I have resided eight years in South Carolina, and have an
extensive acquaintance with the planters of the middle and
low country. I have seen much of slavery, and feel competent
to speak in regard to many facts connected with it.
What your correspondent has stated of the condition of one
plantation, is in its essential points a common case
throughout the whole circle of my acquaintance.
The negroes generally, in this State, are well fed, well
clothed, and have the means of religious instruction.
According to my best judgment, the work which a slave here is
required to do, amounts to about one third the ordinary labor
commonly performed by a New England farmer. A similar
comparison would hold true in regard to the labor of
domestics. In the family where I reside, consisting of nine
white persons, seven slaves are employed to do the work. This
is a common case.
In the village where I live, there are about four hundred
slaves, and they generally attend church. More than one
hundred of them are members of the church. Perhaps two
hundred are assembled every Sabbath in the Sunday Schools. In
my own Sunday School are about sixty, and most of them
professors of religion. They are perfectly accessible and
teachable. In the town of my former residence, in New
England, there were three hundred free blacks. No more than
eight or ten of these were professors of religion, and not
more than twice that number could generally be induced to
attend church. They could not be induced to send their
children to the district schools, which were always open to
them, nor could they generally be hired to work. They are
thievish, wretched and troublesome. I have no hesitation in
saying, and I say it deliberately, it would be a great
blessing to them to exchange conditions with the slaves of
the village in which I now live. Their intellectual and moral
characters, and real means of improvement, would be promoted
by the exchange.
There are doubtless some masters who treat their slaves
cruelly in this State, but they are exceptions to the general
fact. Public opinion is in a wholesome state and the man who
does not treat his slaves kindly, is disgraced.
Great and increasing efforts are made to instruct the slaves
in religion, and elevate their characters. Missionaries are
employed solely for their benefit. It is very common for
ministers to preach in the forenoon to the whites, and in the
afternoon of every Sabbath to the blacks. The slaves of my
acquaintance are generally contented and happy. The master is
reprobated who will divide families. Many thousands of slaves
of this State give evidence of piety. In many churches they
form the majority. Thousands of them give daily thanks to God
that they or their fathers were brought to this land of
slavery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account