SOUTHERN STATES. 



283 



as it now is, it may be saiu; generally, that the comforts of the slaves are dependent on the 

 humanity of their owners ; whose interest it also is to keep them in health and strength. 

 Their food and clothing vary somewhat in different districts, but generally, they are allowed 

 a pecti of Indian corn per week. This is the chief article of food, though it is occasionally 

 varied by a month's change of sweet potatoes or red peas and broken rice. Rice, on the 

 plantations where it is raised, is principally given out as food. No one is held to give more 

 than the above quantity, but the same law of custom prescribes a provision ground and garden. 

 The food of children is cooked and delivered by an old woman, who has this department, and 

 who sometimes pours it into a wooden vessel of the shape of a trough ; frequently it is de- 

 livered in small piggins. The humane owners allow every day to the working hands, molasses 

 to eat with hominy, or a salted fish, though these are withheld for ill behavior. The slaves all 

 raise poultry, but it is to sell ; eggs and chickens are too flavorless for their taste, which is 

 more gratified with salted meat, fish, molasses, and rum. The young lads who work in the 

 fields, if only in scaring birds, have the full allowance of provision. The banks are covered 

 with oysters, the streams abound with fish, and the woods with game, all of which the slaves 

 may freely take. They have indeed so many facilities for acquiring a little property, that, with 

 common prudence, they might have many comforts ; yet, to be a slave, is to be careless of to- 

 morrow, and hopeless of the future. They sell their little productions to the family, or else- 

 where, at their option. 



For clothes, 6 yards of woolen are allowed yearly to the men, and 5 to the women ; the 

 children are measured from crown to heel, and they have cloth of twice the length. In winter 

 a handkerchief is given to the women, and a kilmarnock cap to the men. The summer allow- 

 ance of clothing, if any, is 6 yards of homespun to each working hand. The old and infirm 

 have red flannel. There are more dresses, however, on a plantation than are given by the 

 owners. When the boat or wagon goes to market, the negro sends his little produce or sells it 

 nearer home, and the avails are often laid out in finery ; the women have handkerchiefs for tur- 

 bans, and calico gowns. The men purchase old garments, and on a holiday, when they appear 

 in their various costumes, it is a sight hke a masquerade. Here a youth may be seen, with a 

 coat of the last age, an apron, and a raccoon-skin cap, with the animal's tail hanging down 

 between his shoulders. There an aged man has an old military frock, and by his side may be 

 a female in a man's hat of fur, with a sailor's jacket over a gown of gaudy colors. The chil- 

 dren in summer wear little clothing but a shirt, and many are divested even of that. On every 

 plantation there is a nurse ; and the overseer, who must be a white, has, in the absence of the 

 owner, a chest of medicines. The alleviations are small. The slaves have three days at 

 Christmas, with meat, pipes, tobacco, and rum enough for festivity. They have Sundays, 

 new year's day, and a day for harvest. They may, and often do, gain a day, by doing the 

 task of three days in two, and every woman who has seven children, has Saturday to wash and 

 mend for them. She who has five children, has every third Saturday. The tasks are rarely 

 severe, except in ginning the cotton, or separating it from the seed, and at the harvest on rice 

 lands. In summer and spring, the negroes often leave the fields at three and four o'clock, and 

 in winter, at one o'clock ; though in some places it is much later. 



The negroes commonly bury the dead in a tumultuous manner, and rum, tobacco, candles, 

 and bacon, are consolations to the survivors seldom offered in vain. They are happy if thev 

 can secure a piece of white cloth, wherein to bury the deceased. The funerals are at nig:... 

 Their original superstitions are few, though they adopt readily those of the whites. Their 

 minds are too dark even for superstition, that invariable companion of common ignorance. Many 

 ot them believe, that the soul is even in life separable from the body ; that when a man sleeps, 

 the spirit has left his fleshly case for a season, as it leaves it for ever when he dies, or the soul 

 goes on its long journey to what is called " Shut-eye-town." The spirit, they conceive, has 

 the privilege of returning to the earth on missions either " wicked " or " charitable." The 

 ghost, however, is, it is thought, obliged to avert the head from the direction in which it ad- 

 vances ; or to look one way, and move another. They believe, that crows and owls give 



perpetrated in Africa, where, on the coast, there was a 

 disruption of the whole social state ; the chiefs became 

 slave-merchants, and all men, kidnappers. Wars were 

 carried on between petty tribes, or members of the same 

 tribe, for the sake of the captives, who were sold to the 

 British, shipped by them to America in British vessels, 

 under the special sanction of an act of the British parlia- 



ment. The abolition of tlie trade by a later parliament, 

 was no spontaneous act; for more than ten years it was 

 annually attempted, and lost, and, but for the efforts of a 

 few untiring- pliilanthropists, it would have failed at last. 

 Further details the reader will find at length in Mr. 

 Walsh's " Appeal." 



