# Think Tank > History >  Look Away Politically Incorrect Information About Slavery

## 1stvermont

The first post will consist of  politically incorrect information about slavery in world history. The second and third post will consist of politically incorrect information about the life of slaves in the south and how they were treated. *

Look Away! Politically Incorrect Information on Slavery in the CSA, America, and World History*
_
“If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be easily persuaded.”_
_-Karl Marx_

_"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." 
-George Orwell, 1984

“It means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers;will learn from Northern school books their version of the War, will be impressed by all influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, our maimed veterans as fit objects for their derision.”
-Major General Patrick Cleburne, C.S.A. Jan. 2, 1864
_
*What I am not saying*

As a Christian I do not think slavery  is a good or wanted practice.  I also see the South as moving away from our founder’s view of slavery.  For example, on March, 21 1861 Confederate Vice President Alexander Stevens said: 

“The prevailing ideas entertained by him [Thomas Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature – that it was wrong in principle –socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent [temporary] and pass away.”

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. 

*What I am saying*

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

I am saying that slavery as commonly assumed is not the slavery of the majority in the American South. This modern vast evil view of slavery started post ww2.  I will defend the South and slavery; not to say slavery was good, but to tell the side of slavery and of the Confederacy that most would otherwise not hear.  Telling only part of the history of the south is misleading, and that is what we have a lot of today.  Many people picture slavery as a white man with whip in hand, ready to use on any black slave; and slaves working in the field, mistreated and abused.  While it is true that horrible things happened during slavery and in the Confederacy, 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 [we all are sinful] 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.

*Is slavery unique to America? The history of slavery* 

_“The idea of slavery was so deeply ingrained that no one questioned its propriety. All nations enjoyed it.”
-A.O Sherrard, Freedom from Fear
_
“_In 1860, according to the census measure of wealth, the average southerner white male was nearly twice as wealthy as the average northern white male”_
_-James McPherson Battle cry of Freedom_

Economical imperative brought on slavery in America, not some preconceived racial bias.  Slavery is not an American idea or a white idea. Slavery has been going on in thousands of nations since almost the beginning of time.  Slavery was in America before any white men arrived.  All races and groups of people have forced slavery on others of their own race and of other groups of people.  Ancient cultures like Athens/Sparta had a 3-1 ration of slave to free man. When a culture denominated another culture, historically the result was slavery.  The Romans owned slaves throughout the known world. The Romans had so many slaves that multiple large scale slave uprisings occurred.  Arab Muslims enslaved a estimated 10 million Africans. 

Aztec's in South America always had and still have slaves in large numbers in South America.  Native Americans enslaved other Native Americans. Multiple groups of Native American’s were cannibals and ate their victims.  They also branded, burned them at the stake, buried them alive, killed them, or forced them into prostitution.  Native Americans enslaved not only their own people, but whites and blacks as well.  Most of the Native American tribes fought for the Confederacy and were owners of black slaves at the time of Civil War. For example, one Choctaw Indian owned 227 blacks as slaves.  Some native tribes like the Haida had slaves up until the 1950's in America.  The Chinese and Asians also had slaves; In China, the Buddhist owned slaves. 

Africans had enslaved their own people in larger numbers and for longer periods before any white men came to Africa.  Africa’s number one export was slaves; this was the case even before any white men came to purchase slaves.  In Africa, blacks enslaved whites and millions of their own people.  Some countries in Africa had as high as 75-90%of the population enslaved by fellow blacks.  Throughout history all races have enslaved other races and people of their own race.  Only 6% of slaves that were imported to the western world from Africa in 1640-1820 came to America; most went to places like Brazil, Cuba, the Caribbean’s, etc.  Slavery in America only lasted 222 years, versus slavery in Europe and Africa which lasted thousands of years.  Slaves in America were not reduced to slavery here, but were already enslaved in Africa before being sold to traders.  There is an estimated 30 million slaves in the world today [2015], more than at any other time in history.
*
White slavery in America and the world*

When some people hear the word slavery, they automatically picture a black slave and white master.  It seems often that only whites can be guilty of slavery.  However, just as any other people group, whites have been enslaved.  Muslim Arabs have been enslaving whites,Christians, and Jews since around 600 A.D.  Muslims sold whites into slavery in Africa; Over 1.5 million whites were enslaved during the 1700's in Africa.  Whites [and Americans] were enslaved by the millions by North Africans and Muslims, forcing the USA to build a navy and go to war to stop the enslavement.  In 1816, England went to war in Africa to free 3,000 English people. 

Whites have been enslaved “From Virginia to Barbados.”  The English enslaved Irish/Vikings and Scots by the millions.  In the English colonies of early America, prior to 1640, most sugar growing was done by forced white labor.  In 1527, Native Americans enslaved white Spanish settlers in Florida.  During the 1500's in Virginia,Algonquins Indians enslaved whites.  The enslavement of whites was legal in Massachusetts in 1658.  In England, a 1765 report gave a 90%mortality rate for slave children in “workhouses” in England. 

The word slave derives from slav, a Caucasian ethnic group often taken and enslaved by Muslims from the Ottoman Empire.  Blacks in America [and the first slave holder  in American history Anthony Johnson]owned whites and blacks as slaves.  As white slaves and indentured servants decreased from Scotland/Ireland/Germany, the need for African slaves increased.  By around 1756, it became mostly black slavery in America.  According to John Adams, white labor was preferred by most to black labor at that time.  Joseph Stalin enslaved an estimated 14.5 million of his own people [Russians]. There were white slaves in the south during the Civil War.  There are accounts of white slaves in Virginia.  As well, in letters between John Bell Hood and General Sherman, Sherman offered help to the citizens of Atlanta and slaves black and white after the fall of Atlanta (indicating the presence of white slaves in Georgia). 

_“Did you know poor whites like slaves had to git a pass? I mean, a rem it like as slaves, to sell anythin an to go places, or do anyth in Jest as we Colored people, dey had to go to some big white man like Colonel Allen, dey did.....0ld Marster wuz more hard on dem poor white forks den he wus on us *******......two sets of white folks slaves up my way....Dese two families worked on..Allen's farm as we did Off from us on a plot called Morgan's lot, there dey lived as slaves jes like us colored fo'ks Yes de poor white man had some darkan  tough days. like us poor ******* I mean worked lashed an treated, sore of dem, jest as pitiful an unmerciful.”
 -Charles Charley Virginia Slave Narratives
_
*African slaves coming to America- The source of American slave*s

Slavery was not invented by Americans, it was inherited from Great Britain.    Americans did not go to Africa and kidnap free blacks to force them    into slavery.  The slaves brought over from Africa were already  enslaved by their own people; before 1820, no free blacks came to    America.  However, when the slaves did come to America they would  usually be given the chance to buy or earn their freedom.  Without  the help from Africans, the transatlantic slave trade would not have    been profitable and would not have come to America.  As one slave ship captain said in the 1700's, “I have only transported them    from one master to another.”  Slavery in Africa was around before    any white man came to Africa, and lasted long after slavery was    ended in America.  The origins of the slavery of Africans comes from    Africa, not America, thousands of years before the first white man  purchased a black slave. When American slave ships came to Africa,  slavery was an already booming export of Africa.  Most of African  slaves had been sold and gone west to Arab Muslims and Asia.     Africans enslaved their own people in numbers far greater than any    country in the world; slavery being Africa’s number one export. Slavery was so common it was often used as money or payment;    soldiers were sometimes paid with slaves.  In some places in Africa,    as much as 90% of the population was enslaved.  Estimates in 1860 in    Central Africa suggest a ratio of 3-1 slave to free man existed.  Zanzibar's population was 75% slaves.  The quality of life for the    African slave that was brought to America improved in every-way (see    below for more details).

*Who abolished slavery in Africa?*

Some African countries maintained legal slavery until 2007, such as the    African Muslim country of Mauritania.  There was no abolition  movement within Pagan/Muslim Africa to end slavery before the American civil war.  It was the white Christian pressure to abolish  slavery in Africa. No race gets blamed more for slavery than whites, yet no race has done more to abolish slavery than whites.

*Opinions toward slavery and blacks in America before the Civil war- The Americn Revolution and the generation following 1776-1830*

_“In the period of the American revolution the interest of the south in slavery declined”
-Historian Francis B Simkins, quoted in Myths of American slavery 

“Regret for the presence of the African on the soil, was the universal felling of that generation which succeeded the revolution”
-Thomas Jefferson speaking of Virginia, Quoted in a defense of Virginia and the south R. L. Dabney

“There was a growing felling all over the south for its abolition”
-Jeff Davis CSA president, The life and death of Jefferson Davis
_
*Founders view of slavery*

_“The American revolution gave an enormous impetus to the struggle against slavery”
-Robert William Fogel The Rise and Fall of American Slavery_ 

Upwards of 70% of the early Americans founders were anti-slavery or  abolitionist.  But the individual states had power to determine their own slavery laws.  While a few states continued to allow slavery,most did not.  The states were allowed this individual control with the agreement that the slave trade would be outlawed in 20 years. Before the revolution, many Americans tried numerous times to end slavery before the war, yet England would not allow it.  Once we were our own nation many founders and Americans released their slaves or outlawed slavery in their state.  Many in the south wanted to end slavery including slave holders.  Abolitionist worked together in the North and South, yet disagreed on how to end slavery.  Northerners generally wanted slaves to go back to Africa, or simply let them free in America; Others [North and South] wanted them educated before letting them free.  Southerners generally wanted slaves brought back to Africa and desired financial support for the loss of money associated with letting slaves go free.  Since almost the entire southern economy was agrarian, to lose all the slaves would put the masters and family at risk of starvation.  For example, a former slave said of his master,

_“I cannot forget old massa. He was good and kind. He never believed in slavery but his money was tied up in slaves and he didn't want to lose all he had. I knows I will see him in heaven and even though I have to walk ten miles for a bite of bread I can still be happy to think about the good times we had then.”
-Gus Brown, Virginia Slave Narratives_

_“If slavery did not now exist amongst them, they would not introduce it If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up.... When southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery, than we; I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists; and that it is very difficult to get rid of it, in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution” 
-Abraham Lincoln_

In 1787 the American states, north and south, unanimous outlawed slavery for states wishing to come into union from the west, thus limiting slavery [northwest ordinance].  After American gained its independence from England. In 1789 Georgia outlawed the slave trade 10 years before federal law would take effect. North Carolina  outlawed the trade in 1794. In 1807, Representative Peter Early of Georgia declared before a congressional committee “We of the south consider slavery a dreadful evil.”  By 1827, 4/5 of abolitionist organizations were from the south, both slave owning and non slave owning members.  The number of slaves let free [with no monetary compensation] by slave owners in the two decades after the ratification of the US constitution doubled each decade.  In 1822,America purchased Liberia in Africa for returning slaves.  In 1828 the governor of Mississippi, the state with the largest population of slaves and producer of cotton, said “slavery is an evil at best.” The 1832 the Mississippi constitution limited slavery imports to the state.  1832 Virginia politician Charles Faulkner said, “Slavery,it is admitted, is an evil.”  On June 9, 1832 Virginia legislature George Dinwiddie said, “Slavery is an evil.”  In 1835, a southern slave owner said of abolitionism “So also is the south, with but a few exceptions.”  Clearly, overall, north and south, was just as the founders said and thought, slavery was dying of natural causes.

*Early black heroes and patriots of the Revolution and elected officials*

During the American Revolution blacks and whites fought together. There were many black heroes and patriots of the war unknown to most today. Black heroes like Peter Salem, the hero of Bunker Hill; James Armistead, the hero of Yorktown and America’s first double spy. There were other battles, such as Lexington, where black patriots fought and were heroes of the battle. The first American shot dead in the war was a black man. 

There were early black elected officials like Wentworth Cheswell, who was first elected in 1768 and then elected to multiple offices from 1768-1817. Thomas Hercules was another, elected in 1792. Blacks were elected to congress in the 1800's. There were early black federal American elected officials such as black Judge Winthrop Chestnut, who was elected as judge in 1775 in New Hampshire. Joseph Hayne Rainey overcame slavery to become the first African American elected to the U. S. Congress, even presiding over the U. S. House. There were many other early black heroes such as Absalom Jones, or Benjamin Bennker, who was born in 1731 and would become what Thomas Jefferson called “The greatest scientist in American history.” 

The first self made woman millionaire in America was African American madam C.J Walker. “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there Iwas promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations….I have built my own factory on my own ground.” There were free blacks in the North and South who voted; Baltimore had more black votes than whites. More blacks than whites in Maryland voted to ratify the constitution.

*1830-1860 Slavery in the South begins to grow and move away from the founder’s republic*

So what caused pro slavery to increase in the American south?  There were two main factors.  Slaves were generally first used on sugar plantations [white and black], however with the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, it made mass produce of cotton very valuable, and was best grown in the southern climate.  With large money to be had, the moral Christian [and southern abolitionist movement that was growing] implications of slavery abated.  In 1791,only 400 cotton bales were produced in the United States; by 1860,3,841,416 bales were produced in the south, 2/3 of the world’s production.  Some have said the invention of the cotton gin was responsible for the Civil War.

_“Had the cotton gin of Massachusetts inventor Eli Whitney not come on the scene in the late 1700’s, African slavery in this country was most likely doomed. The antislavery and emancipation feeling in the South was ascendant, but thwarted by profitable slave-trading and hungry cotton mills in New England which gave rise to more plantations in the South, and the perpetuation of slavery.”
-BernhardThuersam- Director Cape Fear Historical Institute NC
_
The second factor was the south’s reaction to northern abolitionist. During the second great awaking in America large numbers converted to Christ and the leading preachers started preaching slavery not just as a moral wrong as  had been preached by some previous abolitionist pastors, but as a sin in of itself.  Southern theologians objected.  This caused northern abolitionist to demand immediate freeing of slaves with no financial support to the slave owners. This is because sin does not deserve financial support or any help,but must be stopped immediately.  

The southerners [abolitionist] wanted financial support and a slow release of slaves to Africa.  Abolitionist from the north went down south and agitated blacks and whites to rise up in violence against masters, such as the Nat Turner rebellion in 1831.  This caused the south to push back harder against the northern abolitionist and enforce harsh “slave codes.”  This led to some masters no longer allowing slaves to learn to read for fear they would read abolitionist material and rise up against the owners.  North Carolina’s free blacks could no longer vote.  Northern abolitionists started to be viewed as dangerous and radicals.  The south was concerned with a mass release of slaves in their states[former pagan cannabis from Africa and recent slave uprising in Hati and other places causes major fear] and did not want the entire southern economy to collapse; an economy which was based on cotton and agriculture.  This pushed the north and south apart.  Eventually all things southern became evil, and two distinct cultures and ways of life started to grow.  The north starting hating southern culture and the south starting hating northern culture.  From this distain of each other’s culture, the feud became more than just about slavery. As the nation grew so did the southern states, including slave states as they went west expanding from just the few original slave colonies of early America.

*Free blacks in the confederacy/Black men as slave owners in the confederacy/Native American men as slave owners in the confederacy*

*Free Blacks
*
There were thousands of free blacks in the south; in Virginia alone there were over 58,000 free blacks before the war.Virginia freed more slaves before 1861 than NY, NJ, Pennsylvanian and New England combined.In 1830 free blacks made up 24%of the population of New Orleans, by far the the largest southern city. Free blacks owned fire arms and used whip on their slaves as punishment.  Many blacks entered the middle class and some became “rich” plantation owners, earning many times that of the average white southerner. Many notable confederate figures released their slaves and were anti slavery, such as Robert E.Lee and John Randolf.

*America's first slave owner
*
America's first slave owner(not indentured servant,but slave being life long property)was Anthony Johnson from Virginia in 1653. He was a black man who owned John Castor,a black man,and another white man. In the court case Johnson vs Parker in Northampton county Virginia, it was declared that the two men he owned were his property for life.

*Black men who owned slaves in the confederacy
*
There were thousands of free black men who were slave owners in the confederacy;who supported slavery and the south. In the 1830 census,there were more than 10,000 free men of color who owned slaves; from South Carolina, Louisianan,Virginia, and Maryland alone. Black plantation owners hired white “labours” to work on plantations alongside black slaves.Black owners used whips and the same punishments as white owners did on their slaves. Slave ownership was common among free blacks.  In South Carolina in 1840,the percent of free blacks owning slaves was between 72.1-77.7%. In South Carolina, many black slave owners did not release the slaves after war, instead they were forced to by the federal government. 

Black slave owners were generally as wealthy as white slave owners.A colored master near Canve River, LA had 7 plantations, owned 15,000 acres, worked more than 379 slaves valued at $1,000,000. The following are examples of black men and women who owned slaves: Auguste Donatto of St.Laundry Parish,LA owned a 500 acre plantation and at least 70 slaves. Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry owned 84 slaves.  Widow C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards owned over 100 slaves.Antoine Dubuclet's estimated value was $264,000;the average white southerner's value was less than $4,000. The Metoyer family of LA owned 400 black slaves.John Stanley of south Carolina owned 163 slaves.William Ellison of South Carolina owned over 100 acres and over 60 slaves. He also had a reputation for his brutal treatment of slaves (chaining up misbehaving slaves),slave breeding practices,and would not allow any of his slaves to buy their freedom.

*African Slave Owners*

The vast majority of slaves brought to America from Africa were bought from slave owning and trading blacks in Africa, who already enslaved other blacks and had them for sale.

*Blacks around The World As Slave Owners*

Blacks around the world and even in this last decade have had legal slavery in Africa. Blacks captured and enslaved whites throughout their history, as well as other blacks.

*Native American/Jewish men as slave owners in the confederacy*

The majority of Native American tribes supported and fought for the south in the civil war. Most of the tribes were owners of black slaves. At times they sexually exploited the slaves and physically abused them;they were regarded as harsher masters than the white man. Native American's also enslaved white men and other Native American groups throughout their history. Jewish men in the south were also slave owners. 

*Slavery today* 

_“You know that moment when you read something, and then immediately have to re-read it because you cannot believe it is true? That happened tome when I read that the levels of slavery and people trafficking today are greater than at any point in history.”
-Freedom Project on cnn.com, Modern Day Slavery a Problem That Cant be Ignored

“Trafficking is a crime that involves every nation on earth, and that includes our own”
`HilaryClinton 

“Each year 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are bought,sold, or forced across the worlds boarders”
`PresidentGeorge Bush, 2003_ 

What many are unaware of is that there are more slaves today than in any other time in history.Global estimates of  those enslaved today range from 21-36 million,with 100,000 enslaved at this moment in the US.  According to the book  Not for sale- the return of the global slave trade “More slaves live in bondage today than were bartered during four centuries of the trans Atlantic slave trade.” It is a trade that is worth $32 billion annually. In west Africa,  200,000 children are sold into slavery each year. As president Barack Obama said, “It's time to call human trafficking what it is slavery.”  Often they are labor slaves, sex slaves, or slave soldiers. Among them, labor slaves and sex slaves are treated far worst than the typical slave was  in the old south. Enslaved prostitute and forced labor slave are payed less,work more, is beaten more, is less healthy, has less free time, has worse living quarters. Given that it is illegal [ in USA], many are locked up and hidden when they are  not working

g and their entire lives are confined to the work place with no laws to protect them. There is a larger demand for slaves today than at any point in history, even though it is  illegal. Unlike in the old south, where as lave was a investment,  to be cared for, today's slave once they lose their value are discarded and mistreated.

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## 1stvermont

* Slavery in the Confederacy and the South
*
_"No subject [slavery] has been more generally misunderstood or more persistent misrepresented"
-Jefferson Davis, The Rise And Fall Of The Confederate Government
_
We all know of the terrible things that can happen when one person [a sinner] has authority over another [Totalitarian governments of last century], slavery is no different.  Awful things happened during slavery.  However such cases were rare and often protected against bylaws.  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,with governments having the worst record of such abuse.  I am not saying that slavery was good, but looking at only the worst cases andto 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. 

Most Americans, during, prior, and after the Civil War, got their knowledge of slavery not from observation (besides the worst very real cases such as runaway slaves , good thing for Christians like Harriet Tubman “The Moses of her people”), 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.  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.  The institution was far from the evil it is portrayed as, and in many cases better for the black than their treatment in the North and Europe.  Slavery was a very profitable economy for the master, the driving factor to keep slavery in the south (not race).  Slavery was a good investment, far out producing northern free labor by 35%.  In Natchez, Mississippi, a population of 6,600 in 1861, there were over 500 millionaires.  Besides NYC, it had more millionaires than any other city in the world. 

_“Jefferson Davis was always surprised at the north's view of slavery it had no reflection on reality”
-Myths of American Slavery, Walter D Kennedy
_
*The slave’s diet and living quarters 
*_
“Dey had to feed us an plenty of it, cause us couldnt wuk if dey dident feed us good.” 
-Alec Bostwick Georgia Slave Narratives 

“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 
_
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 6 oz 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_

*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 anon-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”
-RachaelAdams 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 
_
_“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
_
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 [More on this later]. 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. 

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). 

_“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. 

_“De young folks don't know nothing about good times and good living, deydon'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 to gather 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 ******* 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”
-ArrieBinns 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 ******* 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

“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”
-Englishnovelist, William M. Thackeray

"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
_*Slavery    in the South how prevalent was slavery? 
* 
            In vestment    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. 
*
The slave trade and the Confederacy*

The importation of Negroes of the African race from any foreign country,other than the slave holding 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.    
*
    Break-up of the African family?  Slave trade within the South*

_“Dey didn't know bout marry in in Africy [africa]”
Harriett Barrett Texas_

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 maybe 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.  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.

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_

*Laws    designed to protect slaves, slave rights, slave punishment, and    corporal punishment [whipping]
*
_“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
_
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 ch208 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.”[5] 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 S17] 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”
-MarshallL 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”[4] 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.


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 

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

        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_ 

 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.
-PeterKolchin, AmericanSlavery,1619-1877_

----------


## 1stvermont

*Master/Slave Relationship*

_“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

“The kindliest relation that ever existed between the two races in this country, or that ever will, was the ante-bellum relation of master and slave—a relation of confidence and responsibility on the partof the master and of dependence and fidelity on the part of the slave.”
-The Confederate Veteran—the official publication of the United Confederate Veterans 1906

“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”
-DrHenry A. White, History professor at Washington and Lee University in1900
_
The normal depiction of slavery is a racist white owner standing therewith 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. 

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.

_“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 notwork 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 aremultiple 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”
-JohnRandolph, 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. Weloved 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 wuzso 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 *******. 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 waywith the little tree, it had to pass through winter and wait ons pring 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]*

_“ 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. 

 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_

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

“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
_
_“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 Journeyin 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 life time in the whole South.”
 -“CottonIs King”speech, James Henry Hammond_ 

*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”
-MatthewEstes, 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    
_ *
    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.

*Run away 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 houseman, 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.”
-SylviaCannon, 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.”
Historian 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. 

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 Beck  North Carolina  Slave Narratives 

“I'seems to think us have more freedom when us slaves” 
Abmstead Barrett Texas 

“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."
-BenWall, 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 ******* was better off be fo' surrender”
-TempeHerndon Durham,NorthCarolinaSlave Narratives

I'd ruther be alivin' back dere dan today 'caze us at least had plenty somp'n t'eat an' nothin' to worry about”
-HenryCheatam, Alabama   Slave Narratives

“All de slaves cried when de Yankees come, an dat most uv 'em stayed on along time atter de war. My manmy plowed an  done such work all detime 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 ******* got out of debed 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, deywuz 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.”[One old SC slave wept bitterly and rolled on the ground after hearing of slavery being abolished.]
-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 m and”
-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 

        “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 

        “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 one northern abolitionist 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 “care free 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 Black woods 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 isa bitter drought.”

Aprivate 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.”

*Main References*
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 companyNY,NY.
Without Consent or Contract The Rise and Fall of American Slavery Robert Fogel W.W Norton NY London 1989
ADefense Of Virginia And The South R.L Dabney 1867  Sprinklepublications 
Myths & Realities of American Slavery John C Perry BurdStreet Press 2011
Myths    of American slavery Walter D Kennedy 2003 Pelican publishing company        
Freedom and Fear. The Slave and his Emancipation by A.O Shearrard 1959 
Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860Larry Koger 1995 Mcfarland
Everything You Were Taught About American Slavery Is Wrong Ask A Southerner Lochlainn Seabrook  Sea raven press  2014
BlackConfederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia by Erwin L JordanJR University of Virginia Press 1995 
Black Southerners in Confederate Armies: A Collection of HistoricalAccounts  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 Southby E.Merton coulter   1950
Rutland Free Library Rutland, Vermont
33 questions about American history you're not suppose to ask Thomas Woods Crown forum NY 2007

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## uncharted

> *America's first slave owner
> *
> America's first slave owner(not indentured servant,but slave being life long property)was Anthony Johnson from Virginia in 1653. He was a black man who owned John Castor,a black man,and another white man. In the court case Johnson vs Parker in Northampton county Virginia, it was declared that the two men he owned were his property for life.


@1stvermont,

Anthony Johnson wasn't actually the first slave owner in America.

African slaves were sold in the British colonies during 1634. The Casor lawsuit was in 1655.

Another point: Colonist Samuel Maverick was a prominent slaveholder in Massachusetts. He brought slaves over in 1638.

http://www.npr.org/2016/06/21/482874478/forgotten-history-how-the-new-england-colonists-embraced-the-slave-trade
http://yipp.yale.edu/bio/bibliography/maverick-samuel
http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/01/18/new_englands_scarlet_s_for_slavery/
http://samuelmaverick.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-cause-of-her-grief-rape-of-slave-in.html


That said, here are some (of the countless) quotes about slavery/blacks from Abraham Lincoln:

"*I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of n------, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
**
"*Free them [black slaves] and make them politically and socially our equal? My own feelings will not admit of this . . . . We can not then make them equals.” (CW, 2, 256). “There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people, to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races.” (CW, 2, 405). “What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and black races."

"my paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery, If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it,"


What a bigot.

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## 1stvermont

> @1stvermont,
> 
> Anthony Johnson wasn't actually the first slave owner in America.
> 
> African slaves were sold in the British colonies during 1634. The Casor lawsuit was in 1655.
> 
> Another point: Colonist Samuel Maverick was a prominent slaveholder in Massachusetts. He brought slaves over in 1638.
> 
> http://www.npr.org/2016/06/21/482874478/forgotten-history-how-the-new-england-colonists-embraced-the-slave-trade
> ...


first slave owner as in human property not indentured servant. 


Yes Lincoln was very much a white supremacists, lets take down his statue. 


http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...iend-of-Blacks

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## Swordsmyth

Bump

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## Michael Landon

Bump.

- ML

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