Speaking of Virginia, he said: "Their authority over their slaves renders
them vain and imperious, and entire strangers to that elegance of
sentiment, which is so peculiarly characteristic of refined and polished
nations. Their ignorance of mankind and of learning, exposes them to many
errors and prejudices, especially in regard to Indians and Negroes, whom
they scarcely consider as of human species; so that it is almost
impossible in cases of violence, or even murder, committed upon those
unhappy people by any of the planters, to have delinquents brought to
justice: for either the grand jury refuse to find the bill, or the petit
jury bring in the verdict of not guilty."--_Andrew Burnaby, "Travels_,"
1759, p. 54.
GENERAL TREATMENT OF SLAVES AMONG THE ALBANIANS--CONSEQUENT ATTACHMENT OF
DOMESTICS.--REFLECTIONS ON SERVITUDE BY AN AMERICAN LADY
In the society I am describing, even the dark aspect of slavery was
softened into a smile. And I must, in justice to the best possible masters,
say, that a great deal of that tranquility and comfort, to call it by no
higher name, which distinguished this society from all others, was owing to
the relation between master and servant being better understood here than
in any other place. Let me not be detested as an advocate for slavery when
I say that I think I have never seen people so happy in servitude as the
domestics of the Albanians. One reason was, (for I do not now speak of the
virtues of their masters,) that each family had a few of them, and that
there were no field negroes. They would remind one of Abraham's servants,
who were all born in the house, which was exactly their case. They were
baptized too, and shared the same religious instruction with the children
of the family; and, for the first years, there was little or no difference
with regard to food or clothing between their children and those of their
masters.
When a negro-woman's child attained the age of three years, the first New
Year's Day after, it was solemnly presented to a son or daughter, or other
young relative of the family, who was of the same sex with the child so
presented. The child to whom the young negro was given immediately
presented it with some piece of money and a pair of shoes; and from that
day the strongest attachment subsisted between the domestic and the
destined owner. I have no where met with instances of friendship more
tender and generous than that which here subsisted between the slaves and
their masters and mistresses. Extraordinary proofs of them have been often
given in the course of hunting or Indian trading, when a young man and his
slave have gone to the trackless woods, together, in the case of fits of
the ague, loss of a canoe, and other casualties happening near hostile
Indians. The slave has been known, at the imminent risque of his life, to
carry his disabled master through trackless woods with labour and fidelity
scarce credible; and the master has been equally tender on similar
occasions of the humble friend who stuck closer than a brother; who was
baptized with the same baptism, nurtured under the same roof, and often
rocked in the same cradle with himself. These gifts of domestics to the
younger members of the family, were not irrevokable: yet they were very
rarely withdrawn. If the kitchen family did not increase in proportion to
that of the master, young children were purchased from some family where
they abounded, to furnish those attached servants to the rising progeny.
They were never sold without consulting their mothers, who if expert and
sagacious, had a great deal to say in the family, and would not allow her
child to go into any family with whose domestics she was not acquainted.
These negro-women piqued themselves on teaching their children to be
excellent servants, well knowing servitude to be their lot or life, and
that it could only be sweetened by making themselves particularly useful,
and excellent in their departments. If they did their work well, it is
astonishing, when I recollect it, what liberty of speech was allowed to
those active and prudent mothers. They would chide, reprove, and
expostulate in a manner that we would not endure from our hired servants;
and sometimes exert fully as much authority over the children of the family
as the parents, conscious that they were entirely in their power. They did
not crush freedom of speech and opinion in those by whom they knew they
were beloved, and who watched with incessant care over their interest and
comfort. Affectionate and faithful as these home-bred servants were in
general, there were some instances (but very few) of those who, through
levity of mind, or a love of liquor or finery, betrayed their trust, or
habitually neglected their duty. In these cases, after every means had been
used to reform them, no severe punishments were inflicted at home. But the
terrible sentence, which they dreaded worse than death, was past--they were
sold to Jamaica. The necessity of doing this was bewailed by the whole
family as a most dreadful calamity, and the culprit was carefully watched
on his way to New-York, lest he should evade the sentence by
self-destruction.
One must have lived among those placid and humane people to be sensible
that servitude, hopeless, endless servitude, could exist with so little
servility and fear on the one side, and so little harshness or even
sternness of authority on the other. In Europe, the footing on which
service is placed in consequence of the corruptions of society, hardens the
heart, destroys confidence, and embitters life. The deceit and venality of
servants not absolutely dishonest, puts it out of one's power to love or
trust them. And if, in hopes of having people attached to us, who will
neither betray our confidence, nor corrupt our children, we are at pains to
rear them from childhood, and give them a religious and moral education;
after all our labour, others of their own class seduce them away to those
who can afford to pay higher for their services. This is not the case in a
few remote districts. Where surrounding mountains seem to exclude the
contagion of the world, some traces of fidelity and affection among
domestics still remain. But it must be remarked, that, in those very
districts, it is usual to treat inferiors with courtesy and kindness, and
to consider those domestics who marry out of the family as holding a kind
of relation to it, and still claiming protection. In short, the corruption
of that class of people is, doubtless, to be attributed to the example of
their superiors. But how severely are those superiors punished? Why this
general indifference about home; why are the household gods, why is the
sacred hearth so wantonly abandoned? Alas! the charm of home is destroyed,
since our children, educated in distant seminaries, are strangers in the
paternal mansion; and our servants, like mere machines, move on their
mercenary track without feeling or exciting one kind or generous sentiment.
Home, thus despoiled of all its charms, is no longer the scene of any
enjoyments but such as wealth can purchase. At the same time we feel there
a nameless cold privation, and conscious that money can coin the same
enjoyments with more variety elsewhere, we substitute these futile and
evanescent pleasures for that perennial spring of calm satisfaction,
"without o'erflowing full," which is fed by the exercise of the kindly
affections, and soon indeed must those stagnate where there are not proper
objects to excite them. I have been forced into this painful digression by
unavoidable comparisons. To return:--
Amidst all this mild and really tender indulgence to their negroes, these
colonists had not the smallest scruple of conscience with regard to the
right by which they held them in subjection. Had that been the case, their
singular humanity would have been incompatible with continued injustice.
But the truth is, that of law the generality of those people knew little;
and of philosophy, nothing at all. They sought their code of morality in
the Bible, and there imagined they found this hapless race condemned to
perpetual slavery; and thought nothing remained for them but to lighten the
chains of their fellow Christians, after having made them such. This I
neither "extenuate" nor "set down in malice," but merely record the fact.
At the same time it is but justice to record also a singular instance of
moral delicacy distinguishing this settlement from every other in the like
circumstances: though, from their simple and kindly modes of life, they
were from infancy in habits of familiarity with these humble friends, yet
being early taught that nature had placed between them a barrier, which it
was in a high degree criminal and disgraceful to pass, they considered a
mixture of such distinct races with abhorrence, as a violation of her laws.
This greatly conduced to the preservation of family happiness and concord.
An ambiguous race, which the law does not acknowledge; and who (if they
have any moral sense, must be as much ashamed of their parents as these
last are of them) are certainly a dangerous, because degraded part of the
community. How much more so must be those unfortunate beings who stand in
the predicament of the bat in the fable, whom both birds and beasts
disowned? I am sorry to say that the progress of the British army, when it
arrived, might be traced by a spurious and ambiguous race of this kind. But
of a mulatto born before their arrival I only remember a single instance;
and from the regret and wonder it occasioned, considered it as singular.
Colonel Schuyler, of whom I am to speak, had a relation so weak and
defective in capacity, that he never was intrusted with any thing of his
own, and lived an idle bachelor about the family. In process of time a
favourite negro-woman, to the great offense and scandal of the family, bore
a child to him, whose colour gave testimony to the relation. The boy was
carefully educated; and when he grew up, a farm was allotted to him well
stocked and fertile, but "in depth of woods embraced," about two miles back
from the family seat. A destitute white woman, who had somehow wandered
from the older colonies, was induced to marry him; and all the branches of
the family thought it incumbent on them now and then to pay a quiet visit
to Chalk (for so, for some unknown reason, they always called him). I have
been in Chalk's house myself, and a most comfortable abode it was; but
considered him as a mysterious and anomalous being.
I have dwelt the longer on this singular instance of slavery, existing
devoid of its attendant horrors, because the fidelity and affection
resulting from a bond of union so early formed between master and servant,
contributed so very much to the safety of individuals, as well as the
general comfort of society, as will hereafter appear.--"_Memoirs of An
American Lady with Sketches of Manners and Customs In America as they
existed previous to the Revolution_," Chapter VII, pp. 26-32, by Mrs. Anne
Grant.