&c., naturally occasion short and often precarious allowances. The following extract from a New Orleans paper of April 26, 1837, affords an illustration. The writer in describing the effects of the money pressure in Mississippi, says:
"They, (the planters,) are now left without provisions and the means of living and using their industry, for the present year. In this dilemma, planters whose crops have been from 100 to 700 bales, find themselves forced to sacrifice many of their slaves in order to get the common necessaries of life for the support of themselves and the rest of their negroes. In many places, heavy planters compel their slaves to fish for the means of subsistence, rather than sell them at such ruinous rates. There are at this moment THOUSANDS OF SLAVES in Mississippi, that KNOW NOT WHERE THE NEXT MORSEL IS TO COME FROM. The master must be ruined to save the wretches from being STARVED"
II. Labor
THE SLAVES ARE OVERWORKED.
This is abundantly proved by the number of hours that the slaves are obliged to be in the field. But before furnishing testimony as to their hours of labor and rest, we will present the express declarations of slaveholders and others, that the slaves are severely driven in the field.
| WITNESSES. | TESTIMONY. |
| The Senate and House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina. | "MANY OWNERS of slaves, and others who have the management of slaves, do confine them so closely at hard labor that they have not sufficient time for natural rest.--See 2 Brevard's Digest of the Laws of South Carolina, 243." |
| History of Carolina.--Vol. i, page 120. | "So laborious is the task of raising, beating, and cleaning rice, that had it been possible to obtain European servants in sufficient numbers, thousands and tens of thousands MUST HAVE PERISHED." |
| Hon. Alexander Smyth, a slaveholder, and member of Congress from Virginia, in his speech on the "Missouri question," Jan. 28, 1820. | "Is it not obvious that the way to render their situation more comfortable, is to allow them to be taken where there is not the same motive to force the slave to INCESSANT TOIL that there is in the country where cotton, sugar, and tobacco are raised for exportation. It is proposed to hem in the blacks where they are HARD WORKED, that they may be rendered unproductive and the race be prevented from increasing. * * * The proposed measure would be EXTREME CRUELTY to the blacks. * * * You would * * * doom them to HARD LABOR." |
| "Travels in Louisiana," translated from the French by John Davies, Esq.--Page 81. | "At the rolling of sugars, an interval of from two to three months, they work both night and day. Abridged of their sleep, they scarce retire to rest during the whole period." |
| The Western Review, No. 2,--article "Agriculture of Louisiana." | "The work is admitted to be severe for the hands, (slaves,) requiring when the process is commenced to be pushed night and day." |
| W. C. Gildersleeve, Esq., a native of Georgia, elder of the Presbyterian church, Wilkesbarre, Penn. | "Overworked I know they (the slaves) are." |
| Mr. Asa A. Stone, a theological student, near Natchez, Miss., in 1834 and 1835. | "Every body here knows overdriving to be one of the most common occurrences, the planters do not deny it, except, perhaps, to northerners." |
| Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer of Elyria, Ohio, who lived in Florida in 1834 and 1835. | "During the cotton-picking season they usually labor in the field during the whole of the daylight, and then spend a good part of the night in ginning and baling. The labor required is very frequently excessive, and speedily impairs the constitution." |
| Hon. R. J. Turnbull of South Carolina, a slaveholder, speaking of the harvesting of cotton, says: | 'All the pregnant women even, on the plantation, and weak and sickly negroes incapable of other labor, are then in requisition." |
HOURS OF LABOR AND REST.
| Asa A Stone, theological student, a classical teacher near Natchez, Miss., 1835. | "It is a general rule on all regular plantations, that the slaves be in the field as soon as it is light enough for them to see to work, and remain there until it is so dark that they cannot see." |
| Mr. Cornelius Johnson, of Farmington, Ohio, who lived in Mississippi a part of 1837 and 1838. | "It is the common rule for the slaves to be kept at work fifteen hours in the day, and in the time of picking cotton a certain number of pounds is required of each. If this amount is not brought in at night, the slave is whipped, and the number of pounds lacking is added to the next day's job; this course is often repeated from day to day." |
| W. C. Gildersleeve, Esq., Wilkesbarre, Penn., a native of Georgia. | "It was customary for the overseers to call out the gangs long before day,say three o'clock, in the winter, while dressing out the crops; such work as could be done by fire light (pitch pine was abundant,) was provided." |
| Mr. William Leftwich, a native of Virginia and son of a slaveholder--he has recently removed to Delhi, Hamilton county Ohio. | "From dawn till dark, the slaves are required to bend to their work." |
| Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, Waterford, Conn., a resident in North Carolina eleven winters. | "The slave are obliged to work from daylight till dark, as long as they can see." |
| Mr. Eleazar Powel, Chippewa, Beaver county, Penn., who lived in Mississippi in 1836 and 1837. | "The slaves had to cook and eat their breakfast and be in the field by daylight, and continue there till dark." |
| Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer in Elyria, Ohio, who resided in Florida in 1834 and 1835. | "The slaves commence labor by daylight in the morning, and do not leave the field till dark in the evening." |
| "Travels in Louisiana," page 87 | "Both in summer and winter the slave must be in the field by the first dawning of day." |
| Mr. Henry E. Knapp, member of a Christian church in Farmington, Ohio, who lived in Mississippi in 1837 and 1838. | "The slaves were made to work, from as soon as they could see in the morning, till as late as they could see at night. Sometimes they were made to work till nine o'clock at night, in such work as they could do, as burning cotton stalks, &c." |
A New Orleans paper, dated March 23, 1826, says: "To judge from the activity reigning in the cotton presses of the suburbs of St. Mary, and the late hours during which their slaves work, the cotton trade was never more brisk."
Mr. GEORGE W. WESTGATE, a member of the Congregational Church at Quincy, Illinois, who lived in the south western slave states a number of years, says, "The slaves are driven to the field in the morning about four
