292 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



of Holmes county, whom you will find a fine specimen of 

 an old Virginia gentleman, and whose hundred and fifty 

 fine, healthy, hearty looking slaves, will be the best evi- 

 dence that he feeds them in the same way of the last 

 witness. There I saw the same paternal love and the 

 same respect for "old massa"— the little negroes running 

 after him, as we passed through the village of negro cab- 

 ins, to shake hands and say "How de do, massa," — "God 

 bless massa," — and receive a reply, notwithstanding it 

 comes from a slaveholder, acceptable in the sight of 

 Heaven, of "God bless you, my children." 



I will introduce to you one more witness, only because 

 the system of feeding and dealing out rations, differs 

 from the others ; it is that of Col. Joseph Dunbar,^ of Jef- 

 ferson county, now upwards of sixty years of age, a 

 native born Mississippian, who has lived all his life in 

 the vicinity of Natchez, the very hotbed of all that is 

 awful, wicked, bloodthirsty and cruel, in connection with 

 southern slavery; where slaves, if they are starved any- 

 where, are starved here, or fed upon cotton seed, as I 

 have heard asserted by those who believed it to be a fact. 

 "Upon the 'home plantation,' Col. Dunbar has one hun- 

 dred and fifty negroes, fifty of which are field hands. The 

 reason of this is, that he keeps nearly all the aged and 

 children that would naturally belong to another planta- 

 tion, where he can look every day to their wants, and 

 provide with his own hands for their comfort. His negro 

 quarters look more like a neat, pleasant. New England 

 village, than they do like what we have often been taught 

 to believe was the residence of poor, oppressed and 

 wretched slaves. I did not give them a mere passing 

 view, but examined the interior, and in some of them saw 

 what may be seen in some white people's houses — a great 

 want of neatness and care — but, so far as the master was 

 concerned, all were comfortable, roomy and provided 

 with beds and bedding in abundance. In others there 

 was a show of enviable neatness and luxury; high-post 



' See Robinson, 1 : 486-90. 



