Part 138 (1/2)

W.C. Gildersleeve, Esq., a native of Georgia, and Elder in the Presbyterian Church, Wilksbarre, Penn.

”The weekly allowance to grown slaves on this plantation, where I was best acquainted, was _one peck of corn_.”

Wm. Ladd, of Minot, Maine, formerly a slaveholder in Florida.

”The usual allowance of food was _one quart of corn a day_, to a full task hand, with a modic.u.m of salt; kind masters allowed _a peck of corn a week_; some masters allowed no salt.”

Mr. Jarvis Brewster, in his ”Exposition of the treatment of slaves in the Southern States,” published in N. Jersey, 1815.

”The allowance of provisions for the slaves, is _one peck of corn, in the grain, per week_.”

Rev. Horace Moulton, a Methodist Clergyman of Marlboro, Ma.s.s., who lived five years in Georgia.

”In Georgia the planters give each slave only _one peck of their gourd seed corn per week_, with a small quant.i.ty of salt.”

Mr. F.C. Macy, Nantucket, Ma.s.s., who resided in Georgia in 1820.

”The food of the slaves was three pecks of potatos a week during the potato season, and _one peck of corn_, during the remainder of the year.”

Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, a member of the Baptist Church in Waterford, Conn., who resided in North Carolina, eleven winters.

”The subsistence of the slaves, consists of _seven quarts of meal_ or _eight quarts of small rice for one week!_”

William Savery, late of Philadelphia, an eminent Minister of the Society of Friends, who travelled extensively in the slave states, on a Religious Visitation, speaking of the subsistence of the slaves, says, in his published Journal,

”_A peck of corn_ is their (the slaves,) miserable subsistence _for a week_.”

The late John Parrish, of Philadelphia, another highly respected Minister of the Society of Friends, who traversed the South, on a similar mission, in 1804 and 5, says in his ”Remarks on the slavery of Blacks;”

”They allow them but _one peck of meal_, for a whole week, in some of the Southern states.”

Richard Macy, Hudson, N.Y. a Member of the Society of Friends, who has resided in Georgia.

”Their usual allowance of food was one peck of corn per week, which was dealt out to them every first day of the week. They had nothing allowed them besides the corn, except one quarter of beef at Christmas.”

Rev. C.S. Renshaw, of Quincy, Ill., (the testimony of a Virginian).

”The slaves are generally allowanced: a pint of corn meal and a salt herring is the allowance, or in lieu of the herring a ”dab” of fat meat of about the same value. I have known the sour milk, and clauber to be served out to the hands, when there was an abundance of milk on the plantation. This is a luxury not often afforded.”

Testimony of Mr. George W. Westgate, member of the Congregational Church, of Quincy, Illinois. Mr. W. has been engaged in the low country trade for twelve years, more than half of each year, princ.i.p.ally on the Mississippi, and its tributary streams in the south-western slave states.