"The work is admitted to be severe for the hands, (slaves,) requiring
when the process is commenced to be _pushed night and day_."
W.C. Gildersleeve, Esq., a native of Georgia, elder of the
Presbyterian church, Wilkesbarre, Penn.
"_Overworked_ I know they (the slaves) are."
Mr. Asa A. Stone, a theological student, near Natchez, Miss., in 1834
and 1835.
"Every body here knows _overdriving_ to be one of the most common
occurrences, the planters do not deny it, except, perhaps, to
northerners."
Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer of Elyria, Ohio, who lived in Florida
in 1834 and 1835.
"During the cotton-picking season they usually labor in the field
during the whole of the daylight, and then spend a good part of the
night in ginning and baling. The labor required is very frequently
excessive, and speedily impairs the constitution."
Hon. R.J. Turnbull of South Carolina, a slaveholder, speaking of the
harvesting of cotton, says:
"_All the pregnant women_ even, on the plantation, and weak and
_sickly_ negroes incapable of other labour, are then _in
requisition_."