"Thus the whole management of the plantation is left to the overseer, who
as an encouragement to make the most of the crops, has a certain portion as
his wages, but not having any interest in the negroes, any further than
their labour, he drives and whips them about, and works them beyond their
strength, and sometimes till they expire; he feels no loss in their death,
he knows the plantation must be supplied, and his humanity is estimated by
his interest, which rises always above freezing point.
"It is the poor negroes who alone work hard, and I am sorry to say, fare
hard. Incredible is the fatigue which the poor wretches undergo, and that
nature should be able to support it; there certainly must be something in
their constitutions, as well as their color, different from us, that
enables them to endure it.
"They are called up at day break, and seldom allowed to swallow a mouthful
of homminy, or hoe cake, but are drawn out into the field immediately,
where they continue at hard labour, without intermission, till noon, when
they go to their dinners, and are seldom allowed an hour for that purpose;
their meals consist of hominy and salt, and if their master is a man of
humanity, touched by the finer feelings of love and sensibility, he allows
them twice a week a little skimmed milk, fat rusty bacon, or salt herring,
to relish this miserable and scanty fare. The man at this plantation, in
lieu of these, grants his negroes an acre of ground, and all Saturday
afternoon to raise grain and poultry for themselves. After they have dined,
they return to labor in the field, until dusk in the evening; here one
naturally imagines the daily labor of these poor creatures was over, not
so, they repair to the tobacco houses, where each has a task of stripping
allotted which takes them up some hours, or else they have such a quantity
of Indian corn to husk, and if they neglect it, are tied up in the morning,
and receive a number of lashes from those unfeeling monsters, the
overseers, whose masters suffer them to exercise their brutal authority
without constraint. Thus by their night task, it is late in the evening
before these poor creatures return to their second scanty meal, and the
time taken up at it encroaches upon their hours of sleep, which for
refreshment of food and sleep together can never be reckoned to exceed
eight.
"When they lay themselves down to rest, their comforts are equally
miserable and limited, for they sleep on a bench, or on the ground, with
an old scanty blanket, which serves them at once for bed and covering,
their cloathing is not less wretched, consisting of a shirt and trowsers of
coarse, thin, hard, hempen stuff, in the Summer, with an addition of a very
coarse woolen jacket, breeches and shoes in Winter. But since the war,
their masters, for they cannot get the cloathing as usual, suffer them to
go in rags, and many in a state of nudity.
"The female slaves share labor and repose just in the same manner, except a
few who are term'd house negroes, and are employed in household drugery.
"These poor creatures are all submission to injuries and insults, and are
obliged to be passive, nor dare they resist or defend themselves if
attacked, without the smallest provocation, by a white person, as the law
directs the negroe's arm to be cut off who raises it against a white
person, should it be only in defence against wanton barbarity and outrage.
"Notwithstanding this humiliating state and rigid treatment to which this
wretched race are subject, they are devoid of care, and appear jovial,
contented and happy. It is a fortunate circumstance that they possess, and
are blessed with such an easy satisfied disposition, otherwise they must
inevitably sink under such a complication of misery and wretchedness; what
is singularly remarkable, they always carry out a piece of fire, and kindle
one near their work, let the weather be so hot and sultry.
"As I have several times mentioned homminy and hoe-cake, it may not be
amiss to explain them: the former is made of Indian corn, which is coarsely
broke, and boiled with a few French beans, till it is almost a pulp.
Hoe-cake is Indian corn ground into meal, kneaded into a dough, and baked
before a fire, but as the negroes bake theirs on the hoes that they work
with, they have the appellation of hoe-cakes. These are in common use among
the inhabitants, I cannot say they are palateable, for as to flavor, one
made of sawdust would be equally good, and not unlike it in appearance, but
they are certainly a very strong and hearty food."
--Anburey, _"Travels through America during the War_," Vol. 2, pp. 330-5.