Look Away!!! Politically Incorrect Information About Life as a Southern Slave

Look Away!!! Politically Incorrect Information About Life as a Southern Slave

The Slave’s Diet and Living Quarters

“There is no question that the slave diet was sufficient to maintain the slave body wight and general health”
-Robert William Fogel The Rise and Fall of American Slavery

“Dey had to feed us an plenty of it, cause us couldnt wuk if dey dident feed us good.”
-Alec Bostwick Georgia Slave Narratives

To purchase an expensive slave and not feed them, would not give the purchaser a return on their purchase. As owners knew, slaves need energy to work. If you underfed them, then you would lose out on their potential production. Slave’s food consumption passed the free man’s consumption of 1879 by 10%. They averaged 6oz of meat a day (1 oz below free whites) and ate a variety of fruits/vegetables/grains. The slave’s diet exceeds the modern [1964] recommended daily intake. Two separate studies concluded slaves eat 4,200 calories a day not including game and fishing. Poor whites use to come to large plantations and beg for food from the slaves. The federal census of 1860 determined that the ordinary plantation was well quartered with 5.2 slaves per house compared to 5.3 for whites. Since the family unit was often encourages by owners, slave’s families often got or would get, if they married and started a family, a house of their own on the plantation. The slave’s material condition was greater than the northern industrial worker of the time. Scientist, Sir Charles Lyell, said of the slave quarters “Neat as the greater part of the cottages in Scotland.”

“The slaves were well provided for”
-Northern Frederick Law Olmsted

“The belief that the typical slave was poorly fed is without foundation in fact”
- Robert William Fogel and Standley L Engermann Time on the Cross the Economics of Negro Slavery


Medical Treatment

"Old massa have doctor for us when us sick. We's too val'ble
-Abmstead Barrett Texas Slave narratives

"De owners always tuk care of us, and when us got sick dey would git a doctor”
-Henry Cheatam Alabama Slave Narratives

“Studies of probate record suggest that most slaves received as much medical care as their owners”
-T.J Stiles, author of “Jesse James last Rebel of the Civil War”

Laws were in place to ensure that the owner's must care for and meet the needs of the slaves. Plantation owners spent more money on slaves than freemen did on their children decades after the civil war. Often on larger plantations they would have their own mini-hospital, with an on-site doctor. Smaller plantations would often have an on-site nurse. In the decades following the war, when the slaves were freed, African American’s life expectancy dropped by 10% and sickness rose by 20%. They received better medical care while in slavery under the care of an invested master.

“White folks jus had to be good to sick slaves, cause slaves was property. For old master to lose a slave was losin money”
-Rachael Adams Georgia Slave Narratives

Condition of the Slave in the South Work all day, no Play?

“To say that they are under worked and overfed and are far happier than the labors of great Britan would hardly convey a sufficiently clear notion of their actual condition. They put me much more in mind of a community of grown children, spoiled by to much kindness, than a body of dependents. Much less a community of slaves”
-Louis F Tasistro of Great Britain

“The slaves do not go around looking unhappy, and are with difficulty, I fancy, persuaded to feel so. Whips and chains oaths and brutality are as common, for all that one sees, in the free as the slave states. We have come thus far, and might have gone ten times as far, I dare say, without seeing the first sign of negro misery or white tyranny”
- Bostonian Charles Elliot Norton, while in South Carolina

“If the colored people of Savannah Columbia and Richmond are not, as a whole, a happy people, I have never seen any”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

Many in the south thought that slavery was beneficial to the negro, especially the removal from Africa. By leaving Africa, their quality of life increased in every way. Southern slaves worked 10% less than northern farmers on average, because crop production took less time than animal and dairy farming common in the north. In the 1840's Scottish observer William Thompson said slaves don't work “One fourth so much as a scotch.” Some plantations had 5 hour work days and others were always done by 2-3 in the afternoon. Because of sick slaves old and young, usually around 1/3 of slaves on a given plantation were not working or doing very light work. Multiple studies found slaves worked on average only 281 days a year, due to the Sabbath off, holidays, weather and sickness. The work that was done was carried. Even on the large cotton plantations work was divided between 38% time on cotton, 31% livestock and growing corn and 31% repairs, domestic duties etc.

“the labor...is no more than is performed by a hired field hand at the north”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

“One might almost imagine one's self to be in Hayti [Haiti] and think that colored people had got possession of the town and held sway, while the whites were living among them as sufferance”
-Englishmen James Silk Buckingham, visited Virginia in 1840's

Slaves’ income varied, and with good effort would be rewarded with higher level jobs, such as running the plantation. 7% of slaves were in some managerial job. Slaves had down time as well as their own money to spend. Often they had their own business on the side to make extra cash to spend. Slave “renting” was common, this is where a skilled slave [carpentry, blacksmith etc] would advertise their services, negotiate their own contracts, and own their own place of business. Slaves in America learned more skills than anywhere in Africa. Slaves started dominating certain trades in cities. This caused some southern whites to get upset at the slave owners because the slaves were taking all the carpentry, blacksmith, and cabin making jobs.

Slaves often owned property of their own on the plantation, 60% of those interviewed by the federal Writers project said they owned their own land. In typical slave owning Germantown, LA, slaves maintained their own accounts at stores and freely made purchases at the stores. During free time Slaves worked at local stores, earning the same wages as whites according to store records. Slaves sold goods to the store that they made or grew in their downtime and from their own property. At the store, slaves purchased “luxury” and “snack” items, as basic needs were cared for by their owner. The slaves also bought gun powder, knives, and writing utensils. In the book, Time on the Cross, they estimated slaves received as much as 90% of the wages they earned (with modern tax rates, few earn that much today).

“The typical slave hand received about 90% of the income he produced”
- Robert William Fogel and Standley L Engermann Time on the Cross the Economics of Negro Slavery

“Slaves received on average better and more certain compensation [for work] than any laboring people”
-R.L Dabney, A Defense of Virginia and the South

Many would purchase their own freedom, other slaves, and land. Some would become prosperous slave owners themselves, or tradesmen and business owners. Often slaves and free blacks worked a plantation owned by a white that was residing in other part of country; the owner would only be their seasonally.

“How they sang; how they laughed and grinned...heard amongst the black folks endless singing, shouting and laughter; and saw on holidays black gentlemen and ladies arrayed in such splendor and comfort as freeborn workmen in our english towns seldom exhibit”
-English novelist, William M. Thackeray

“their general appearance indicated much comfort and even luxury. I doubted if they were slaves”
-William Russell Irish Journalists

“De young folks don't know nothing about good times and good living, dey don't understand how come I wish I wuz still in slavery."
-Adam Smith, Mississippi Slave Narratives

"Wen I sit and think of all the good things we had to eat an all the fun we had, 'course we had to work, but you knows, when a crowd all works togather and sings and laughs, first thing you know--the works all done."
-Ellen King, Mississippi Slave Narratives

“That was a happy time, with happy days. I’ll be satisfied to see my Savior that my old marster worshiped and my husband preach about. I wants to be in heaven with all my white folks, just to wait on them and love them, and serve them, sorta like I did in slavery time. That will be enough heaven for Adeline.”
-Slave Adeline Johnson Slave Narratives

"Lawsey man, dem were de days!We usta have some good times. We could have all the fun we wanted on Sa'dday nights, and we sho had it, cuttin monkey shines, and dancing all night long. Sometimes our mistis would come down early to watch us."
-Sidney Bonner, Alabama Slave Narratives

“Miss, us ******s on de Bennett place [Plantation] wuz free as soon as we wuz bawn. I always been free”
-Hannah Irwin, Alabama Slave Narratives

“Cotton pickin was big fun too, and when dey got through pickin de cotton dey et and drank and danced till dey could dance no more”
-Rachael Adams Georgia Slave Narratives

“Slavery times wuz sho good times. We wuz fed an' clothed an' had nothin to worry about”
-Sarah and Tom Douglas, Alabama Slave Narratives

“In slavery days the negroes had quilt tings, dances, picnics and everybody had a good time”
-Arrie Binns Georgia slave narratives

“Dem days fore de war was good old days, speically for de colored folks..oh missy dem was good old days us would be lucky to have em back. You could hear ******s singin in de fields cause dey diden't have no worries lak dey got now...dat cornshukin wuz easy wid everyone sigin and havin a good time together...old times when folkes loved one another den dey does now.”
-Jasper Battle Georgia Slave Narratives

"I think slavery was a good thing. I never suffered for nothin'."
-Perry Sheppard, Slave Narratives

“My white people dey good tuh me....why, ah was jes lak dey's chullun [Children] ah played wid em, et wid em an' eb' n slep wid 'em.....Dem was good ol times, ah tel yuh, honey....”
-Mrs. Candis Goodwin, Virginia Slave Narratives

“I think slavery was a mighty good thing for Mother, Father, me and the other members of the family, and I cannot say anything but good for my old marster and missus, but I can only speak for those whose conditions I have known during slavery and since. For myself and them, I will say again, slavery was a mighty good thing.”
-Slave Mary Anderson, North Carolina Slave Narratives

 

Master/Slave Relationship

“Generally and Honorable, with some few exceptions, kind and indulgent masters to their slaves” -Timothy Fint on slaveholders in Alabama 1833

“Domestic slaves were almost uniformly dealt with indulgently and ever affectionately by their masters... the greater part of slave owners were humane in their treatment of their slaves- kind indulgent, not over exacting and sincerely interested in the physical well being of their dependents”
-President Woodrow Wilson

“It may be said than no other economic system before or since that time has engendered a bond of personal affection between capital and labour so strong as that established by the institution of slavery”
-Dr Henry A. White, History professor at Washington and Lee University in 1900

The normal depiction of slavery is a racist white owner standing there with a whip, who cares nothing of his slaves. He beats them regularly and forces them to work all day. He is willing to kill what he paid for, if they are out of line. He views the slave as a less evolved animal. The truth is much different. While there was the “evil” master who did horrible things, that was the exception, not the rule. As was said of the cruel slave master, he was cruel to all, even his own kids. Slaves and their master typically had a good relationship that was beneficial to both parties. Just because slaves were legally “property” in the same way as a chair, it does not conclude the human master would not view his human slave as, a human.

“When we make the labor the property of the same persons whom the land and capital belong, self interest inevitably impels them to share with the laborer liberally enough to preserve his life and efficiency...by this arrangement also, a special tie and bond of sympathy are established between the capitalist and his laborers. They are members of his family. They not only work but Live, on his premises”
-R.L Dabney A defense of Virginia and the South 1867

Often the relationship was more like a family than one owning the other. Most all slaves were born in America. They grew up with, played with, worked with, and often ate with their future masters (the children of the current master). It was normal for future masters to use family names, such as aunt or uncle for the slaves. Slave narratives speak of future masters as children (these future white masters) being shown to use guns, fish, hunt, etc. by their slaves and forming family like relationships with them. Most white children on plantations were “raised as much by black woman as a white woman.” Slave women often worked in the house, cooking, cleaning, and also raising and schooling the master’s children. Once a owner challenged a judge to a duel for giving his slave whippings for a crime committed, that the owner thought unjust.

“No prophet in early times could have told that kindness would grow as a flower from soil so faul, that slaves would come to be cherished not only as property of high value but as loving if lowly friends”
-Ulrich B Phillips, Life and Labor in the Old South

Most slave owners had very few slaves and worked along with them, lived with them, and were buried with them. Large plantation owners were like large business and industry owners in north, they often did not work with their employees. They did work to build the place up, often doing so away from the plantation. In the slave narratives, 60-80% could not say anything negative about their masters. How many of us could say the same about their boss today? Studying the slave narratives in South Carolina, Belina Hurmence said she found “little to no anger towards masters.” After the Civil war there are multiple accounts of slaves bringing food and money to former masters who had lost it all in the war. Mary Chestnut, a slave owner who was anti-slavery, said “they are so well situated and so cuddled by us that it is sometimes easy to forget that slavery is an evil.” She would also write that often it was the masters who took orders from the slaves.

“With a family of more than 200 moths looking up to me for food, I feel lawful charge on my hands it is easy to rid myself of burden if I could shut my heart to the cry of humanity and the voice of duty. But in these poor slaves I have found my best and most faithful friends and I feel that it would be more difficult to abandon them to cruel fate to which our laws would consign them, than to suffer with them”
-John Randolph, slave owner in 1814

“I was raised by one of the greatest men in the world. There was never one born of a woman greater than Gen. Robert E. Lee, according to my judgment. All of his servants were set free ten years before the war, but all remained on the plantation until after the surrender.”
-William Mack Lee, Robert E. Lee’s servant

“I loved him, and I can say that every colored man he ever owned loved him”
-Former slave of CSA president Jefferson Davis of Mississippi

"De war broke out an' up-sot everything. I never can fer-get the de day dat Mars had to go. When he tole us good by every slave on the place collected 'round him an' cried, afraid he would never git back. We loved him an' de slaves stuck by him while he wuz away, de bes' hit could be wid de cavalrymen a taking an' a destroyin....When de war ended ole Mars....came home an' hit wuz a big day of rejoicin. We wuz so glad he come back safe to us."
-Dave Walker, Mississippi Slave Narratives

"My young marster used to work in de field wid us, til he went to de war, an' he'd boss de ******s. dey called him bud, but we all called him Babe. I sho did love dat boy. I loved him."
-Susan Snow, Mississippi Slave Narratives

"Master Joel musta been bawn on a sun shinny day 'cause he sho was bright an' good natured. Ever ****** on the plantation loved him lak he was sent from heaven."
-Lightin' Mathews, Alabama Slave Narratives

"My master was the best in the country”
-John Smith, Alabama Slave Narratives

“The rest of the family was all fine folks and good to me, but I loved Miss Ella better ’n anyone or anything else in the world. She was the best friend I ever had. If I ever wanted for anything, I just asked her and she give it to me or got it for me somehow.”
-Slave L. Betty Cofer Slave Narratives

“When marster died, that was the time of my first real sorrow. Three years later, missus passed away, that was the time of my second sorrow. Then, I reminded myself of a little tree out there in the woods in November. With every sharp and cold wind of trouble that blowed, more leaves of that tree turned loose and went to the ground, just like they was trying to follow her. It seemed like, when she was gone, I was just like that tree with all the leaves gone, naked and friendless. It took me a long time to get over all that; same way with the little tree, it had to pass through winter and wait on spring to see life again."
-Ezra Adams, South Carolina Slave Narratives

“My children, black and white”
-Slave owner Jane Gill of Missouri, speaking of her slaves

“I loved him, and I can say that every colored man he ever owned loved him”
-Former slave of CSA president Jefferson Davis Mississippi

“I sho would rather have slavery days back if I could have my same good master...I ant never got over being abel to see marse Alec no more..us sho did have de best marster in de world. If ever a man went to heaven, mars Alec did. I sho does wish our good old marster was livin now”
-Georgia Backer Georgia Slave Narratives

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

“I am at a loss to imagine the source of that prejudice which subsist against him [ the negro] in the northern states, a prejudice unknown in the south, where the domestic relations between the African and European are so much more intimate”
-English Abolitionist Marshall Hall

“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

“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

“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

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. American president John Adams said “That in some countries the laboring poor were called freedmen, in others they were called slaves, but that the difference as to the state was imaginary only” A Nobel Prize winning book written by Robert Fogel, Time on the Cross, 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.

“It was a pleasant paradox to find that where the colored people are not free, they have in many ways the most liberty”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

“He said that colored people could associate with whites much more easily and comfortable at the south than at the north. This is the reason he preferred the south”
-Fredrick Law Olmstead speaking with of a black man who lived in LA and NY

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

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.” During the war, the south was first to use blacks in the military and gave them equal pay, while the north did not. The south was first to appoint black officers in the war. 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.”

“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

“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

“[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

“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

“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.”
-James Henry Hammond cotton is king speech , J

 

Laws Designed to Protect Slaves, Slave Rights, Slave Punishment, and Corporal Punishment [whipping] and Crime

“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

“Slaves had more input on society than many believe”
-Myths of American Slavery, by Walter D Kennedy

“Good and kind treatment of the slaves is the common law”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

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.” 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.

“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. 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”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. 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.

“every slave has an inalienable claim in law upon his owner for support for the whole of life”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

“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”

Corporal punishment was the typical mode of correction in American society of the day. It was used by slave parents on their children and white parents on their own children. In Virginia (and other states in south) slave parents had a reputation for being more severe in punishment of their children than the slave masters were. Masters at times had to come in and stop a slave parent from the excessive punishment of their children. Whites viewed slave mothers as lesser parents because of their harsh punishment of children. At the same time, England and the North used whips on kids and wives as legal corporal punishment. Whippings were used in military discipline as well. Black soldiers during the war whipped white civilians, Blacks whipped their wives, and teachers used a rod/whip in schools; it was common practice within the laws in America. Whippings produced nearly crime free societies. Yes, it was abused and overused, but these cases were rare and illegal. 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. When Massachusetts abolitionist Nehemiah Adams traveled south he found in a town he visited that of the 2,000 crimes committed, only 12 were by “colored” individuals. Today ¼ of the african american male adult population is in a modern slavery jail system.

“Crime was practically unknown and Mr Ross slaves never heard of a jail until they were freed”
-Della Briscoe Georgia slave narratives

“most favorable to preservation from crimes against society”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

Corporal punishment could be used on slaves, but not as to harm to “life or limb.” Some masters would not use the whip at all and fire any overseer who used one. The majority of surviving plantation manuals either did not allow whipping, or only did under dire circumstances. Others had laws such as: no whippings until a 24 hour period passed from the time of the crime. Some said, “Not to cut the skin when punishing, nor punish with passion.” Usually a trial was held on the plantation with other slaves as witnesses before any whipping could take place. Many slaves had never received a whipping in their entire life; whippings were uncommon. Normally rewards were given to promote good work, rather than punishments which tied to force good behavior. Such rewards could come in the form of cash bonuses, whiskey, tobacco, land, and food. Overuse of the whip caused negative effects and production. Whip marks show an uncontrollable slave and reduce their value; it decreases the moral of that slave and thus others production drops.

“The slaves do not go around looking unhappy, and are with difficulty, I fancy, persuaded to feel so. Whips and chains oaths and brutality are as common, for all that one sees, in the free as the slave states. We have come thus far, and might have gone ten times as far, I dare say, without seeing the first sign of negro misery or white tyranny”
- Bostonian Charles Elliot Norton, while in South Carolina

In the slave narratives, many slaves say they deserved the whippings they got for stealing and other wrong doings. Some say they were thankful for the lesson; many others were not bitter because the punishment either taught them to not steal, be “wild,” or because they thought they deserved the ones they got. Often times slaves were in control of the plantation and even the punishments. The owners generally were busy in advertising the product, the purchase of equipment, buying new land, constructing new buildings, negotiations, etc. A cording to the 1860 census data, on plantations with over 100 slaves, an average of only 2 white males lived on those plantations. Slaves were generally self governing. On large plantations, 70% of overseers who were in charge of punishments were black, meaning that more blacks than whites used the whip for punishments on larger plantations. One observer from Scotland said, “The driver is always a black man.” These overseers were often “consulted” by owners for suggestions to improve plantation life and production. However the most common ill treatment of slaves involved heavy punishment; in most cases to which there were laws in place to protect against it.

‘The Overseer must never on any occasion–unless in self-defense–kick a negro, or strike with his hand, or a stick, or the butt-end of his whip.’ Throughout the South, publicists denounced as un-Christian masters who mistreated those placed under their authority, and stressed the need for ‘moderate’ predictable punishment for offenses that were clearly spelled out. Such guidelines were dictated not simply by the much-vaunted ‘love’ that masters felt for their slaves, but also by intensely practical considerations: observant slave owners learned by experience that continual, random, or extreme punishment was likely to be counterproductive, producing confusion and seething resentment rather than cheerful and orderly deportment.
-Peter Kolchin, American Slavery, 1619-1877

 

Break-up of the African Family? Slave trade Within the South

“Dey didn't know bout marryin in Africy [africa]”
-Harriett Barrett Texas Slave narratives

The importation of new slaves through the Atlantic slave trade, or any trade outside the CSA, was outlawed. But slavery from state to state and county to county was legal. There is no question that slave owners and traders did break up the family unit; and to me this may be the worst part of slavery. However, it was very uncommon and looked down upon by southern whites. Only 13% of slave trade sales resulted in the breakup of a family; usually the families were bought as a whole unit. Sometimes sales of single children were to reunite a family, other sales were just to manage titles, settle claims, estates etc with no actual sale taking place. The best production, as owners understood, was to keep the family unit together and encourage it. To buy a slave and break up his family would not be a good starting point for a productive slave.

“The belief that slave breeding, sexual exploitation, and promiscuity destroyed the black family is a myth. The family was the basic unit of social organization structure under slavery. It was to the economic interest of the planters to encourage the stability of slave families”
- Robert William Fogel and Standley L Engermann Time on the Cross the Economics of Negro Slavery

Keeping a family together would increase the slave’s happiness, increase work ethic, and reduced runaways or “lazy” slaves. Many slave dealers, like confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, went long distances and paid extra to reunite slave families. Scottish observer, William Thomson, said that slave families were more intact than the people of Scotland. The black family was more together in slavery than in modern times. The further you move away from slavery, the greater the breakup of the African American family. The African family was close to not even existing in Africa; it was usually a man with multiple wives who were pretty much “slaves.” Slavery created a strong family presence among African Americans.

“Slave dealers were universally detested, and even ostracized”
-President Woodrow Wilson

“feelings of the south generally negro traders are the abhorrence of all flesh”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

The Slave Trade and the Confederacy

The importation of Negroes of the African race from any foreign country, other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United States of America, is hereby forbidden; and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same
-Article I Section 9(1) Confederate Constitution

No slave ship ever flew the confederate flag. The slave trade was outlawed by the Confederate constitution. The slave trade that often mistreated and split up black families was looked down upon as a if a crime and moral wrong by the majority of southerners [ and northerners]. At the time, southerners who supported slavery felt that taking a man from freedom, then putting him in bondage, was a sin “man stealing.” Owning a person already in slavery (African slave and slave trade) and taking him in, often better provided for, was not seen as an evil. Southerners did not see bringing new people in slavery as a good thing, and their treatment while transported was cruel, so they outlawed the trade. Virginia, long before civil war, was the first state to abolish the slave trade. In certain circumstances, slaves were happy to be bought, sometimes brought to tears with the hope of getting out of the poor living conditions of the slave trade. Some southerners bought slaves out of pity for their condition. The north, even after it abolish slavery in their home states, were almost entirely responsible for the slave trade and bringing new slaves to the south before it was outlawed. The south had almost no ships that could even travel the distance.

Slavery in the South how Prevalent was Slavery?

Investment in a slave was expensive. According to the federal census there were only 385,000 slave owners in the entire south (thousands of blacks included). Even if all slaveholders had been white, that would amount to only 1.4 percent of whites in the country or 4.8 percent of southern whites owning one or more slaves.

Slave Breeding?

In the book, Economics of Negro Slavery, it shows there is no one concrete example of slave breeding (breeding slaves for sale or to multiple slaves), just rumors. However, I have read at least one account in the slave narratives of slave breeding. Genetics and others calculators show that if it did happen, it was extremely rare. It also shows that the income that would be gained would be offset by uncontent slaves, runaways, caring for pregnancy, taking a woman out of work while pregnant, and a host of other expenses. Many lines of evidence show slave owners knew what was financially best; to maintain the negro family was most profitable for business, slave happiness, and work ethic. This is likely exactly the reason it was uncommon, if it happened at all. However some, such as one of the many blacks that owned slaves, William Ellison, sold infant slaves who were assumed to be the result of slave breeding, from his large plantation in South Carolina. This was looked down upon by his neighboring whites. Ellison also fed his slaves the least and punished harsher than any slave owner in the county. However, Africa did have multiple mass slave breading programs.

Slave Education

“Universal temper of masters was to promote and not to hinder it [education]... masters desired intelligent and morality of their servants...an intelligent christian servant was universally recognized as being a better servant”
-R.L. Dabney, 1867

Slaves were normally educated and taught the basics. Some slaves were taught to the point where they could run the plantation, such as on CSA president Jeff Davis’ plantation. Slaves that could read and write were more valuable and could do more jobs. The slaves usually received their education from the master’s children and wife, as well as from church. Overall, slaves in the south were better educated than anywhere in Africa at the time.

“You know, the ****** was wild till the white man made what he has out of the ******. He done ed'cate them real smart”
-Frank bell Texas Slave Narratives

 

Life Span

According to the book, Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery (by scholars Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman), life expectancy in 1850 was 40 for whites and 36 for slaves (there is a 5 year gap today]. Slaves had a longer average life span than those who lived in Italy, Austria, Holland and France. Slaves had a longer life span than northern industrial workers as well. Residents of NY, Boston, and Philadelphia had life spans of 24 years. Slaves committed suicide at 1/3 the rate of whites in same time period. When the age of 20 was reached, the life expectancy was equal to whites, more slaves died young.

Church

“All the slaves big enogh and not sick, had to go to church on de sabbath”
-Anne bell South Carolina Slave Narratives

“For all the south are aware of the differences between religious and irreligious Negroes. The most devout of our slaves are the most faithful and honest in the discharge of their duties to their masters”
-Matthew Estes, southern historian in 1846

Slaves were given the Sabbath day of rest every week (biblical day of rest). While not universal, Slaves and masters often attended the same churches. Slaves were often given the freedom of what denomination to choose from. Masters realized they did not own the souls of their slaves, they belonged to God. Negro non pastors were allowed to preach to both white and black audiences. In 1786, the Simpson city Mississippi Baptist Church was created by whites and blacks, it had a mixed congregation. The first pastor in the First Baptist Church in LA was a black free man.

“During my residence with master ford I had seen only the bright side of slavery, His was no heavy hand crushing us to the earth. He pointed upwards, and with benign and cheering words addressed us as fellow mortals, accountable, like himself, to the maker of us all. I think of him with affection, and had my family been with me, could have borne his gentile servitude without murmuring , all my days...there never was a more kind,noble,candid, christian man than William ford”
-Solomon Northup, Louisiana servant of master Ford

“In very many places at the south, a larger proportion of the slaves than of the whites has given evidence of being the children of God”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

Native Born American Blacks

In 1860, only 1% of blacks were immigrants from Africa, the rest being native born. A higher % of whites were immigrants at the time. America became a slave power not because of large imports of slaves, but because of life expectancy and keeping the black family intact.

Runaway Slaves?

“Blacks could have escaped to nearby union lines but few chose to do so, and instead remained at home and became the most essential element in the southern infrastructure to resisting northern invasion”
-Professor Edward C. Smith

Sometimes the picture portrayed is that slaves all wanted to run away from their masters and would do so any chance they got. While there is no question that many slaves ran away from bad conditions and bad masters, this occurrence was infrequent. During the decades leading up to the war, 1850's and 60's, only 1 out of every 4,919 slaves ran away. In antebellum America masters took there slaves by the thousands north and west without an issue of runaways. During the war a perfect opportunity for those who wanted to run presented itself, and those who wanted to could have done so. By the middle to end of the war, nearly all male whites were in service in the CSA army. The north invading the south and winning provided a great opportunity for slaves to run away, yet very few slaves chose to do so. According to Lincoln and secretary seawards numbers, 95% of slaves stayed home during the war.

After the war the veterans of the confederacy wanted to build a statue recognizing the effort from the woman at home, the woman said instead to build a statue for the loyal slaves who made it all possible. The politically incorrect runaway slave you will not typically read about are those slaves that were captured by union soldiers, forced into service of manual labor (slavery) and ultimately ran away back to their masters. Many in the south felt the slaves had it very good, such as John Randolf who said “the slaves will advertise for runaway masters.”The following excerpt is taken from a slave narrative:

Simon Phillips was one of 300 Negroes belonging to Bryant Watkins, a plantation owner of Greensboro, Alabama. He was a house man, which meant that he mixed the drinks, opened the carriage doors, brought refreshments on the porch to guests, saw that the carriage was always in the best of condition, and tended the front lawn. When asked about slave days, he gets a far-away expression in his eyes; an expression of tranquil joy."People," he says, "has the wrong idea of slave days. We was treated good. My massa never laid a hand on me durin' the whole time I was wid him. He scolded me once for not bringin' him a drink when I was supposed to, but he never whup me." ….."Not since those days," he states, "have I had such good food."......Sometime they [ negros slaves] loaned the massa money when he was hard pushed. "But what I want to say is, we didn't have no idea of runnin' and escapin'. We was happy."

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

“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

“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

“The institution of slavery is a stain on this nation’s soul that will never be cleansed. It is just as wrong as wrong can be, a huge sin, and it is on our soul. There’s a second sin that’s almost as great and that’s emancipation.”
- Shelby Foote

The condition of the slave materially declined after the civil war. 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 always been taken care of when they were sick or old. Speaking of money Anne Bell of south Carolina said “What I want wid it anyhow”, 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.” Sickness rose, life expectancy dropped, blacks skilled in labor deteriorated, and the African American diet deteriorated.

“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. Many slaves simply refused their freedom. 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.

“Often I heard them declare that they would rather go back to slavery in the south, and be with their old masters, than to enjoy the freedom in the north” -Former slave Elizabeth Keckley

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. 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.

“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 (they almost all say because they were not whipped, for which many slaves said they were thankful for). 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' seems to think us have more freedom when us slaves”
-Abmstead Barrett Texas 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

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

Dixie Land
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3IJ05QntXQ

The song Dixie Land was written about a runaway former slave who is longing for the plantation of his birth.

 

Uncle Tom's Cabin Versus Reality

“Does yo' know de cause of de war? Well hyar's de cause, dis Uncle Tom's Cabin wuz de cause of it all an' its' de biggest lie what ever been gived ter de public.”
-Alice Baugh North Carolina

"No subject [slavery] has been more generally misunderstood or more persistent misrepresented"
-Jefferson Davis, The Rise And Fall Of The Confederate Government

“Not a word had been said to me about slavery, my eyes taught me that some practical things in the system are wholly different from my anticipations.”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

“The treatment which they revive, and the character of their masters, have been much misrepresented in the non-slave holding states”
-Northerner Timothy Flint, 1833

Most Americans, during, prior, and after the Civil War, got their knowledge of slavery not from observation, besides the worst cases such as runaway slaves who even than, were known to exaggerate their condition to gain extra sympathy and support. But from books on slavery, such as Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriot Stowe. Harriot Stowe had never even been to the south or seen a plantation.

“it gives a northerner false conceptions of the actual state of things at the south”
-Nehemiah Adams a South Side View of Slavery 1854

Other misinformation and false views of slavery came from anti-slavery tracts such as The Liberator, by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Despite the lack of accurate information, both authors had a large impact on the view of slavery in the North and Europe.

“North might one day learn the truth about so called southern slavery”
-Mississippi plantation owner, 1842 quoted in myths of American slavery

Because the northern and European perception of slavery was based on books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin (by Harriet Beecher Stowe, who had never seen a plantation or been to the south), they were surprised to find out the truth during the war. As northern abolitionist Nehemiah Adams said after visiting the south, “where are your real slaves, such as we read of ?” When new Englander Fredrick Law Olmstead visited Virginia, he was “stunned” to see slaves grinning, singing, whistling, leaning on their hoes scarily working. All the slaves he said, were neatly dressed and overweight. When Englishmen Robert Russells came to the United States in 1854 and visited Richmond, Virginia, he observed large numbers of “carefree slaves” lofting around town, “As all were well dressed and light-hearted as one could possibly imagine.” Irish journalist William Howard Russell, while visiting Montgomery, Alabama in the mid 1800's said, “I precived a crown of very well dressed negroes men and woman. Their general appearance indicated much comfort and even luxury. I doubted if they all were slaves... whom do you belong to? He replied, “I'blong to massa smith sar.” So with the north's Uncle Tom’s Cabin view of slavery, they were assured that when the north went to war the slaves would rise up, rejoice, and fight for the union. However, this is not what happened, often when union troops passed by slaves in the field would sing “The bonnie Blue Flag” as a northern newspaper the Rhode Island Providence post said:

“Negroes as a mass have shown no friendship to the union, have neither sought to achieve their liberty nor subdue their masters. The few thousand who have come into our lines at the expanse of whites rather seek a life of laziness and self dependence. Their sympathies are with the rebels.... The truth is there is nothing more humbling than to speak of negro loyalty. Abolition has accerted it from the beginning of the war, but every fact of the times proves its a mere accretion.”

As well as Blackwoods magazine of England said 1862:

“The negros bear the yoke [slavery] cheerfully and heartily join their fortunes to their masters in the great struggle they are know engaged.”

Union officer Charles Francis Adams Jr. (great grandson of President John Adams) wrote in a letter home to his father in 1864 on how seeing slavery first hand versus what was believed in the north before the war said

“The conviction is forcing itself upon me that African slavery, as it existed in our slave states, was indeed a patriarchal institution, under which the slaves were not, as a whole, unhappy, cruelly treated or overworked. I am forced to this conclusion.”

New Yorker Joseph Holt Ingram while visiting new Orleans said:

“They all appear contented and happy, and highly elated at their sweet anticipations. Say not that the slavery of the Louisianan Negroes is a bitter drought.”

A private from New Hampshire wrote:

“After now having seen slavery for myself , I firmly believe that we yanks have been fooled. It is nothing like we were taught. Why just the other day I saw slaves going to church who were as happy and cheerful as can be.”


Purpose of Presenting a Historical Understanding of Slavery

"Slavery is a moral evil in any society...more so to the white than to the black."
-Robert E Lee 1856

Nothing is used in modern politics to divide and conquer “we the people” to set us up against each other than slavery to justify government overreach. I think a historical understanding can unite us and see how even in bad conditions, loving relationships were had and we share a common history that does not need to cause division today. As a Christian I do not think slavery is a good or a wanted practice. I also see the South as moving away from many of our founder’s view of slavery. I see slavery as inconsistent with the beliefs and values of many of the freedom and liberty loving founders of the republic of this nation. These founders overwhelmingly wanted to outlaw slavery.

However slavery as commonly believed to be is not the slavery of the majority in the American South. This modern revisionist vast evil view of slavery started post ww2 after all survives were deceased. While it is true that horrible things happened during slavery these were the exception, not the rule. I am also making the assumption that you all know the terrible things that did occur during slavery, such as rape, murder, mistreatment, etc. These offenses can happen whenever one sinful human being has power over another [Just look at the totalitarian governments of last century]. My hope here is to fill in the historical facts you may be missing, to give a bigger and more accurate picture of slavery in the south. Telling only part of the history of the south is misleading, and that is what we have a lot of today. Awful things happened during slavery. However such cases were rare and often protected against by laws. The family unit to me is a good thing, yet it can also be abused such as a father murders a son, a wife murders her husband, daughter, or son, etc. That does not make the family wrong, but wrong in the way it was used. It is the same with police; their job and purpose is good, but in fallen world, there will always be abuse. I am not saying that slavery was good, but looking at only the worst cases and to then claim that all of slavery was so evil is deceitful. The real truth of slavery, while not “good” or a wanted circumstance, is far from what is generally known or believed.

Bibliography

-Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/mesnbibVolumes1.html
-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.
-Without Consent or Contract The Rise and Fall of American Slavery Robert Fogel W.W Norton NY London 1989
-Nehemiah Adams a south Side View of Slavery 1854
-A Defense Of Virginia And The South R.L Dabney 1867 Sprinkle publications
-Myths & Realities of American Slavery John C Perry Burd Street Press 2011
The Private Mary Chesnut The Unpublished Diaries C Vann Woodward Elisabeth Muhlenfeld NY Oxford Press 1984
Myths of American slavery Walter D Kennedy 2003 Pelican publishing company
Everything You Were Taught About American Slavery Is Wrong Ask A Southerner Lochlainn Seabrook Sea raven press 2014
Freedom and Fear. The Slave and his Emancipation by A.O Shearrard 1959
Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860 Larry Koger 1995 Mcfarland
Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia by Erwin L Jordan JR University of Virginia Press 1995
Black Southerners in Confederate Armies: A Collection of Historical Accounts J.H Segars and barrow 2012 Pelican
Black Confederates by Charles Kelly Borrow 2001 Pelican Press
The Confederate States of America, 1861--1865: A History of the South by E.Merton coulter 1950
The south was Right James Ronald Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy Pelican 2014 reprint
Rutland Free Library Rutland, Vermont
I'll Take my stand the south and the agrarian tradition by twelve southerners 1930 Louisianan state university press
The confederate constitution http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/selections/confed/trans.html
Redeeming American Democracy Lessons from the confederate constitution Marshall L. Derosa Pelican press 2007
The Confederate Constitution of 1861: An Inquiry Into American Constitutionalism By Marshall L. DeRosa University of Missouri Press
The Constitution Of The Confederate States Of America Explained A Clause By Clause Study Of The Souths Magna Carta Lochlainn Seabrook Sea Raven Press 2012
The politically incorrect guide to the south Clint Johnson 2007 Regnery publications inc
The politically incorrect guide to the civil war H.W Crocker third 2008 Regnery publications inc
The politically incorrect guide to American history Thomas e woods 2004 Regnery publications inc
General Stand waties confederate Indians 1959 by Frank Cunnigham University of Oklahoma press
The Capaigns of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and of Forrest Calvary by General Thomas Jordan and J.P Pryor 1868 Da Capo Press
America Civil war Magazine - http://www.historynet.com/americas-civil-war
Echoes From The South New York: E. B. Treat & Co., 1866 p. 85
Robert E Lee letter to his wife 1856
Woodrow Wilson, A History of The American People 1902
The Virginia Quarterly Review 1931
Thaddeus k Oglesby some truths of history a vindication of the south Malighners Atlanta Georgia 1903 p42
The Confederate Veteran—the official publication of the United Confederate Veterans 1906
Alexis de tocqueville Democracy in America 1835-1840
A journy in the sea boarder states NY NY Mason brothers 1859 p17
“Cotton Is King” speech, James Henry Hammond http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cotton-is-king/
Peter Kolchin,American Slavery, 1619-1877, pp. 120-122
Booker T Washington up from slavery 1901
Battle Hymns The Power And Popularity Of Music In The Civil War By Christian Mcwhirter The University Of North Carolina press 2012
Battlefields of the South. Vol. 2, page 253
Free At Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War", 1992 edited by Ira Berlin, & others.
Ethel Knight The Echo of the black horn 1951
Douglass' Monthly, September 1861 Frederick Douglass
Booker T Washington 1907 p 220-21 Philadelphia Geroge W Jacobs and co publishers
Guardian of the Republic Allen West
Guide to confederate issues,heroes, and sites of Alabama by the Alabama division sons of confederate veterans
Six Frigates by Ian W Toll 2008 W.W Norton Ny London
Nothing Like it in the world the men who built the Transcontinental Railroad Stephen Ambrose Simon and Schuster 2000
Jesse James last rebel of the civil war T.J Stiles Alfred A Knopf 2002
The Civil war PBS series by Ken Burns
The American heritage series By Historian David Barton at wallbuilders.com
Building on the American heritage series by David Barton 2011
Americas godly heritage by David Barton 1992
Foundations of freedom by David Barton 2015
Journey to the past the african american slave experience
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=6304
http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/virginia_constitutional_convention_of_1861#start_entry
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/when-tennessee-turned-south/?_r=0
The Story of Christianity volume 2 Justo Gonzalez The reformation to the present day 2010 Harper one publications
Warriors of honor- The faith and legacies of Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson 2004
Still Standing The stonewall Jackson Story 2007
The lif of Stonewall Jackson
Monumental in search of America national treasure by Kirk Cameron 2012
Southern Agrarians From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Part of a series on conservatism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Agrarians#Further_readings

 

There are MANY journal available written by plantation owners that give a day by day account of slavery and life of both planters and slave.

What is the purpose of this thread?

 

yes great sources. See under my last post


Purpose of Presenting a Historical Understanding of Slavery

"Slavery is a moral evil in any society...more so to the white than to the black."
-Robert E Lee 1856

Nothing is used in modern politics to divide and conquer “we the people” to set us up against each other than slavery to justify government overreach. I think a historical understanding can unite us and see how even in bad conditions, loving relationships were had and we share a common history that does not need to cause division today. As a Christian I do not think slavery is a good or a wanted practice. I also see the South as moving away from many of our founder’s view of slavery. I see slavery as inconsistent with the beliefs and values of many of the freedom and liberty loving founders of the republic of this nation. These founders overwhelmingly wanted to outlaw slavery.

However slavery as commonly believed to be is not the slavery of the majority in the American South. This modern revisionist vast evil view of slavery started post ww2 after all survives were deceased. While it is true that horrible things happened during slavery these were the exception, not the rule. I am also making the assumption that you all know the terrible things that did occur during slavery, such as rape, murder, mistreatment, etc. These offenses can happen whenever one sinful human being has power over another [Just look at the totalitarian governments of last century]. My hope here is to fill in the historical facts you may be missing, to give a bigger and more accurate picture of slavery in the south. Telling only part of the history of the south is misleading, and that is what we have a lot of today. Awful things happened during slavery. However such cases were rare and often protected against by laws. The family unit to me is a good thing, yet it can also be abused such as a father murders a son, a wife murders her husband, daughter, or son, etc. That does not make the family wrong, but wrong in the way it was used. It is the same with police; their job and purpose is good, but in fallen world, there will always be abuse. I am not saying that slavery was good, but looking at only the worst cases and to then claim that all of slavery was so evil is deceitful. The real truth of slavery, while not “good” or a wanted circumstance, is far from what is generally known or believed.

 

All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to the slaves, upon whose backs this great nation was built. Without them, we could not possibly have achieved the greatness to which we have risen. Up until the signing of The Declaration of Independence in 1776, a document that recognized in its preamble that "all men are created equal", almost every person born on this planet was born as, and lived his life as, the owned property of another. It took another century for the slaves in our country to ultimately be freed, during which time our country lit the torches of freedom around the world. We are the innovators of the concept that every man is master of his own kingdom. A concept that has lifted more people out of poverty than any other. And we remain the model of freedom to the world.

 

Have you actually read "The Private Mary Chesnut" ?I have... The author is of this piece is a liar.

 

Much of that is due to the just cause of not wanting forced servitude to ever again become acceptable. Slavery is taught to have been a terrible thing, because it was. That some percentage of slaves found their servitude comfortable, however, is not surprising, but those accounts are not commonly told, because they lessen the horror and make slavery a tiny bit more palatable. The welfare state is the modern analog to slavery. The relentless inflaming of racism is the wedge that the powerful, mostly leftist, uses to keep us divided amongst ourselves, and prevent us from uniting against them.

 

I agree with most, however I would suggest the originator was not us, but God. see

https://shop.wallbuilders.com/the-american-heritage-series-10-dvd-boxed-set

 

I have, in fact two versions of it. Please express your concern.

 

I agree but I dont think it justifies lying about slavery. In fact i think it is the left that lies about slavery, to cause white guilt, to justify liberalism.

Old Times There Are Not Forgotten- Modern Day Use Of American Slavery In Politics, White Guilt
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...In-Politics-White-Guilt&p=6514265#post6514265



Look Away!!! Politically Incorrect Information About Slavery
http://www.politicalforum.com/index...y-incorrect-information-about-slavery.515213/

 

So when are you going to sign up for the wonderful life of being a slave?

You can be my slave. I'll put you to work, feed you, and not beat you too badly (applying biblical standards).

 

Yeah, maybe not.

I don't recall many Whites volunteering to be slaves in 1860 and I don't see many wealthy people giving it all up to go on welfare.

Seems like rationalizing evil to me.

 

A GAUNT Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by. “Ah, Cousin,” said the Dog. “I knew how it would be; your irregular life will soon be the ruin of you. Why do you not work steadily as I do, and get your food regularly given to you?” 1
“I would have no objection,” said the Wolf, “if I could only get a place.” 2
“I will easily arrange that for you,” said the Dog; “come with me to my master and you shall share my work.” 3
So the Wolf and the Dog went towards the town together. On the way there the Wolf noticed that the hair on a certain part of the Dog’s neck was very much worn away, so he asked him how that had come about. 4
“Oh, it is nothing,” said the Dog. “That is only the place where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up; it chafes a bit, but one soon gets used to it.” 5
“Is that all?” said the Wolf. “Then good-bye to you, Master Dog.”
“BETTER STARVE FREE THAN BE A FAT SLAVE.”
http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/28.html




But i already am a slave as in everyone in america, of sorts.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...e-its-Liberty-When-it-Lost-its-Agrarian-Roots

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...Empire-The-Political-Effects-of-the-Civil-war

 

Well, that's not the point I was making. The point is, people are not easily motivated to leave a familiar situation, sometimes generations deep, in which their basic needs are being met in search of greener pastures, if there is any risk of failure. The OP gave some examples of people who were enslaved, but chose not to leave when given the option to do so. They did this because they were more afraid of their freedom, and the risks involved with it, than they were of their masters. They could not imagine the possibility for a better life, off the plantation.

The psychology today is the same. People who are having their basic needs met in the welfare state are unwilling to risk losing that for the possibility of a better, but unfamiliar, life of self sufficiency. Not because they are unable to become self-sufficient, but because they are unwilling to assume the risks involved. How many times have we heard of people saying that they cannot take a job because to do so would make them lose their welfare?

No one has suggested that anyone would want to give up self sufficiency for the plush luxury of government welfare, which is the strawman you appear to be constructing. In my opinion, the major omission in our welfare system is any component that dissuades people from entering it, or encourages them to leave it.

 

Even you recognize this. And certainly not all slaves were fat. Nor all freemen starving.

I know nothing of your condition, but I can assure you I am not.

 

Valuable property would not logically be mistreated.
Compare their life with that of a Yankee factory worker.
If you got sick from work, or killed at work, the boss just hires a new worker.

The slave system would have ended naturally.
Some smart plantation owner would free his slaves and hire labor at less than slave wages
Charge rent for housing. Sell food and necessaries at the "company store".
Just like the Yankees did with their labor.

"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair paints a grim image although it was 50 years later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle
https://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486419231
I read it in High School, voluntarily. And I don't do much voluntary book reading.

Moi

r > g

​

 

See slavery weren't so bad and great great granddaddy Beauregarde was a good slave owner who treated his slaves well.
Course he still strung up the readers.

 

Good reading.

 

So that's why hundreds of thousands of slaves would try to escape. They were being treated too well.

 

what of the millions that did not? please support hundreds of thousands, that is myth. But i for one would have ran away

A GAUNT Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by. “Ah, Cousin,” said the Dog. “I knew how it would be; your irregular life will soon be the ruin of you. Why do you not work steadily as I do, and get your food regularly given to you?” 1
“I would have no objection,” said the Wolf, “if I could only get a place.” 2
“I will easily arrange that for you,” said the Dog; “come with me to my master and you shall share my work.” 3
So the Wolf and the Dog went towards the town together. On the way there the Wolf noticed that the hair on a certain part of the Dog’s neck was very much worn away, so he asked him how that had come about. 4
“Oh, it is nothing,” said the Dog. “That is only the place where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up; it chafes a bit, but one soon gets used to it.” 5
“Is that all?” said the Wolf. “Then good-bye to you, Master Dog.”
“BETTER STARVE FREE THAN BE A FAT SLAVE.”




Runaway Slaves?

“Blacks could have escaped to nearby union lines but few chose to do so, and instead remained at home and became the most essential element in the southern infrastructure to resisting northern invasion”
-Professor Edward C. Smith

Sometimes the picture portrayed is that slaves all wanted to run away from their masters and would do so any chance they got. While there is no question that many slaves ran away from bad conditions and bad masters, this occurrence was infrequent. During the decades leading up to the war, 1850's and 60's, only 1 out of every 4,919 slaves ran away. In antebellum America masters took there slaves by the thousands north and west without an issue of runaways. During the war a perfect opportunity for those who wanted to run presented itself, and those who wanted to could have done so. By the middle to end of the war, nearly all male whites were in service in the CSA army. The north invading the south and winning provided a great opportunity for slaves to run away, yet very few slaves chose to do so. According to Lincoln and secretary seawards numbers, 95% of slaves stayed home during the war.

After the war the veterans of the confederacy wanted to build a statue recognizing the effort from the woman at home, the woman said instead to build a statue for the loyal slaves who made it all possible. The politically incorrect runaway slave you will not typically read about are those slaves that were captured by union soldiers, forced into service of manual labor (slavery) and ultimately ran away back to their masters. Many in the south felt the slaves had it very good, such as John Randolf who said “the slaves will advertise for runaway masters.”The following excerpt is taken from a slave narrative:

Simon Phillips was one of 300 Negroes belonging to Bryant Watkins, a plantation owner of Greensboro, Alabama. He was a house man, which meant that he mixed the drinks, opened the carriage doors, brought refreshments on the porch to guests, saw that the carriage was always in the best of condition, and tended the front lawn. When asked about slave days, he gets a far-away expression in his eyes; an expression of tranquil joy."People," he says, "has the wrong idea of slave days. We was treated good. My massa never laid a hand on me durin' the whole time I was wid him. He scolded me once for not bringin' him a drink when I was supposed to, but he never whup me." ….."Not since those days," he states, "have I had such good food."......Sometime they [ negros slaves] loaned the massa money when he was hard pushed. "But what I want to say is, we didn't have no idea of runnin' and escapin'. We was happy."

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

“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

“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

“The institution of slavery is a stain on this nation’s soul that will never be cleansed. It is just as wrong as wrong can be, a huge sin, and it is on our soul. There’s a second sin that’s almost as great and that’s emancipation.”
- Shelby Foote

The condition of the slave materially declined after the civil war. 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 always been taken care of when they were sick or old. Speaking of money Anne Bell of south Carolina said “What I want wid it anyhow”, 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.” Sickness rose, life expectancy dropped, blacks skilled in labor deteriorated, and the African American diet deteriorated.

“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. Many slaves simply refused their freedom. 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.

“Often I heard them declare that they would rather go back to slavery in the south, and be with their old masters, than to enjoy the freedom in the north” -Former slave Elizabeth Keckley

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. 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.

“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 (they almost all say because they were not whipped, for which many slaves said they were thankful for). 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' seems to think us have more freedom when us slaves”
-Abmstead Barrett Texas 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

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

Dixie Land


The song Dixie Land was written about a runaway former slave who is longing for the plantation of his birth.

 

Sorry. I never realized what a beautiful thing Slavery was in the South. I'll bet you're sad that it's gone.