Part 141 (2/2)

”The corn is ground in a handmill by the slave _after his task is done_--generally there is but one mill on the plantation, and as but one can grind at a time, the mill is going sometimes _very late at night_.”

We now present another cla.s.s of facts and testimony, showing that the slaves engaged in raising the large staples, are _overworked_.

In September, 1831, the writer of this had an interview with JAMES G.

BIRNEY, Esq., who then resided in Kentucky, having removed with his family from Alabama the year before. A few hours before that interview, and on the morning of the same day, Mr. B. had spent a couple of hours with Hon. Henry Clay, at his residence, near Lexington. Mr. Birney remarked, that Mr. Clay had just told him, he had lately been led to mistrust certain estimates as to the increase of the slave population in the far south west--estimates which he had presented, I think, in a speech before the Colonization Society. He now believed, that the births among the slaves in that quarter were _not equal to the deaths_--and that, of course, the slave population, independent of immigration from the slave-selling states, was _not sustaining itself_.

Among other facts stated by Mr. Clay, was the following, which we copy _verbatim_ from the original memorandum, made at the time by Mr.

Birney, with which he has kindly furnished us.

”Sept. 16, 1834.--Hon. H. Clay, in a conversation at his own house, on the subject of slavery, informed me, that Hon. Outerbridge Horsey, formerly a senator in Congress from the state of Delaware, and the owner of a sugar plantation in Louisiana, declared to him, that his overseer worked his hands so closely, that one of the women brought forth a child whilst engaged in the labors of the field.

”Also, that a few years since, he was at a brick yard in the environs of New Orleans, in which one hundred hands were employed; among them were from _twenty to thirty young women_, in the prime of life. He was told by the proprietor, that there had _not been a child born among them for the last two or three years, although they all had husbands_.”

The preceding testimony of Mr. Clay, is strongly corroborated by advertis.e.m.e.nts of slaves, by Courts of Probate, and by executors administering upon the estates of deceased persons. Some of those advertis.e.m.e.nts for the sale of slaves, contain the names, ages, accustomed employment, &c., of all the slaves upon the plantation of the deceased. These catalogues show large numbers of young men and women, almost all of them between twenty and thirty-eight years old; and yet the number of young children is _astonis.h.i.+ngly small_. We have laid aside many lists of this kind, in looking over the newspapers of the slaveholding states; but the two following are all we can lay our hands on at present. One is in the ”Planter's Intelligencer,”

Alexandria, La., March 22, 1837, containing one hundred and thirty slaves; and the other in the New Orleans Bee, a few days later, April 8, 1837, containing fifty-one slaves. The former is a ”Probate sale”

of the slaves belonging to the estate of Mr. Charles S. Lee, deceased, and is advertised by G.W. Keeton, Judge of the Parish of Concordia, La. The s.e.x, name, and age of each slave are contained in the advertis.e.m.e.nt which fills two columns. The following are some of the particulars.

The whole number of slaves is _one hundred and thirty_. Of these, _only three are over forty years old_. There are _thirty-five females_ between the ages of _sixteen and thirty-three_, and yet there are only THIRTEEN children under the age of _thirteen years!_

It is impossible satisfactorily to account for such a fact, on any other supposition, than that these thirty-five females were so overworked, or underfed, or both, as to prevent child-bearing.

The other advertis.e.m.e.nt is that of a ”Probate sale,” ordered by the Court of the Parish of Jefferson--including the slaves of Mr. William Gormley. The whole number of slaves is fifty-one; the s.e.x, age, and accustomed labors of each are given. The oldest of these slaves is but _thirty-nine years old_: of the females, _thirteen_ are between the ages of sixteen and thirty-two, and the oldest female is but _thirty-eight_--and yet there are but _two children under eight years old!_

Another proof that the slaves in the south-western states are over-worked, is the fact, that so few of them live to old age. A large majority of them are _old_ at middle age, and few live beyond fifty-five. In one of the preceding advertis.e.m.e.nts, out of one hundred and thirty slaves, only _three_ are over forty years old! In the other, out of fifty-one slaves, only _two_ are over _thirty-five_; the oldest is but thirty-nine, and the way in which he is designated in the advertis.e.m.e.nt, is an additional proof, that what to others is ”middle age,” is to the slaves in the south-west ”old age:” he is advertised as ”_old_ Jeffrey.”

But the proof that the slave population of the south-west is so over-worked that it cannot _supply its own waste_, does not rest upon mere inferential evidence. The Agricultural Society of Baton Rouge, La., in its report, published in 1829, furnishes a labored estimate of the amount of expenditure necessarily incurred in conducting ”a well-regulated sugar estate.” In this estimate, the annual net loss of slaves, over and above the supply by propagation, is set down at TWO AND A HALF PER CENT! The late Hon. Josiah S. Johnson, a member of Congress from Louisiana, addressed a letter to the Secretary of the United States' Treasury, in 1830, containing a similar estimate, apparently made with great care, and going into minute details. Many items in this estimate differ from the preceding; but the estimate of the annual _decrease_ of the slaves on a plantation was the same--TWO AND A HALF PER CENT!

The following testimony of Rev. Dr. Channing, of Boston, who resided some time in Virginia, shows that the over-working of slaves, to such an extent as to abridge life, and cause a decrease of population, is not confined to the far south and south-west.

”I heard of an estate managed by an individual who was considered as singularly successful, and who was able to govern the slaves without the use of the whip. I was anxious to see him, and trusted that some discovery had been made favorable to humanity. I asked him how he was able to dispense with corporal punishment. He replied to me, with a very determined look, 'The slaves know that the work _must_ be done, and that it is better to do it without punishment than with it.' In other words, the certainty and dread of chastis.e.m.e.nt were so impressed on them, that they never incurred it.

”I then found that the slaves on this well-managed estate, _decreased_ in number. I asked the cause. He replied, with perfect frankness and ease, 'The gang is not large enough for the estate.' In other words, they were not equal to the work of the plantation, and, yet were _made to do it_, though with the certainty of abridging life.

”On this plantation the huts were uncommonly convenient. There was an unusual air of neatness. A superficial observer would have called the slaves happy. Yet they were living under a severe, subduing discipline, and were _over-worked_ to a degree that _shortened life_.”--_Channing on Slavery_, page 162, first edition.

PHILEMON BLISS, Esq., a lawyer of Elyria, Ohio, who spent some time in Florida, gives the following testimony to the over-working of the slaves:

”It is not uncommon for hands, in hurrying times, beside working all day, to labor half the night. This is usually the case on sugar plantations, during the sugar-boiling season; and on cotton, during its gathering. Beside the regular task of picking cotton, averaging of the short staple, when the crop is good, 100 pounds a day to the hand, the ginning (extracting the seed,) and baling was done in the night.

Said Mr. ---- to me, while conversing upon the customary labor of slaves, 'I work my n.i.g.g.e.rs in a hurrying time till 11 or 12 o'clock at night, and have them up by four in the morning.'

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