The Anti-Slavery Examiner
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Chapter 141 : "They suffer them, both male and female, _to go without clothing_ at the age of t
"They suffer them, both male and female, _to go without clothing_ at the age of ten and twelve years"
Rev. Phineas Smith, Centreville, Allegany, Co., N.Y. Mr. S. has just returned from a residence of several years at the south, chiefly in Virginia, Louisiana, and among the American settlers in Texas.
"The apparel of the slaves, is of the coa.r.s.est sort and _exceedingly deficient_ in quant.i.ty. I have been on many plantations where children of eight and ten yeas old, were in a state of _perfect nudity_. Slaves are _in general wretchedly clad_."
Wm. Ladd, Esq., of Minot, Maine, recently a slaveholder in Florida.
"They were allowed two suits of clothes a year, viz. one pair of trowsers with a s.h.i.+rt or frock of osnaburgh for summer; and for winter, one pair of trowsers, and a jacket of negro cloth, with a baize s.h.i.+rt and a pair of shoes. Some allowed hats, and some did not; and they were generally, I believe, allowed one blanket in two years.
Garments of similar materials were allowed the women."
A Kentucky physician, writing in the Western Medical Reformer, in 1836, on the diseases peculiar to slaves, says.
"They are _imperfectly clothed_ both summer and winter."
Mr. Stephen E. Maltby, Inspector of provisions, Skeneateles, N.Y., who resided sometime in Alabama.
"I was at Huntsville, Alabama, in 1818-19, I frequently saw slaves on and around the public square, _with hardly a rag of clothing on them_, and in a _great many_ instances with but a single garment both in summer and in winter; generally the only bedding of the slaves was a _blanket_."
Reuben G. Macy, Hudson, N.Y. member of the Society of Friends, who resided in South Carolina, in 1818 and 19.
"Their clothing consisted of a pair of trowsers and jacket, made of 'negro cloth.' The women a petticoat, a very short 'short-gown,' and _nothing else_, the same kind of cloth; some of the women had an old pair of shoes, but they _generally went barefoot_."
Mr. Lemuel Sapington, of Lancaster, Pa., a native of Maryland, and formerly a slaveholder.
"Their clothing is often made by themselves after night, though sometimes a.s.sisted by the old women, who are no longer able to do out-door work; consequently it is harsh and uncomfortable. And I have very frequently seen those who had not attained the age of twelve years _go naked_."
Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer in Elyria, Ohio, who lived in Florida in 1834 and 35.
"It is very common to see the younger cla.s.s of slaves up to eight or ten _without any clothing_, and most generally the laboring men wear _no s.h.i.+rts_ in the warm season. The perfect nudity of the younger slaves is so familiar to the whites of both s.e.xes, that they seem to witness it with perfect indifference. I may add that the aged and feeble often _suffer from cold_."
Richard Macy, a member of the Society of Friends, Hudson, N.Y., who has lived in Georgia.
"For _bedding_ each slave was allowed _one blanket_, in which they rolled themselves up. I examined their houses, but could not find any thing like _a bed_."
W.C. Gildersleeve, Esq., Wilkesbarre, Pa., a native of Georgia.
"It is an every day sight to see women as well as men, with no other covering than a _few filthy rags fastened above the hips_, reaching midway to the ankles. _I never knew any kind of covering for the head_ given. Children of both s.e.xes, from infancy to ten years are seen in companies on the plantations, _in a state of perfect nudity_. This was so common that the most refined and delicate beheld them unmoved."
Mr. William Leftwich, a native of Virginia, now a member of the Presbyterian Church, in Delhi, Ohio.
"The only bedding of the slaves generally consists of _two old blankets_."
Advertis.e.m.e.nts like the following from the "New Orleans Bee," May 31, 1837, are common in the southern papers.
"10 DOLLARS REWARD.--Ranaway, the slave SOLOMON, about 28 years of age; BADLY CLOTHED. The above reward will be paid on application to FERNANDEZ & WHITING, No. 20, St. Louis St."
RANAWAY from the subscriber the negress f.a.n.n.y, always badly dressed, she is about 25 or 26 years old. JOHN MACOIN, 117 S. Ann st.
The Darien (Ga.), Telegraph, of Jan. 24, 1837, in an editorial article, hitting off the aristocracy of the planters, incidentally lets out some secrets, about the usual _clothing_ of the slaves. The editor says,--"The planter looks down, with the most sovereign contempt, on the merchant and the storekeeper. He deems himself a lord, because he gets his two or three RAGGED servants, to row him to his plantation every day, that he may inspect the labor of his hands."
The following is an extract from a letter lately received from Rev.
C.S. RENSHAW, of Quincy, Illinois.
"I am sorry to be obliged to give more testimony without the _name_.
An individual in whom I have great confidence, gave me the following facts. That I am not alone in placing confidence in him, I subjoin a testimonial from Dr. Richard Eells, Deacon of the Congregational Church, of Quincy, and Rev. Mr. Fisher, Baptist Minister of Quincy.
"We have been acquainted with the brother who has communicated to you some facts that fell under his observation, whilst in his native state; he is a professed follower of our Lord, and we have great confidence in him as a man of integrity, discretion, and strict Christian principle. RICHARD EELLS. EZRA FISHER."
Quincy, Jan. 9th, 1839.
TESTIMONY.--"I lived for thirty years in Virginia, and have travelled extensively through Fauquier, Culpepper, Jefferson, Stafford, Albemarle and Charlotte Counties; my remarks apply to these Counties.
"The negro houses are miserably poor, generally they are a shelter from neither the wind, the rain, nor the snow, and the earth is the floor. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are only exceptions; you may sometimes see puncheon floor, but never, or almost never a plank floor. The slaves are generally without _beds or bedsteads_; some few have cribs that they fasten up for themselves in the corner of the hut. Their bed-clothes are a nest of rags thrown upon a crib, or in the corner; sometimes there are three or four families in one small cabin. Where the slaveholders have more than one family, they put them in the same quarter till it is filled, then build another. I have seen exceptions to this, when only one family would occupy a hut, and where were tolerably comfortable bed-clothes.
"Most of the slaves in these counties are _miserably clad_. I have known slaves who went without shoes all winter, perfectly barefoot.
The feet of many of them are frozen. As a general fact the planters do not serve out to their slaves, drawers, or any under clothing, or vests, or overcoats. Slaves sometimes, by working at night and on Sundays, get better things than their masters serve to them.
"Whilst these things are true of _field-hands_, it is also true that many slaveholders clothe their _waiters_ and coachmen like gentlemen.
I do not think there is any difference between the slaves of professing Christians and others; at all events, it is so small as to be scarcely noticeable.
"I have seen men and women at work in the field more than half naked: and more than once in pa.s.sing, when the overseer was not near, they would stop and draw round them a tattered coat or some ribbons of a skirt to hide their nakedness and shame from the stranger's eye."
Mr. GEORGE W. WESTGATE, a member of the Congregational Church in Quincy, Illinois, who has spent the larger part of twelve years navigating the rivers of the south-western slave states with keel boats, as a trader, gives the following testimony as to the clothing and lodging of the slaves.
"In lower Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, the clothing of the slaves is wretchedly poor; and grows worse as you go south, in the order of the states I have named. The only material is cotton bagging, i.e. bagging in which cotton is _baled_, not bagging made of cotton.
In Louisiana, especially in the lower country, I have frequently seen them with nothing but a tattered coat, not sufficient to hide their nakedness. In winter their clothing seldom serves the purpose of comfort, and frequently not even of decent covering. In Louisiana _the planters never think of serving out shoes to slaves_. In Mississippi they give one pair a year generally. I never saw or heard of an instance of masters allowing them _stockings_. A _small poor blanket is generally the only bed-clothing_, and this they frequently wear in the field when they have not sufficient clothing to hide their nakedness or to keep them warm. Their manner of sleeping varies with the season. In hot weather they stretch themselves anywhere and sleep.
As it becomes cool they roll themselves in their blankets, and lay scattered about the cabin. In cold weather they nestle together with their feet towards the fire, promiscuously. As a general fact the earth is their only floor and bed--not one in ten have anything like a bedstead, and then it is a mere bunk put up by themselves."
Mr. GEORGE A. AVERY, an elder in the fourth Congregational Church, Rochester, N.Y., who spent four years in Virginia, says, "The slave children, very commonly of both s.e.xes, up to the ages of eight and ten years, and I think in some instances beyond this age, go in a state of _disgusting_ nudity. I have often seen them with their tow s.h.i.+rt (their only article of summer clothing) which, to all human appearance, had not been taken off from the time it was first put on, worn off from the bottom upwards shred by shred, until nothing remained but the straps which pa.s.sed over their shoulders, and the less exposed portions extending a very little way below the arms, leaving the princ.i.p.al part of the chest, as well as the limbs, entirely uncovered."
SAMUEL ELLISON, a member of the Society of Friends, formerly of Southampton Co., Virginia, now of Marlborough, Stark Co., Ohio, says, "I knew a Methodist who was the owner of a number of slaves. The children of both s.e.xes, belonging to him, under twelve years of age, were _entirely_ dest.i.tute of clothing. I have seen an old man compelled to labor in the fields, not having rags enough to cover his nakedness."
Rev. H. LYMAN, late pastor of the Free Presbyterian Church, in Buffalo, N.Y., in describing a tour down and up the Mississippi river in the winter of 1832-3, says, "At the wood yards where the boats stop, it is not uncommon to see female slaves employed in carrying wood. Their dress which was quite uniform was provided without any reference to comfort. They had no covering for their heads; the stuff which const.i.tuted the outer garment was sackcloth, similar to that in which brown domestic goods are done up. It was then December, and I thought that in such a dress, and being as they were, without _stockings_, they must suffer from the cold."
Mr. Benjamin Clendenon, Colerain, Lancaster Co., Pa., a member of the Society of Friends, in a recent letter describing a short tour through the northern part of Maryland in the winter of 1836, thus speaks of a place a few miles from Chestertown. "About this place there were a number of slaves; very few, if any, had _either stockings or shoes_; the weather was intensely cold, and the ground covered with snow."
The late Major Stoddard of the United States' artillery, who took possession of Louisiana for the U.S. government, under the cession of 1804, published a book ent.i.tled "Sketches of Louisiana," in which, speaking of the planters of Lower Louisiana, he says, "_Few of them allow any clothing to their slaves_."
