failed to naturally reproduce their numbers?