"The principal planters in Virginia have nearly every thing they can want
on their estates. Amongst the slaves are found tailors, shoe-makers,
carpenters, smiths, turners, wheelwrights, weavers, tanners, etc. I have
seen patterns of excellent coarse woolen cloth made in the country by
slaves, and a variety of cotton manufacturers, amongst the rest good
nankeen. Cotton grows here extremely well; the plants are often killed by
frost in winter, but they always produce abundantly the first year in which
they are sown. The cotton from which nankeen is made is of a particular
kind naturally of a yellowish color.
"The large estates are managed by stewards and overseers, the proprietors
just amusing themselves with seeing what is going forward. The work is done
wholly by slaves, whose numbers are in this part of the country more than
double that of white persons. The slaves on the large plantations are in
general very well provided for, and treated with mildness. During three
months nearly, that I was in Virginia, but two or three instances of ill
treatment towards them came under my observation. Their quarters, the name
whereby their habitations are called, are usually situated one or two
hundred yards from the dwelling house, which gives appearance of a village
to the residence of every plantation in Virginia; when the estate, however,
is so large as to be divided into several farms, then separate quarters are
attached to the house of the overseer on each farm. Adjoining their little
habitations, the slaves commonly have small gardens and yards of poultry,
which are all of their property; they have ample time to attend to their
own concerns, and their gardens are generally found well stocked, and their
flocks of poultry numerous. Besides the food they raise for themselves,
they are allowed liberal rations of salted pork and Indian corn. Many of
their little huts are comfortably furnished, and they are themselves, in
general, extremely well clothed. In short their condition is by no means so
wretched as might be imagined. They are forced to work certain hours in the
day; but in return they are clothed, dieted, and lodged comfortably, and
saved all anxiety about provision for their offspring. Still, however, let
the condition of the slave be made ever so comfortable, as long as he is
conscious of being the property of another man, who has it in his power to
dispose of him according to the dictates of caprice; as long as he hears
people around him talking about the blessings of liberty, and considers
that he is in a state of bondage, it is not to be supposed that he can feel
equally happy with the freeman. It is immaterial under what form slavery
presents itself, whenever it appears there is ample cause for humanity to
weep at the sight, and to lament that men can be found so forgetful of
their own situations, as to live regardless of the blessings of their
fellow creatures.
"With respect to the policy of holding slaves in any country, on account of
the depravity of morals which it necessarily occasions, besides the many
other evil consequences attendant upon it, so much has already been said by
others, that it is needless here to make comments on the subject.
"The number of the slaves increases most rapidly, so that there is scarcely
any state but what is overstocked. This is a circumstance complained of by
every planter as the maintenance of more than are requisite for the culture
of the estate is attended with great expense. Motives ... of humanity deter
them from selling the poor creatures, or turning them adrift from the spot
where they have been born and brought up, in the midst of friends and
relations.
"What I have here said, respecting the condition and treatment of slaves,
appertains, it must be remembered, to those only who are upon the larger
plantations in Virginia; the lot of such as are unfortunate enough to fall
into the hands of the lower class of white people, and of hard task-masters
in towns, is very different. In the Carolinas and Georgia again, slavery
presents itself in very different colors from what it does even in its
worst form in Virginia. I am told that it is no uncommon thing there, to
see gangs of negroes staked at a horse race, and to see these unfortunate
beings bandied about from one set of drunken gamblers to another for days
together. How much to be deprecated are the laws which suffer such abuses
to exist! Yet these are the laws enacted by the people who boast of their
love of liberty and independence, and who presume to say, that it is in the
breasts of Americans alone that the blessings of freedom are held in just
estimation."--_Isaac Weld, Jr., "Travels through the States of North
America and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada," 1795, 1796, and
1797._ (London, 1799.)