VOL. L. NO. 2 139. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 24, i89i. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PERYEAR. 
SLAVE FARMING IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
How Slaves Really Worked and Lived. 
J. C. STRIBLING. 
I. 
[Note.—Most of the books on slavery were written with 
a strong partisan or political bias. The authors endeav¬ 
ored to arouse public sentiment against slavery or to de¬ 
fend it with equal vigor. For this reason comparatively 
few Northern people have a just idea of slave labor. How 
was the slave really fed, clothed, worked, housed and 
cared for—when viewed by a business-like owner as a val¬ 
uable piece of property ? We hope this series of articles 
will answer some of these questions. Let us be thankful 
that the time has come when Americans can look upon 
human slavery as past history and study its features 
calmly and dispassionately, knowing that it can never re¬ 
turn. Mr. Stribling’s articles are written in reply to a 
number of pertinent questions sent him by The R. N.-Y. 
The pictures shown at Figs. 24 and 25 are of considerable 
historic interest. They are views of “Fort Hill,” the old 
residence of John C. Calhoun. It was bequeathed a few 
years ago to the State of South Carolina by Mr. Calhoun’s 
son-in law, the Hon. T. G. Clemson, and will be used as a 
museum for the new agricultural college now being built 
near by. The old slave, “Uncle Tom,” at the front of the 
picture, weighed[230 pounds. His wife, one of the Cal¬ 
houn slaves, weighs over 300 pounds.— Eds. R. N.-Y.] .Lit 
as plow and hoe hands in proportion of about two of the 
latter to one of the former; the women and less apt men 
were the hoe hands and the lively boys and active men the 
plow hands. Each of these gangs had its “ foreman,” 
known as the “foreman of plows” or the “foreman of hoes.” 
He was usually the best hand in the gang and took great 
pride in leading and excelling in his favorite work. The 
gangs usually consisted of all the hands on the farm en¬ 
gaged in field work,and on the very large plantations they 
were sometimes divided into gangs of from 15 to 20 hands, 
with a foreman or “driver” for each. 
The functions of the negro “ driver ” and the negro 
“trader” were quite distinct; the driver was usually 
a slave, who had command of the laborers and drove 
them at their work, just like a white “overseer,” and 
did the whipping when necessary in order to make his 
laborers work all the harder. He was usually the most 
cruel rascal among all the slaves, and would practice such 
brutal treatment on his laborers as to make them fear him 
much more than the master, and if any of them reported 
the fellow to the latter, he would be certain to take revenge. 
The negro trader was a speculator who bought and sold 
slaves for profit. The “ negro driver” who went about 
over the country from place to place buying up surplus 
slaves and driving them off to market for sale like cattle, 
and chasing them to death with Cuban blood hounds, etc., 
as depicted by some sensational writers, simply repre¬ 
sented a conglomeration of functions and an extreme ex- 
1820 no effort was made by some slave owners to employ 
teachers from among the poorer white people there, and 
some came from the North to educate the negroes, but it 
was found that in every instance where an insurrection 
was attempted, or turbulence took place, the educated 
negroes or these white teachers were at the bottom of the 
trouble. A correct idea of the true condition of slavery 
in those days is well set forth in an article by a slave 
owner, published in 1823, which is copied here : 
“ It has frequently been asserted and probably with 
truth, that slavery is an obstacle to improvement and to 
the increase of the white population. The late distressing 
events in Charleston, S. C. (in 1822), prove that it certainly 
is attended with considerable danger. If we compare the 
situation of our slaves with that of the laboring classes 
of other countries, the former will be found, most un¬ 
doubtedly, to have considerably the advantage. Whether 
there is dearth of provisions, clothing, fuel, etc., they are 
sure to be abundantly supplied. When they are sick they 
always have good medical attendance. They have no un¬ 
easiness concerning the bringing up of their children, and 
when disabled by disease, infirmities or old age, they are 
certain of their usual support. Their work is usually 
light, never above their power, and it is not uncommon to 
see them returning home after they have finished their 
day’s work at one or two o’clock in the evening, and fre¬ 
quently even earlier than this. There are few or no 
instances of this among the poorer classes of Europe. The 
OLD HOME OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. Fig. 24. 
“FORT HILL” A SLAVE TIME PLANTATION. REAR VIEW. Fig. 25. 
Owing'to the vast difference in farming or “planting” 
in South Carolina in what was known before the war as 
the great cotton and* rice belt of the lower or coast 
country and the middle or up country, it would be diffi¬ 
cult to give any general rule of practice that would apply 
to all 'sections of the State alike as regards farming or 
the management of slaves in ante helium days. Farms 
contained from a few hundred to many thousand acres, 
were considered small or large “ plantations,” and on each 
were from thirty to several hundred slaves. Probably 
not more than 40 percent of these were regular field hands 
the year round: the old or infirm usually took care of the 
young negroes and did other light work. Able women and 
young slaves from the size of a plow boy down, were kept 
as an auxiliary force at an expense, except in hoeing and 
cotton picking time, when the babes were carried to some 
convenient place near the fields and cared for by the 
smaller slaves, while the women worked, stopping occa¬ 
sionally to nurse their little ones. During winter and un¬ 
favorable weather, the women made clothes, and on some 
of the plantations in the interior they spun and wove all 
the clothing from raw material made on the farm, while a 
negro shoemaker made the shoes from leather also tanned 
on the place. It was a common thing for a slave to do 
the rough blacksmithing on the large plantations, and the 
carpentering was also oftentimes done by slaves who had 
been trained by the white mechanics in towns and were 
hired out to others when not needed on the master’s plan¬ 
tation. Usually the field hands were divided and classed 
aggeration of things as they really existed, although the 
negro trader was considered a fellow of very low character 
by the better class of slave owners. 
The slaves of the small owners fared better and were 
more intelligent, because they absorbed considerable infor¬ 
mation by frequently coming in contact with the whites. 
On the large coast plantations where there were but one 
or two families of whites and several hundred slaves, the 
effects of such association were bad for the whites, who 
used considerable “low country” brogue,a peculiar dialect 
that betrays the negro bred on the large rice plantations 
wherever he goes, and quite a large number of whites 
raised on the large negro plantations in what is now 
known as the “black districts,” have the same distinguish 
ing characteristics Even now the inhabitants of these 
malarial districts along the coast are but a short step in 
advance in civilization of their barbarian ancestors when 
they first came there. The diffusion of intelligence by the 
whites in the black districts has been extremely slow since 
emancipation, because only a few whites have been ven¬ 
turesome enough to settle there on account of the danger 
to their lives alike from the malarial character of the 
region, and the tendency to turbulence of the semi-bar¬ 
barous residents in election years. On the large planta¬ 
tions there it was the custom for a chaplain, paid by the 
owner by the year, to preach to the negroes and conduct 
Sunday schools, and the master used also to attend the 
church during the time he resided at the plantation; in the 
hot months he went off to his summer resort. Prior .to 
slave, having finished his task, is perfect master of his own 
time; he sleeps or works in the ground allowed him for 
himself. But whether he works or sleeps, his mind is 
absolutely free from every trouble either for the present 
or the future, for himself or his children. In short, he is 
fully satisfied that, happen what may, he will be supplied 
with food and raiment, and he is never in danger of seeing 
the constable seize his bed for house-rent. 
“ Notwithstanding all this, we admit that slavery is far 
from being desirable, either for the slave or the master. 
Indolence and want of energy and industry are generally 
alike, the portion of both. Our house servants lead a still 
easier life. Their number is such in every family that 
each of them has but little to do, and here, perhaps, lies a 
great part of the evil. Town slaves, whether mechanics 
or house servants, are always very well fed and clothed. 
They are selected from the more intelligent and, by the 
misplaced indulgence of masters, many have been allowed 
to learn to read and write. It is among these idle, pamp¬ 
ered fellows that we must ever expect to find discontent, 
and it is a well known fact that all the blacks concerned 
in the late attempt at an insurrection belonged to very 
indulgent masters, and were, almost without exception, in 
the full enjoyment of their masters’ confidence. Many of 
them were or pretended to be very religious, and several 
were preachers. In the revolution of St. Domingo it is 
also a truth, without hardly an exception, that the most 
iudqlgeqt masters were the first sacrificed.” 
[To he continued.) 
