Life of a Southern Slave-The Untold History

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1stvermont

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References
1]Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/mesnbibVolumes1.html
2]Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert William Fogel and Stanley Engermann 1974 W.W Norton and company NY,NY.
3]Without Consent or Contract The Rise and Fall of American Slavery Robert William Fogel W.W Norton NY London 1989
4]Myths and Realities of American Slavery John C Perry Burd Street Press Shipensburg Penn 2002
5]A Defense Of Virginia And The South R.L Dabney 1867 Sprinkle publications
6]Myths of American slavery Walter D Kennedy 2003 Pelican publishing company
7]Everything You Were Taught About American Slavery Is Wrong Ask A Southerner Lochlainn Seabrook Sea raven press 2014
8]Redeeming American Democracy Lessons from the confederate constitution Marshall L. Derosa Pelican press 2007

Life of a Southern Slave-The Untold History

I am not saying slavery was good, I am saying it was not all the vast evil it is portrayed as. There were many individual cases of the vast evil, but the majority was not. My first thread on slavery was titled “Life as a Southern Slave” and filled 36 pages of great discussion and debate. I highly recommend reading the entire thread, very well moderated as well. The OP centered around the facts that slaves in the south were generally well fed, had good quarters, received great medical care, the slave family was largely created and held intact and was higher than today's African Americans family unit. Also that slaves were not overworked. They had plenty of down time, earned their own cash, owned there own property and had many happy and good memories and times while a slave. Of course this was not universal just generally true. This thread will finish the discussion and areas on life as a southern slave.


Treatment of Slaves [South] and Free Blacks [North/ Europe]


They fare better than the poor of any of our citizens are more warmly clad, work less, and are a thousand-fold more cheerful and contented”
-Daniel Hundley viewed slavery in Alabama


The prejudice of color is not nearly as strong in the south as the north [in the south] it is not at all uncommon to see black slaves of both sexes shake hands with white people when they met. And interchange friendly personal inquiries, but at the north I do not remember to have witnessed this once neither Boston, NY, Philadelphia would white persons generally like to be seen shaking hands with black in the streets”
-English abolitionist James S Buckingham in 1842


The prejudice of the race appears to be stronger in the states which have abolished slavery, than in those were it still exists”
-Frenchmen Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America


To many, the treatment of blacks in the south under slavery was far better not only than that of free blacks in the north, but that of the white industrial workers in Europe and America as well[1,4-7]. In the book Time on the Cross, it showed that the slaves in the south were treated better than slaves anywhere in world, and treated better than free blacks in the north and factory workers in the north. They worked less, were fed more, received better medical care, and had more living area. Free blacks in the north had higher death rates than southern slaves. In 1860, the population growth was 23% for southern slaves and 1.7% for free northern blacks[2].

It has struck me that the slaves there are much better off in many respects than the poor in England who are doomed to labors and starve”
-1824, Mary Helan Herring Middelton


The free colored people were looked upon as an inferior caste to whom liberty was a curse, and their lot worse than that of slaves”
-Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison Biography


After the war, very few slaves left for the north, as they felt their treatment was better in the south than it would be in the north. During the war the slaves could have easily raised up and freed themselves as the north called them to do, but as slave owning Kate Stone said “we would be helpless should the negros rise since there are few men left at home. It is only because negros do not want to kill us that we are still alive.” A slave from Missouri said “colored people and whites associate more in the south than in the north. They go to parties together, dance together, colored people enjoy themselves more in the south.”[1]

Sir, there does not exists on the face of the earth, a population so poor, so uterley destitute of comforts ,convinces , and decencies of life as the unfortunate blacks in Philadelphia,New York and Boston. Liberty has been to them the greatest of calamities the heaviest of curses... go home and emancipate your free negroes. When you do that, we will listen to you with more patience”
-Sen Robert Y Hayne of South Carolina in debate with Daniel Webster


[Northern abolition] seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better.”
-Mississippi Declaration of Causes for Succession


Negro woman are carrying black and white babies together in arms, black and white children are playing together out of doors, to see the train go by”
-Northerner Fredrick Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States


Treating them [blacks] on every occasion with utmost marked contempt”
-Rep. Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, speaking of northerners


The difference between us is, that our slaves are hired for life and well compensated; there is no starvation, no begging, no want of employment among our people, and not too much employment either. Yours are hired by the day, not cared for, and scantily compensated, which may be proved in the most painful manner, at any hour in any street of your large towns. Why, you meet more beggars in one day, in any single street of the city of New York, than you would meet in a lifetime in the whole South.”
-“Cotton Is King” speech, James Henry Hammond


Laws Designed to Protect Slaves, Slave Rights, Slave Punishment, and Corporal Punishment


It is not the policy or the interest of the south to destroy the negro on the contrary, to preserve and protect him”
-Confederate General, Nathan Bedford Forrest


Laws recognized slaves as both property and persons with rights[5,6]. Rape laws in Virginia gave equal protection to slaves as any white woman would receive. [Code 1819 p 585 ch 158/ Burnetts case, 2 Va cases, 235] Virginia laws gave equal protection to the slave from beatings, rape, and murder or “Threat to life and limb” equal to whites. [Virginia Code of 1849 Ch 191 S 9 edit 1860 p 784/ code of 1849 ch 208 s 30/ Chapple's case I Virginia cases, 184 Carvers Case 5th Randolphs Rep, 660] Slaves had equal rights to defend themselves “life and limb,” and could (and did) by law kill a master in defense of life. In Virginia in 1861 a slave turned on his master and killed him and was arrested by his fellow slaves. The slave admitted to murder in the first degree “I intended to kill him” yet was given a lesser charge because the master had harassed the slave with “barbarous and unusual punishments.”[5] No slave was to be convicted of capital punishment unless all 5 judges agreed . In April 1864 the Virginia supreme court involving Elvira charged with the poisoning of her masters family. Only one of the judges dissented and she was acquitted[8].

The Laws of Virginia protected not only the life, but the limb of the slave against white persons, and even his own master”
-R.L Dabney A defense of Virginia and the South 1867


The Virginia a court case 1851 [7th Grattan, 673] a master was convicted of murder in the first degree for whipping his slave that resulted in death, even though it was unintended to result in death, he still received first degree instead of manslaughter. Stealing or kidnapping any individual with the purpose of selling him into slavery was a felony with up to 10 years in prison. [code of VA. 1849 chap 191 S 17] Any slave could petition and bring his case to court if he claimed he was unlawfully enslaved and repaid damages.[ 1849 chap 106]

In a series of three trials involving the Mississippi supreme court [Josephine v Mississippi ] a slave Josephine was found guilty by overwhelming evidence of her murdering her masters wife and newborn child by poison. The master Mr. Jones had sexual relations with Josephine and in revenge she killed Mrs Jones and the new baby.

The facts of the trial court and the testimony of the witnesses provided substantial evidence of Josephine's guilt. Nevertheless, the legal community and system within Mississippi provided three trials in which the fundamental rights of the slave were acknowledged and adjudicated, in spite of the mounting evidence supporting the murder charges”
-Marshall L Derosa Redeeming American Democracy


She was released on a technicality[8]. In the confederacy, slaves in Louisiana were entitled to legal council at state expense.[ Jones and Daugharty v Aaron Goza] An 1852 Alabama slave code required the owner “must provide him with sufficiency of healthy food”[4] other laws made the master provide for all the medical needs of a slave “as own child.” Slave’s children’s care was the master’s responsibility as well. The master was responsible to take care of the slave’s well being after their work life was completed[6]. If the slave worked hard during their life, the master would repay them with care. If the master did not take care of sick and old slaves, the others would not work hard; that is why so few older slaves ever ran away. The master, by law, had to care for sick and old slaves.

Our plan is more profitable [non slave factory workers] we take care of no children or sick people, except as paupers, while owners of slaves have to provide for them from birth till death"
-John Haley, 17th Maine

When told by his master that he was now free Toby said to his master “You brought me from Africa and North Carolina and I goinr' stay wid you as long as ever I get sumpin to eat, you goots look after me”


After the Slaves Were Released, Many Slaves Preferred Slavery / Race Relations Worsen After Slaves Were Freed

Things sure better long time ago then they be now. I know it. Colored people never had no debt to pay in slavery time. Never hear tell about no colored people been put in jail before freedom. Had more to eat and more to wear then, and had good clothes all the time ’cause white folks furnish everything, everything. Had plenty peas, rice, hog meat, rabbit, fish, and such as that.”
-Sylvia Cannon, South Carolina Slave Narratives


I' seems to think us have more freedom when us slaves”
-Abmstead Barrett Texas


Freedom is all right, but de ******s was better off befo' surrender”
-Tempe Herndon Durham,
North Carolina Slave Narratives

The condition of the slave materially declined after the civil war[1,5,6]. Now instead of being cared for by a master with basic needs met, they had to provide for themselves with no money/land of their own. Unlike free blacks, slaves had never been without a place to live, and free medical care. They had never starved, been without work, and had been taken care of when they were sick or old. Speaking of money former slave Anne Bell of south Carolina said “What I want wid it anyhow”[1], slaves were taken care of. As slave Smith Stevens said, often they simply went to go “work” for their former masters, now being paid, yet now having to cover basic medical care, food, clothing, and ended up in same situation or often worse. A former South Carolina slave said, “If we had not been set free in 1865 you would have discovered many wealthy black slaves laden with money we had made from our extra crop production.”[1] Sickness rose, life expectancy dropped, blacks skilled in labor deteriorated, and the African American diet deteriorated[2,5].




Didn't have so much sickness in them days, and naturally they diden't die so fast. Folks lived a long time than”

-Aunt Sally Georgia slave narratives




The gap in earnings between whites and blacks rose from the time after the after Civil War until WW2[2]. Many slaves simply refused their freedom[1,6]. Sometimes when slaves heard that the war was over, they would start working extra hard and be on their best behavior to better their chances of remaining on the plantation.




After freedom, Negro crime skyrocketed. There were now numerous blacks without care, without their needs met (masters gone), with little to no money or land, and no way to provide for themselves. This led to the high crime rate and want of segregation on both sides. The high crime because of the freed negroes also led to increase racism. Charles Lyell noted how Negro crime in the 1830's was almost nonexistent; he said the Irish in a few years had done far worse than Negroes had through a hundred years[6]. White crime versus blacks also rose due to the bitter defeats in war and politics they suffered. This led to many “Horrors” of former good willed masters against former slaves. Overall, race relations grew far worse in the decades after the civil war[1,6].




Before two years had passed after the surrender, there was two out of every three slaves who wished they was back with their marsters. The marsters’ kindness to the ****** after the war is the cause of the ****** having things today. There was a lot of love between marster and slave, and there is few of us that don’t love the white folks today.”

-Slave Patsy Mitchner Slave Narratives




My mother was always right in the house with the white people and I was fed just like I was one of their children. They even done put me to bed with them. You see, this discrimination on color wasn’t as bad then as it is now. They handled you as a slave but they didn’t discriminate against you on account of color like they do now.”

-Elija Henery Hopkins, Arkansas Slave Narratives




We had better then than now cause white men lynch an burn now and do other things they couldent do then”

Henry brown South Carolina Slave narratives





Race relations deteriorated at the end of the nineteenth century”

-Douglas W. Bristol Knights of the Razor: Black Barbers in Slavery and Freedom




The slave narratives tell of how bad things had gotten with the following generations of blacks and whites. Former slaves describe the newer generation of blacks as wild, disrespectful, lazy, lying, stealing, criminals, that have no respect and are not being raised right[1]. This caused race relations, they say, to worsen, along with the KKK, which started as a political weapon used against blacks to vote by disgruntled white southerners after losing political power in the war.




It has suddenly and greatly diminished there share of the material goods [slaves after war] they before enjoyed the supplies of clothing and shoes now acquired by them do not reach a third of what they revived before the war”

-R.L Dabney, 1867




De missus...rock me ter sleep an put me ter bed in her own bed. I wuz happy den...untill dem yankees come we wuznt happy at de surrender an we cussed old Abraham Lincoln all ober de place”

-John Beckwith North Carolina Slave Narratives




I was happy all de time in slavery days, but dere ain’t much to git happy over now…”

-Mary Rice, Alabama Slave Narratives




"I wish times were like they use to be when we belonged to the white folks; we had better times then."

-Ben Wall, Mississippi Slave Narratives




Master called all the slaves up and said 'you is just as free as I am. You can stay or go as you please'. We all stayed. In slavery times the old folks was cared for and now there ain't no one to see to them."

-Smith Simmons, Alabama Slave Narratives




"Our food them was a-way better that the stuff we gets today." [post slavery]

-Emma Jones, Georgia Slave Narratives




I 'druther be alivin' back dere dan today 'caze us at least had plenty somp'n t'eat an' nothin' to worry about”

-Henry Cheatam, Alabama Slave Narratives





All de slaves cried when de Yankees come, an dat most uv 'em stayed on a long time atter de war. My manmy plowed an done such work all de time uv slavery out she done it case she wanted to do it an not 'cause dey make her...All de slaves hate de Yankees an when de southern soldiers came late in de night all de ******s got out of de bed an holdin torches high dey march behin de soldiers, all of dem singing We'll hang Abe Lincoln on de Sour Apple Tree. yes mam, dey wuz sorry dat dey wuz freeman' dey ain't got no reason tu be glad, case dey wuz happier den dan now”

Alice Baugh North Carolina






More humble , affectionate, anxious to be allowed to remain as they are than the outside world, the readers of mrs Stowe would ever conceive. Not one expressed the slightest pleasure at the sudden freedom.” [One old SC slave wept bitterly and rolled on the ground after hearing of slavery being abolished.]

-Mary Chestnut, speaking of her slaves after the war




I believe our slaves are the happiest three millions of human beings on whom the sun shines, into their Eden is coming Satan in the guise of an abolitionist”

-James Hammond, plantation owner before the war




Old master dead an'gone and old mistis too, but I member'em jus'lak dey was,when dey looked after us whenst we belonged to em or dey belonged to us I dunno which it was....de times was better fo'de war...i goes to church and sings an' prays, an' when de good lord teks me, i'se ready to go, en I specs to see jesus an' old mistis an' old master when I gets to de he'benly mand”

-Jane, Alabama Slave Narratives



 
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