"They, (the planters,) are now left without provisions and the means of living and using their industry, for the present year. In this dilemma, planters whose crops have been from 100 to 700 bales, find themselves forced to sacrifice many of their slaves in order to get the common necessaries of life for the support of themselves and the rest of their negroes. In many places, heavy planters compel their slaves to fish for the means of subsistence, rather than sell them at such ruinous rates. There are at this moment THOUSANDS OF SLAVES in Mississippi, that KNOW NOT WHERE THE NEXT MORSEL IS TO COME FROM. The master must be ruined to save the wretches from being STARVED." II. LABOR THE SLAVES ARE OVERWORKED. This is abundantly proved by the number of hours that the slaves are obliged to be in the field. But before furnishing testimony as to their hours of labor and rest, we will present the express declarations of slaveholders and others, that the slaves are severely driven in the field. The Senate and House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina. "Many owners of slaves, and others who have the management of slaves, _do confine them so closely at hard labor that they have not sufficient time for natural rest_.--See 2 Brevard's Digest of the Laws of South Carolina, 243." History of Carolina.--Vol. I, page 190. "So _laborious_ is the task of raising, beating, and cleaning rice, that had it been possible to obtain European servants in sufficient numbers, _thousands and tens of thousands_ MUST HAVE PERISHED." Hon. Alexander Smyth, a slaveholder, and member of Congress from Virginia, in his speech on the "Missouri question," Jan. 28, 1820. "Is it not obvious that the way to render their situation _more comfortable_, is to allow them to be taken where there is not the same motive to force the slave to INCESSANT TOIL that there is in the country where cotton, sugar, and tobacco are raised for exportation. It is proposed to hem in the blacks _where they are_ HARD WORKED, that they may be rendered unproductive and the race be prevented from increasing. * * * The proposed measure would be EXTREME CRUELTY to the blacks. * * * You would * * * doom them to HARD LABOR." "Travels in Louisiana," translated from the French by John Davies, Esq.--Page 81. "At the rolling of sugars, an interval of from two to three months, they _work both night and day_. Abridged of their sleep, they _scarce retire to rest during the whole period_." The Western Review, No. 2,--article "Agriculture of Louisiana." "The work is admitted to be severe for the hands, (slaves,) requiring when the process is commenced to be _pushed night and day_." W.C. Gildersleeve, Esq., a native of Georgia, elder of the Presbyterian church, Wilkesbarre, Penn. "_Overworked_ I know they (the slaves) are." Mr. Asa A. Stone, a theological student, near Natchez, Miss., in 1834 and 1835.