The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus Part 140

Notwithstanding the preceding daily ration in the Buxton Prison is about double the usual daily allowance of our slaves, yet the visiting physicians decided, that for those prisoners who were required to work the tread-mill, it was _entirely sufficient_. This question was considered at length, and publicly discussed at the sessions of the Surry magistrates, with the benefit of medical advice; which resulted in "large additions" to the rations of those who worked on the tread-mill. See London Morning Chronicle, Jan. 13, 1830.

To the preceding we add the _ration of the Roman slaves_. The monthly allowance of food to slaves in Rome was called "Dimensum." The "Dimensum" was an allowance of wheat or of other grain, which consisted of five _modii_ a month to each slave. Ainsworth, in his Latin Dictionary estimates the _modius_, when used for the measurement of grain, at _a peck and a half_ our measure, which would make the Roman slave's allowance _two quarts of grain a day_, just double the allowance provided for the slave by _law_ in North Carolina, and _six_ quarts more per week than the ordinary allowance of slaves in the slave states generally, as already established by the testimony of slaveholders themselves. But it must by no means be overlooked that this "dimensum," or _monthly_ allowance, was far from being the sole allowance of food to Roman slaves. In _addition_ to this, they had a stated _daily_ allowance (_diarium_) besides a monthly allowance of _money_, amounting to about a cent a day.

Now without further trenching on the reader's time, we add, compare the preceding daily allowances of food to soldiers and sailors in this and other countries; to convicts in this and other countries; to bodies of emigrants rationed at public expense; and finally, with the fixed allowance given to Roman slaves, and we find the states of this Union, the _slave_ states as well as the free, the United States'

government, the different European governments, the old Roman empire, in fine, we may add, the _world_, ancient and modern, uniting in the testimony that to furnish men at hard labor from daylight till dark with but 1-1/2 lbs. of _corn_ per day, their sole sustenance, is to MURDER THEM BY PIECE-MEAL. The reader will perceive by examining the preceding statistics that the _average daily_ ration throughout this country and Europe exceeds the usual slave's allowance _at least a pound a day_; also that one-third of this ration for soldiers and convicts in the United States, and for solders and sailors in Europe is _meat_, generally beef; whereas the allowance of the ma.s.s of our slaves is corn, only. Further, the convicts in our prisons are sheltered from the heat of the sun, and from the damps of the early morning and evening, from cold, rain, &c.; whereas, the great body of the slaves are exposed to all of these, in their season, from daylight till dark; besides this, they labor more hours in the day than convicts, as will be shown under another head, and are obliged to prepare and cook their own food after they have finished the labor of the day, while the convicts have theirs prepared for them. These, with other circ.u.mstances, necessarily make larger and longer draughts upon the strength of the slave, produce consequently greater exhaustion, and demand a larger amount of food to restore and sustain the laborer than is required by the convict in his briefer, less exposed, and less exhausting toils.

That the slaveholders themselves regard the usual allowance of food to slaves as insufficient, both in kind and quant.i.ty, for hard-working men, is shown by the fact, that in all the slave states, we believe without exception, _white_ convicts at hard labor, have a much _larger_ allowance of food than the usual one of slaves; and generally more than _one third_ of this daily allowance is meat. This conviction of slaveholders shows itself in various forms. When persons wish to hire slaves to labor on public works, in addition to the inducement of high wages held out to masters to hire out their slaves, the contractors pledge themselves that a certain amount of food shall be given the slaves, taking care to specify a _larger_ amount than the usual allowance, and a part of it _meat_.

The following advertis.e.m.e.nt is an ill.u.s.tration. We copy it from the "Daily Georgian," Savannah, Dec. 14, 1838.

NEGROES WANTED.

The Contractors upon the Brunswick and Alatamaha Ca.n.a.l are desirous to hire a number of prime Negro Men, from the 1st October next, for fifteen months, until the 1st January, 1810. They will pay at the rate of eighteen dollars per month for each prime hand.

These negroes will be employed in the excavation of the Ca.n.a.l. They will be provided with _three and a half pounds of pork or bacon, and ten quarts of gourd seed corn per week_, lodged in comfortable shantees and attended constantly a skilful physician. J.H. COUPER, P.M. NIGHTINGALE.

But we have direct testimony to this point. The late Hon. John Taylor, of Caroline Co. Virginia, for a long time Senator in Congress, and for many years president of the Agricultural Society of the State, says in his "Agricultural Essays," No. 30, page 97, "BREAD ALONE OUGHT NEVER TO BE CONSIDERED A SUFFICIENT DIET FOR SLAVES EXCEPT AS A PUNISHMENT."

He urges upon the planters of Virginia to give their slaves, in addition to bread, "salt meat and vegetables," and adds, "we shall be ASTONISHED to discover upon trial, that this great comfort to them is a profit to the master."

The Managers of the American Prison Discipline Society, in their third Report, page 58, say, "In the Penitentiaries generally, in the United States, the animal food is equal to one pound of meat per day for each convict."

Most of the actual suffering from hunger on the part of the slaves, is in the sugar and cotton-growing region, where the crops are exported and the corn generally purchased from the upper country. Where this is the case there cannot but be suffering. The contingencies of bad crops, difficult transportation, high prices, &c. &c., naturally occasion short and often precarious allowances. The following extract from a New Orleans paper of April 26, 1837, affords an ill.u.s.tration.

The writer in describing the effects of the money pressure in Mississippi, says:

"They, (the planters,) are now left without provisions and the means of living and using their industry, for the present year. In this dilemma, planters whose crops have been from 100 to 700 bales, find themselves forced to sacrifice many of their slaves in order to get the common necessaries of life for the support of themselves and the rest of their negroes. In many places, heavy planters compel their slaves to fish for the means of subsistence, rather than sell them at such ruinous rates. There are at this moment THOUSANDS OF SLAVES in Mississippi, that KNOW NOT WHERE THE NEXT MORSEL IS TO COME FROM. The master must be ruined to save the wretches from being STARVED."

II. LABOR

THE SLAVES ARE OVERWORKED.

This is abundantly proved by the number of hours that the slaves are obliged to be in the field. But before furnis.h.i.+ng testimony as to their hours of labor and rest, we will present the express declarations of slaveholders and others, that the slaves are severely driven in the field.

The Senate and House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina.

"Many owners of slaves, and others who have the management of slaves, _do confine them so closely at hard labor that they have not sufficient time for natural rest_.--See 2 Brevard's Digest of the Laws of South Carolina, 243."

History of Carolina.--Vol. I, page 190.

"So _laborious_ is the task of raising, beating, and cleaning rice, that had it been possible to obtain European servants in sufficient numbers, _thousands and tens of thousands_ MUST HAVE PERISHED."

Hon. Alexander Smyth, a slaveholder, and member of Congress from Virginia, in his speech on the "Missouri question," Jan. 28, 1820.

"Is it not obvious that the way to render their situation _more comfortable_, is to allow them to be taken where there is not the same motive to force the slave to INCESSANT TOIL that there is in the country where cotton, sugar, and tobacco are raised for exportation.

It is proposed to hem in the blacks _where they are_ HARD WORKED, that they may be rendered unproductive and the race be prevented from increasing. * * * The proposed measure would be EXTREME CRUELTY to the blacks. * * * You would * * * doom them to HARD LABOR."

"Travels in Louisiana," translated from the French by John Davies, Esq.--Page 81.

"At the rolling of sugars, an interval of from two to three months, they _work both night and day_. Abridged of their sleep, they _scarce retire to rest during the whole period_."

The Western Review, No. 2,--article "Agriculture of Louisiana."

"The work is admitted to be severe for the hands, (slaves,) requiring when the process is commenced to be _pushed night and day_."

W.C. Gildersleeve, Esq., a native of Georgia, elder of the Presbyterian church, Wilkesbarre, Penn.

"_Overworked_ I know they (the slaves) are."

Mr. Asa A. Stone, a theological student, near Natchez, Miss., in 1834 and 1835.

"Every body here knows _overdriving_ to be one of the most common occurrences, the planters do not deny it, except, perhaps, to northerners."

Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer of Elyria, Ohio, who lived in Florida in 1834 and 1835.

"During the cotton-picking season they usually labor in the field during the whole of the daylight, and then spend a good part of the night in ginning and baling. The labor required is very frequently excessive, and speedily impairs the const.i.tution."

Hon. R.J. Turnbull of South Carolina, a slaveholder, speaking of the harvesting of cotton, says:

"_All the pregnant women_ even, on the plantation, and weak and _sickly_ negroes incapable of other labour, are then _in requisition_."

HOURS OF LABOR AND REST.

Asa A. Stone, theological student, a cla.s.sical teacher near Natchez, Miss., 1835.

"It is a general rule on all regular plantations, that the slaves be in the field as _soon as it is light enough for them to see to work_, and remain there until it is _so dark that they cannot see_."

Mr. Cornelius Johnson, of Farmington, Ohio, who lived in Mississippi a part of 1837 and 1838.

"It is the common rule for the slaves to be kept at work _fifteen hours in the day_, and in the time of picking cotton a certain number of pounds is required of each. If this amount is not brought in at night, the slave is whipped, and the number of pounds lacking is added to the next day's job; this course is often repeated from day to day."

W.C. Gildersleeve, Esq., Wilkesbarre, Penn, a native of Georgia. "It was customary for the overseers to call out the gangs _long before day_, say three o'clock, in the winter, while dressing out the crops; such work as could be done by fire light (pitch pine was abundant,) was provided."

Mr. William Leftwich, a native of Virginia and son of a slaveholder--he has recently removed to Delhi, Hamilton County, Ohio.