Part 143 (2/2)

I do not think there is any difference between the slaves of professing Christians and others; at all events, it is so small as to be scarcely noticeable.

”I have seen men and women at work in the field more than half naked: and more than once in pa.s.sing, when the overseer was not near, they would stop and draw round them a tattered coat or some ribbons of a skirt to hide their nakedness and shame from the stranger's eye.”

Mr. GEORGE W. WESTGATE, a member of the Congregational Church in Quincy, Illinois, who has spent the larger part of twelve years navigating the rivers of the south-western slave states with keel boats, as a trader, gives the following testimony as to the clothing and lodging of the slaves.

”In lower Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, the clothing of the slaves is wretchedly poor; and grows worse as you go south, in the order of the states I have named. The only material is cotton bagging, i.e. bagging in which cotton is _baled_, not bagging made of cotton.

In Louisiana, especially in the lower country, I have frequently seen them with nothing but a tattered coat, not sufficient to hide their nakedness. In winter their clothing seldom serves the purpose of comfort, and frequently not even of decent covering. In Louisiana _the planters never think of serving out shoes to slaves_. In Mississippi they give one pair a year generally. I never saw or heard of an instance of masters allowing them _stockings_. A _small poor blanket is generally the only bed-clothing_, and this they frequently wear in the field when they have not sufficient clothing to hide their nakedness or to keep them warm. Their manner of sleeping varies with the season. In hot weather they stretch themselves anywhere and sleep.

As it becomes cool they roll themselves in their blankets, and lay scattered about the cabin. In cold weather they nestle together with their feet towards the fire, promiscuously. As a general fact the earth is their only floor and bed--not one in ten have anything like a bedstead, and then it is a mere bunk put up by themselves.”

Mr. GEORGE A. AVERY, an elder in the fourth Congregational Church, Rochester, N.Y., who spent four years in Virginia, says, ”The slave children, very commonly of both s.e.xes, up to the ages of eight and ten years, and I think in some instances beyond this age, go in a state of _disgusting_ nudity. I have often seen them with their tow s.h.i.+rt (their only article of summer clothing) which, to all human appearance, had not been taken off from the time it was first put on, worn off from the bottom upwards shred by shred, until nothing remained but the straps which pa.s.sed over their shoulders, and the less exposed portions extending a very little way below the arms, leaving the princ.i.p.al part of the chest, as well as the limbs, entirely uncovered.”

SAMUEL ELLISON, a member of the Society of Friends, formerly of Southampton Co., Virginia, now of Marlborough, Stark Co., Ohio, says, ”I knew a Methodist who was the owner of a number of slaves. The children of both s.e.xes, belonging to him, under twelve years of age, were _entirely_ dest.i.tute of clothing. I have seen an old man compelled to labor in the fields, not having rags enough to cover his nakedness.”

Rev. H. LYMAN, late pastor of the Free Presbyterian Church, in Buffalo, N.Y., in describing a tour down and up the Mississippi river in the winter of 1832-3, says, ”At the wood yards where the boats stop, it is not uncommon to see female slaves employed in carrying wood. Their dress which was quite uniform was provided without any reference to comfort. They had no covering for their heads; the stuff which const.i.tuted the outer garment was sackcloth, similar to that in which brown domestic goods are done up. It was then December, and I thought that in such a dress, and being as they were, without _stockings_, they must suffer from the cold.”

Mr. Benjamin Clendenon, Colerain, Lancaster Co., Pa., a member of the Society of Friends, in a recent letter describing a short tour through the northern part of Maryland in the winter of 1836, thus speaks of a place a few miles from Chestertown. ”About this place there were a number of slaves; very few, if any, had _either stockings or shoes_; the weather was intensely cold, and the ground covered with snow.”

The late Major Stoddard of the United States' artillery, who took possession of Louisiana for the U.S. government, under the cession of 1804, published a book ent.i.tled ”Sketches of Louisiana,” in which, speaking of the planters of Lower Louisiana, he says, ”_Few of them allow any clothing to their slaves_.”

The following is an extract from the Will of the late celebrated John Randolph of Virginia.

”To my old and faithful servants, Ess.e.x and his wife Hetty, I give and bequeath a pair of strong shoes, a suit of clothes and a blanket each, to be paid them annually; also an annual hat to Ess.e.x.”

No Virginia slaveholder has ever had a better name as a ”kind master,”

and ”good provider” for his slaves, than John Randolph. Ess.e.x and Hetty were _favorite_ servants, and the memory of the long uncompensated services of those ”old and faithful servants,” seems to have touched their master's heart. Now as this master was _John Randolph_, and as those servants were ”faithful,” and favorite servants, advanced in years, and worn out in his service, and as their allowance was, in their master's eyes, of sufficient moment to const.i.tute a paragraph in his last _will and testament_, it is fair to infer that it would be _very liberal_, far better than the ordinary allowance for slaves.

Now we leave the reader to judge what must be the _usual_ allowance of clothing to common field slaves in the hands of common masters, when Ess.e.x and Hetty, the ”old” and ”faithful” slaves of John Randolph, were provided, in his last will and testament, with but _one_ suit of clothes annually, with but _one blanket_ each for bedding, with no _stockings_, nor _socks_, nor _cloaks_, nor overcoats, nor _handkerchiefs_, nor _towels_, and with no _change_ either of under or outside garments!

IV. DWELLINGS.

THE SLAVES ARE WRETCHEDLY SHELTERED AND LODGED.

Mr. Stephen E. Maltby. Inspector of provisions, Skaneateles, N.Y. who has lived in Alabama.

”The huts where the slaves slept, generally contained but _one_ apartment, and that _without floor_.”

Mr. George A. Avery, elder of the 4th Presbyterian Church, Rochester, N.Y. who lived four years in Virginia.

”Amongst all the negro cabins which I saw in Va., _I cannot call to mind one_ in which there was any other floor than the _earth_; any thing that a northern laborer, or mechanic, white or colored, would call a _bed_, nor a solitary _part.i.tion_, to separate the s.e.xes.”

William Ladd, Esq., Minot, Maine. President of the American Peace Society, formerly a slaveholder in Florida.

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