290 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



has taught them, that when order and discipline are pre- 

 served among this people — when they are kindly treated 

 and made to know and feel that they are servants — that 

 their overseer is not a tyrant, but, for the time, a master 

 whom they must obey — they need no compulsion to make 

 them obey, or go cheerfully to their work without his 

 attendance, for the common practice is to rely upon the 

 most trustworthy slaves themselves, to limit or extend 

 the amount of each day's labor. It is an indisputable 

 fact, that an overseer who urged the slaves beyond their 

 strength, or that inflicted cruel or unnecessary punish- 

 ment, or failed to see them well fed, or kindly taken care 

 of when sick, would be as sure to lose his place, as though 

 he permitted them to idle and waste their time. 



If witnesses are required to prove my assertions, I can 

 call by name an hundred as honorable and high-minded 

 men as ever breathed the air of heaven, who will vouch 

 for every word that I have uttered. 



Having feasted upon the diet of English factory opera- 

 tives, let me introduce you now to the bed and board of 

 negro slaves, in cotton-planting, negro-oppressing Mis- 

 sissippi. Contrary to my practice heretofore, I will call 

 a few witnesses by name — I am sure that they will excuse 

 the liberty, if it should ever come to their ears, for my 

 witnesses are gentlemen in every sense of the word. John 

 T. Leigh,^ of Yallubusha county, I invoke you first; state, 

 if you please, as j^'ou did to me, how you feed your 

 negroes? 



"The most of my negroes have families, and live as 

 you see in very comfortable cabins, nearly as good as my 

 own, with good fire places, good floors and doors, comfort- 

 able beds, plenty of cooking utensils and dishes, tables 

 and chairs. But I intend, in the course of another year, 

 to build them a new set of cabins, of uniform size, so as 

 to correspond in appearance with the overseer's house. 

 Those who have not families of their own, mess together; 

 I give each of them 31/2 lbs. of bacon, clear of bone, per 



'See Robinson, 1:454-58. 



