SLAVERY. 



281 



of the owners. They are however liable to 

 greater privations from the nature of the 

 country in which they reside, and they do not 

 enjoy the benefit of crop time, which is so 

 favourable to the negroes of the sugar-plant- 

 ations. Food is not so easily obtained it parts 

 which are so distant from great towns and from 

 the sea-coast ; and greater difficulty is expe- 

 rienced in the sale of the mandioc, the beans 

 and the maize which the slaves raise upon their 

 own provision-grounds. Still the negroes of the 

 cotton-districts sometimes gain their freedom 

 by their own exertions, for as cotton is a most 

 lucrative plant, and yet may be cultivated and 

 brought to market with little or no out-lay of 

 money, those of the slaves who plant regularly 

 and gather their trifling quantities, frequently 

 in the end meet with the reward of their labours. 

 This is not the case with the sugar-cane, for in 

 cultivating this plant assistance is necessary, 

 much work being required to be done within 

 a given time, owing to the seasons in planting 

 it, and to the nature of the cane when it ripens ; 

 and there is likewise the difficulty of having 

 it ground, and of receiving the proceeds, &c. 

 In the manufactory the slave has not his pro- 

 perty under his own eye ; it passes through the 

 hands of many other individuals, and as there is 

 no personal respect for the owner of the pro- 

 perty, nor any means of redress in case of in- 



