The Journal of Negro History
Chapter 58 : DOc.u.mENTS TRAVELERS' IMPRESSIONS OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA FROM 1750 TO 1800 From th

DOc.u.mENTS

TRAVELERS' IMPRESSIONS OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA FROM 1750 TO 1800

From these writers, almost all of whom were foreigners, one would naturally expect such a portraiture of slavery as persons unaccustomed to the inst.i.tution would give. Most Americans, of course, considered the inst.i.tution as belonging to the natural order of things and, therefore, hardly ever referred to it except when they mentioned it unconsciously.

Foreigners, however, as soon as they came into this new world began to compare the slaves with the lowest order of society in Europe. Finding the lot of the bondmen so much inferior to that of those of low estate in European countries, these travelers frequently made some interesting comparisons. We are indebted to them for valuable information which we can never hope to obtain from the literature of an essentially slaveholding people. Here we see how the American Revolution caused a change for the better in the condition of the Negroes in certain States, and how the rigorousness of slavery continued in the others. We learn too what enlightened Negroes thought about their state and what the white man believed should be done to prevent their reaching the point of self-a.s.sertion. That a large number of anti-slavery Americans were advocating and effecting the emanc.i.p.ation of slaves appears throughout these doc.u.ments.

BURNABY'S VIEW OF THE SITUATION IN VIRGINIA

Speaking of Virginia, he said: "Their authority over their slaves renders them vain and imperious, and entire strangers to that elegance of sentiment, which is so peculiarly characteristic of refined and polished nations. Their ignorance of mankind and of learning, exposes them to many errors and prejudices, especially in regard to Indians and Negroes, whom they scarcely consider as of human species; so that it is almost impossible in cases of violence, or even murder, committed upon those unhappy people by any of the planters, to have delinquents brought to justice: for either the grand jury refuse to find the bill, or the pet.i.t jury bring in the verdict of not guilty."--_Andrew Burnaby, "Travels_,"

1759, p. 54.

GENERAL TREATMENT OF SLAVES AMONG THE ALBANIANS--CONSEQUENT ATTACHMENT OF DOMESTICS.--REFLECTIONS ON SERVITUDE BY AN AMERICAN LADY

In the society I am describing, even the dark aspect of slavery was softened into a smile. And I must, in justice to the best possible masters, say, that a great deal of that tranquility and comfort, to call it by no higher name, which distinguished this society from all others, was owing to the relation between master and servant being better understood here than in any other place. Let me not be detested as an advocate for slavery when I say that I think I have never seen people so happy in servitude as the domestics of the Albanians. One reason was, (for I do not now speak of the virtues of their masters,) that each family had a few of them, and that there were no field negroes. They would remind one of Abraham's servants, who were all born in the house, which was exactly their case. They were baptized too, and shared the same religious instruction with the children of the family; and, for the first years, there was little or no difference with regard to food or clothing between their children and those of their masters.

When a negro-woman's child attained the age of three years, the first New Year's Day after, it was solemnly presented to a son or daughter, or other young relative of the family, who was of the same s.e.x with the child so presented. The child to whom the young negro was given immediately presented it with some piece of money and a pair of shoes; and from that day the strongest attachment subsisted between the domestic and the destined owner. I have no where met with instances of friends.h.i.+p more tender and generous than that which here subsisted between the slaves and their masters and mistresses. Extraordinary proofs of them have been often given in the course of hunting or Indian trading, when a young man and his slave have gone to the trackless woods, together, in the case of fits of the ague, loss of a canoe, and other casualties happening near hostile Indians. The slave has been known, at the imminent risque of his life, to carry his disabled master through trackless woods with labour and fidelity scarce credible; and the master has been equally tender on similar occasions of the humble friend who stuck closer than a brother; who was baptized with the same baptism, nurtured under the same roof, and often rocked in the same cradle with himself. These gifts of domestics to the younger members of the family, were not irrevokable: yet they were very rarely withdrawn. If the kitchen family did not increase in proportion to that of the master, young children were purchased from some family where they abounded, to furnish those attached servants to the rising progeny.

They were never sold without consulting their mothers, who if expert and sagacious, had a great deal to say in the family, and would not allow her child to go into any family with whose domestics she was not acquainted.

These negro-women piqued themselves on teaching their children to be excellent servants, well knowing servitude to be their lot or life, and that it could only be sweetened by making themselves particularly useful, and excellent in their departments. If they did their work well, it is astonis.h.i.+ng, when I recollect it, what liberty of speech was allowed to those active and prudent mothers. They would chide, reprove, and expostulate in a manner that we would not endure from our hired servants; and sometimes exert fully as much authority over the children of the family as the parents, conscious that they were entirely in their power. They did not crush freedom of speech and opinion in those by whom they knew they were beloved, and who watched with incessant care over their interest and comfort. Affectionate and faithful as these home-bred servants were in general, there were some instances (but very few) of those who, through levity of mind, or a love of liquor or finery, betrayed their trust, or habitually neglected their duty. In these cases, after every means had been used to reform them, no severe punishments were inflicted at home. But the terrible sentence, which they dreaded worse than death, was past--they were sold to Jamaica. The necessity of doing this was bewailed by the whole family as a most dreadful calamity, and the culprit was carefully watched on his way to New-York, lest he should evade the sentence by self-destruction.

One must have lived among those placid and humane people to be sensible that servitude, hopeless, endless servitude, could exist with so little servility and fear on the one side, and so little harshness or even sternness of authority on the other. In Europe, the footing on which service is placed in consequence of the corruptions of society, hardens the heart, destroys confidence, and embitters life. The deceit and venality of servants not absolutely dishonest, puts it out of one's power to love or trust them. And if, in hopes of having people attached to us, who will neither betray our confidence, nor corrupt our children, we are at pains to rear them from childhood, and give them a religious and moral education; after all our labour, others of their own cla.s.s seduce them away to those who can afford to pay higher for their services. This is not the case in a few remote districts. Where surrounding mountains seem to exclude the contagion of the world, some traces of fidelity and affection among domestics still remain. But it must be remarked, that, in those very districts, it is usual to treat inferiors with courtesy and kindness, and to consider those domestics who marry out of the family as holding a kind of relation to it, and still claiming protection. In short, the corruption of that cla.s.s of people is, doubtless, to be attributed to the example of their superiors. But how severely are those superiors punished? Why this general indifference about home; why are the household G.o.ds, why is the sacred hearth so wantonly abandoned? Alas! the charm of home is destroyed, since our children, educated in distant seminaries, are strangers in the paternal mansion; and our servants, like mere machines, move on their mercenary track without feeling or exciting one kind or generous sentiment.

Home, thus despoiled of all its charms, is no longer the scene of any enjoyments but such as wealth can purchase. At the same time we feel there a nameless cold privation, and conscious that money can coin the same enjoyments with more variety elsewhere, we subst.i.tute these futile and evanescent pleasures for that perennial spring of calm satisfaction, "without o'erflowing full," which is fed by the exercise of the kindly affections, and soon indeed must those stagnate where there are not proper objects to excite them. I have been forced into this painful digression by unavoidable comparisons. To return:--

Amidst all this mild and really tender indulgence to their negroes, these colonists had not the smallest scruple of conscience with regard to the right by which they held them in subjection. Had that been the case, their singular humanity would have been incompatible with continued injustice.

But the truth is, that of law the generality of those people knew little; and of philosophy, nothing at all. They sought their code of morality in the Bible, and there imagined they found this hapless race condemned to perpetual slavery; and thought nothing remained for them but to lighten the chains of their fellow Christians, after having made them such. This I neither "extenuate" nor "set down in malice," but merely record the fact.

At the same time it is but justice to record also a singular instance of moral delicacy distinguis.h.i.+ng this settlement from every other in the like circ.u.mstances: though, from their simple and kindly modes of life, they were from infancy in habits of familiarity with these humble friends, yet being early taught that nature had placed between them a barrier, which it was in a high degree criminal and disgraceful to pa.s.s, they considered a mixture of such distinct races with abhorrence, as a violation of her laws.

This greatly conduced to the preservation of family happiness and concord.

An ambiguous race, which the law does not acknowledge; and who (if they have any moral sense, must be as much ashamed of their parents as these last are of them) are certainly a dangerous, because degraded part of the community. How much more so must be those unfortunate beings who stand in the predicament of the bat in the fable, whom both birds and beasts disowned? I am sorry to say that the progress of the British army, when it arrived, might be traced by a spurious and ambiguous race of this kind. But of a mulatto born before their arrival I only remember a single instance; and from the regret and wonder it occasioned, considered it as singular.

Colonel Schuyler, of whom I am to speak, had a relation so weak and defective in capacity, that he never was intrusted with any thing of his own, and lived an idle bachelor about the family. In process of time a favourite negro-woman, to the great offense and scandal of the family, bore a child to him, whose colour gave testimony to the relation. The boy was carefully educated; and when he grew up, a farm was allotted to him well stocked and fertile, but "in depth of woods embraced," about two miles back from the family seat. A dest.i.tute white woman, who had somehow wandered from the older colonies, was induced to marry him; and all the branches of the family thought it inc.u.mbent on them now and then to pay a quiet visit to Chalk (for so, for some unknown reason, they always called him). I have been in Chalk's house myself, and a most comfortable abode it was; but considered him as a mysterious and anomalous being.

I have dwelt the longer on this singular instance of slavery, existing devoid of its attendant horrors, because the fidelity and affection resulting from a bond of union so early formed between master and servant, contributed so very much to the safety of individuals, as well as the general comfort of society, as will hereafter appear.--"_Memoirs of An American Lady with Sketches of Manners and Customs In America as they existed previous to the Revolution_," Chapter VII, pp. 26-32, by Mrs. Anne Grant.

IMPRESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH TRAVELER

"As I observed before, at least two thirds of the inhabitants are negroes....

"It is fortunate for humanity that these poor creatures possess such a fund of contentment and resignation in their minds; for they indeed seem to be the happiest inhabitants in America, notwithstanding the hardness of their fare, the severity of their labour, and the unkindness, ignominy, and often barbarity of their treatment."--J.F.D., "_A Tour in the United States of America, containing an account of the present situation of that country_"; London, 1784, p. 39.

ABBe ROBIN ON CONDITIONS IN VIRGINIA

"The population of Virginia is computed at one hundred fifty thousand whites and five hundred thousand negroes. There is a still greater disproportion between the whites and blacks in Maryland, where there are not more than twenty thousand whites and at least two hundred thousand negroes. The English imported into these two provinces between seven and eight thousand yearly. Perhaps the lot of these slaves is not quite so hard as that of the negroes in the islands; their liberty, it is true, is irreparably lost in both places, but here they are treated with more mildness, and are supported upon the same kind of food with their masters; and if the earth which they cultivate, is moistened with their sweat, it has never been known to blush with their blood. The American, not at all industrious by nature, is considerate enough not to expect too much from his slave, who in such circ.u.mstances, has fewer motives to be laborious for himself."--Abbe Robin, "_New Travels through North America in a series of letters_," Boston, 1784, p. 48.

OBSERVATIONS OF ST. JOHN DE CReVECOEUR

"There, arranged like horses at a fair, they are branded like cattle, and then driven to toil, to starve and to languish for a few years on the different plantations of those citizens.

"If negroes are permitted to become fathers, this fatal indulgence only tends to increase their misery.... How many have I seen cursing the irresistible propensity, and regretting that by having tasted of those joys, they had become the authors of double misery to their wives.... Their paternal fondness is embittered by considering that if their children live, they must live to be slaves like themselves: no time is allowed them to exercise their pious offices, the mothers must fasten them on their backs, and, with the double load follow their husbands in the fields, where they too often hear no other sound than that of the voice or whip of the taskmaster, and the cries of their infants, broiling in the sun.... It is said, I know, that they are much happier here than in the West Indies; because land being cheaper upon this continent than in those Islands, the field allowed them to raise their subsistence from, are in general more extensive.

"... We have slaves likewise in our northern provinces; I hope the time draws near when they will be all emanc.i.p.ated; but how different their lot, how different their situation, in every possible respect! They enjoy as much liberty as their masters, they are as well clad, and as well fed; in health and sickness they are tenderly taken care of; they live under the same roof, and are, truly speaking, a part of our families. Many of them are taught to read and write, and are well instructed in the principles of religion; they are the companions of our labours, and treated as such; they enjoy many perquisites, many established holidays, and are not obliged to work more than white people. They marry when their inclination leads them; visit their wives every week; are as decently clad as the common people; they are indulged in education, cheris.h.i.+ng and chastising their children, who are taught subordination to them as to their lawful parents; in short, they partic.i.p.ate in many of the benefits of our society without being obliged to bear any of its burdens. They are fat, healthy, and hearty, and far from repining at their fate; they think themselves happier than many of the lower cla.s.s whites: they share with their master the wheat and meat provision, they help to raise; many of those whom the good Quakers have emanc.i.p.ated, have received that great benefit with tears of regret, and have never quitted, though free, their former masters and benefactors."--St. John de Crevecoeur, "_Letters from an American Farmer, 1782_," pp. 226 et seq.

IMPRESSIONS OF JOHANN D. SCHOEPF

"The condition of the Carolina negro slaves is in general harder and more troublous than that of their northern brethren. On the rice plantations, with wretched food, they are allotted more work and more tedious work; and the treatment which they experience at the hands of the overseers and owners is capricious and often tyrannical. In Carolina (and in no other of the North American states) their severe handling has already caused several uprisings among them. There is less concern here as to their moral betterment, education, and instruction, and South Carolina appears little inclined to initiate the praiseworthy and benevolent ordinances of its sister states in regard to the negro. It is sufficient proof of the bad situation in which these creatures find themselves here that they do not multiply in the same proportions as the white inhabitants, although the climate is more natural to them and agrees with them better. Their numbers must be continually kept up by fresh importations; to be sure, the constant taking up of new land requires more and more working hands, and the pretended necessity of bringing in additional slaves is thus warranted in part; but close investigation makes it certain that the increase of the blacks in the northern states, where they are handled more gently, is vastly more considerable. The gentlemen in the country have among their negroes as the Russian n.o.bility among the serfs, the most necessary handicrafts-men, cobblers, tailors, carpenters, smiths, and the like, whose work they command at the smallest possible price or for nothing almost.

There is hardly any trade or craft which has not been learned and is not carried on by negroes, partly free, partly slave; the latter are hired out by their owners for day's wages. Charleston swarms with blacks, mulattoes and mestizos; their number greatly exceeds that of the whites, but they are kept under strict order and discipline, and the police has a watchful eye upon them. These may nowhere a.s.semble more than 7 male negro slaves; their dances and other a.s.semblies must stop at 10 o'clock in the evening; without permission of their owners none of them may sell beer or wine or brandy.

There are here many free negroes and mulattoes. They get their freedom if by their own industry they earn enough to buy themselves off, or their freedom is given them at the death of their masters or in other ways. Not all of them know how to use their freedom to their own advantage; many give themselves up to idleness and dissipation which bring them finally to crafty deceptions and thievery. They are besides extraordinarily given to vanity, and love to adorn themselves as much as they can and to conduct themselves importantly."

--Johann D. Schoepf, "_Travels in the Confederation_," 1784, p. 220.

EXTRACTS FROM ANBUREY'S TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA

"Thus the whole management of the plantation is left to the overseer, who as an encouragement to make the most of the crops, has a certain portion as his wages, but not having any interest in the negroes, any further than their labour, he drives and whips them about, and works them beyond their strength, and sometimes till they expire; he feels no loss in their death, he knows the plantation must be supplied, and his humanity is estimated by his interest, which rises always above freezing point.

"It is the poor negroes who alone work hard, and I am sorry to say, fare hard. Incredible is the fatigue which the poor wretches undergo, and that nature should be able to support it; there certainly must be something in their const.i.tutions, as well as their color, different from us, that enables them to endure it.

"They are called up at day break, and seldom allowed to swallow a mouthful of homminy, or hoe cake, but are drawn out into the field immediately, where they continue at hard labour, without intermission, till noon, when they go to their dinners, and are seldom allowed an hour for that purpose; their meals consist of hominy and salt, and if their master is a man of humanity, touched by the finer feelings of love and sensibility, he allows them twice a week a little skimmed milk, fat rusty bacon, or salt herring, to relish this miserable and scanty fare. The man at this plantation, in lieu of these, grants his negroes an acre of ground, and all Sat.u.r.day afternoon to raise grain and poultry for themselves. After they have dined, they return to labor in the field, until dusk in the evening; here one naturally imagines the daily labor of these poor creatures was over, not so, they repair to the tobacco houses, where each has a task of stripping allotted which takes them up some hours, or else they have such a quant.i.ty of Indian corn to husk, and if they neglect it, are tied up in the morning, and receive a number of lashes from those unfeeling monsters, the overseers, whose masters suffer them to exercise their brutal authority without constraint. Thus by their night task, it is late in the evening before these poor creatures return to their second scanty meal, and the time taken up at it encroaches upon their hours of sleep, which for refreshment of food and sleep together can never be reckoned to exceed eight.

"When they lay themselves down to rest, their comforts are equally miserable and limited, for they sleep on a bench, or on the ground, with an old scanty blanket, which serves them at once for bed and covering, their cloathing is not less wretched, consisting of a s.h.i.+rt and trowsers of coa.r.s.e, thin, hard, hempen stuff, in the Summer, with an addition of a very coa.r.s.e woolen jacket, breeches and shoes in Winter. But since the war, their masters, for they cannot get the cloathing as usual, suffer them to go in rags, and many in a state of nudity.

"The female slaves share labor and repose just in the same manner, except a few who are term'd house negroes, and are employed in household drugery.

"These poor creatures are all submission to injuries and insults, and are obliged to be pa.s.sive, nor dare they resist or defend themselves if attacked, without the smallest provocation, by a white person, as the law directs the negroe's arm to be cut off who raises it against a white person, should it be only in defence against wanton barbarity and outrage.