Jeff Morris was asking about a cost comparison between English laborers and
American Slaves. The following is a century later than his research, so it
may not be of much help - but maybe another list user might find it
interesting . The editor certainly had an obvious point of view (he is
rationalizing the cruel institution of slavery and is completely insensitve
by today's standards) but he does mention many of the items of expense
that fell upon the slave-holder.
Other list users might find reference to money in the pockets of most
slaves (and the sources of this money) a bit interesting.
I 'm currently working up an interpretive plan for Cahawba's "Negro Burial
Ground," so I was particularily interested in the reference to the
disposal of slave bodies. I've found other Antebellum references to
"resurrectionists" - medical researchers that bought bodies for study. In
another example, a condemned slave in jail sold his body to them for the
price of some warm blankets and fresh fruit for his last days on earth.
Indicating, I thought, that a slave's body became his own upon death (
the point being, that the body was not purchased from the slave holder but
from the enslaved person himself) I would very much like to hear from
anyone out there than has any similar information indicating that the
limits of slavery was somewhere this side of death. Undoubtedly, this
situation must have had some impact on the survival of cultural
traditions relating to burial practices in the enslaved community.
Quote from a newspaper printed in Cahawba, Alabama dated January 2nd, 1857:
[EXCUSE THE TYPO'S] [contextual info: news of slave insurrections has
recently reached the town - causing some panic among the white population]
"the holidays passed off quietly. With the exception of the turn out of
the 'G.G.H.' on Christmas night, Christmas was duller than usual in Cahaba.
The uneasiness created by the rumors from the abroad of insubordination
among our 'peasantry,' kept both master and servant at home in the country,
so but few, white or black, came to town. The few slaves that did come
appeared to be perfectly happy, and we will wager ten to one with any
editor residing in a free State, that they had, in the aggregate, many
times more hard money in their pockets than the same number of laborers or
'helps' at the North, or peasantry in England or on the continent ever
possessed, on any holiday occasion.... we will draw a contrast between the
slaves of Europe and Northern America (for they are slaves in everything
but the name), and the slaves and Alabama. The laboring classes, outside
the Southern States, whether as menials, factory operatives,
agriculturalists or "navvies," receive but small compensation, and, except
the menials out of this compensation, they must find food, shelter and
clothing for themselves and families and medicine and attention when
sick....
"The Master of course, does not pay his slave wages. He gives him a good
house, with yard and garden, if he desires it; plenty of warm bed
clothing, and as much fuel as he wants (the poor in Europe suffer for this
article); and as much clothing as is necessary, with strong, stout shoes
and a proper covering for the head. As for food, the slaves get, upon an
average; in Alabama, half a pound of meat each, every day, for young and
old, little and big. So much meat for an English laborer, or one fourth
that much would make him happy. the half pound is received all the time,
whether sick or well. The old and infirm receive as much as thehealthy
young man. When sick, the master provides the physician and the nurses,
and the mistress sees that all the delicacies suitable to the palate of a
sick person are furnished. If death comes, the faithful servant is buried
decently in theburying ground on the plantation if no pulbic grave yard is
near, and not cast into a potter's field, to be taken up by
resurrectionists, for the use of science. No medical man, or his agents,
would dare invade the sanctity of a negro grave yard, nor would one ask the
owner of a deceased slave to turn the body over to him.
but to return to the living slave; In addition to his daily half pound of
meat, he has a peck of corn meal each week, which is more than he can eat,
and corn bread is preferred by most Sourthern people to flour. He has as
many vegetables as he wants: peas, potatoes, tomatos, okra, greens and
turnips particularly. Most planters also give them either tobacco, coffee,
molasses, mackerel or whiskey. Some give them a little of all; others
give them one or the other. If the stock range is good, they have as much
milk as they want - especially the children. Fresh beef, pork or mutton is
occasionally given them, and in midsummer, when the crop is 'laid by,' they
generally have a holiday and a grand barbecue dinner. ...In regard to their
families, they have no trouble. - the trouble of taking care of them
devolves o the masters, and not on the husband. If the belongs to one man,
and the wife and children to another, they are generally brought together
by one of the masters purchasing the slave of the other. If this is not
done, the man is allowed to visit his wife frequently, or the wife comes to
see him , if the distance is not too great.
"Besides this the negroes of this region have nearly the whole poultry
business in their own hands. Their owners even buy from them - they have
every opportunity to raise as many chickens and ducks as they can, and
sometimes turkeys. Nearly all the eggs and poultry sold in our town, are
sold by negroes. We have no means of estimating the value of this trade,
but it is considerable. It cannot be less than five to ten thousand
dollars per annum. The sale of these articles keep them in pocket change
during the year. They are, also, almost universally allowed to make a
"crop" of their own. They raise corn, cotton, or any ting they may select
or may be settled between them and their master. Time is given them to
work this, or the master makes them work it over, when they are going over
the whole crop. He, of course, furnishes the mules, ploughs, hoes, seed
and land. If they make corn, lpermission is given them to sell it, or the
master himself buys it at the market price; if cotton, it is ginned and
packed, and sent to Mobile by the master and sold with his crop, and the
proceeds scrupulously accounted for to each slave interested. Some make
more than others, for a plantation is like the rest of the world. The
intelligent and industrious off better than the dull and trifling.
Christmas comes, and whether the master has sold their crop or not, they
want their money; it is given them, and with it, a week's holiday. Now it
is, tht the difference between them and the white laborer in free
countries, is apparent. The white slave has no more money (unless he
should get it accidentally) on Christmas day that he has on any other,
unless he should stint himself a week or two before hand so as to be able
to treat himself with a Christmas dinner. His holiday lasts but one day,
if he can even get that.
The Southern peasant draws his money, and iwth a week before him for
enjoyment, he goes to the nearest town. Some make as much as one hundred
dollars and but few have less than twenty. On Christmas day, there was not
a very large crowd of negroes in Cahaba, but one of our stores took in
nearly three hundred dollars from them in the way of trade. Each one of
the other stores too in, perhaps, as much. The same trade was kept up on
the two following days. This nomey they spent of their own accord for
nicknacks and luxuries that suited their fancy, and not for necessaries,
nor at the command or suggestion of their masters.
"Now, which is the happier race, the European peasant with his 12 or 15
shillings per week, and the care of a family on his hands, eating meat
scarcely once a wek, and the danger of being thrown out of all employment
continually staring him in the face, or the peasant of Alabama, who is
miscalled a slave, with his half pound of meat certain every day, as much
bread and vegetables as he wants, milk, fish if he will take the trouble to
catch them, fruit in great abundance, eggs and poultry if he will eat
instead of selling them, warm clothing, fuel and a good house to live in,
no family cares resting on his heart, with a chance to make from twenty to
one hundred dollars to jingle in his pocket at Christmas when he has a
week's holiday - which is the best? Any man of common sense or reason
would answer that the peasantry of Alabama were much the happier of the
two..."
[end of quote from 1857 "Dallas Gazette". ]
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