Swearing, gambling and drunkenness, are the most common vices among Southern men; and slander, detraction, and a species of low detestable swindling in business transactions, are the vices most obvious in the North. The better part of Southern society are regulated and controlled, to a great extent, by certain laws of honor and rules of social etiquette. A Southerner is more likely to inquire, is it honorable or dishonorable, than is it morally right or wrong? They rigidly observe those rules and regulations which govern society, in their social intercourse. I will close this chapter with some remarks on slave labor; its effects on the agricultural interests of the South, &c.
It is a trite remark that slave labor is unproductive, when compared with labor performed by free white citizens; and that the agricultural interests of the country have suffered by the introduction of slave labor, &c.
The fact is admitted by all, but the reason is not very clear to every one. Many cannot comprehend, why it is, that the farmer who pays his laborers nothing, should be less prosperous than his neighbor, who pays his laborers from ten to fifteen dollars per month. The idea that those who work slaves, pay nothing for their labor; or in other words, that slave labor costs a man nothing, is incorrect. If a farmer breeds and raises slaves, it is at a cost of at least a thousand dollars per slave. If he purchases a slave with his money, the slave frequently costs him one thousand dollars. If we suppose his money worth ten per cent interest, per annum, the amount of the interest on the purchase money, is one hundred dollars per annum. Here is eight dollars and thirty-three and one-third cents per month, that the farmer is paying for labor. To this add fifty dollars per annum for clothing, viz., four dollars and sixteen and two-third cents per month; making an aggregate of twelve dollars and fifty cents per month, that the farmer expends for slave labor. During a residence of forty four years in the South, I never knew the time when white laborers could not be procured for that amount, and frequently for less. To this we may fairly add at least twenty-five per cent for loss of time by sickness, loss of slave property by death, physician’s bills, &c., so that we may put down slave labor at fifteen dollars per month. Fifty per cent more, than white labor ordinarily costs in the slave states. This is a fair statement of the case. But the disadvantages of slave labor do not stop here. As a general rule, land cultivated by white laborers, will produce from twenty-five to fifty per cent more than land cultivated by slave labor. This is owing to the careless, slovenly manner in which slave labor is performed. To this we may add the destruction of farming utensils and implements of husbandry, over and above what occurs in the hands of white laborers; and also the injury inflicted on horses, mules and oxen; the loss of stock for the want of proper attention, regular feeding, &c.
None can comprehend the force of my remarks so well, as the practical farmer. Well does he understand the vast expense incurred, and the loss that is sustained, by the careless and reckless wear and tear, and destruction of farming utensils and machinery — the improper treatment of horses — inattention to hogs, cattle, &c. Slaves are remarkable for their listlessness and indolence, and the little interest they manifest in anything. Many of them perform their round of labor with as little apparent concern or interest, as the horses or mules which they drive before them. There are, I admit, exceptions, but as a general rule, my remarks hold good. I never owned a negro, but I frequently employed them as cooks, washerwoman, &c., and many years observation satisfied me, that as a general rule, that when left to themselves, they consumed, or rather wasted, one-third more precisions than would have sufficed for my family under the management and supervision of an economical white woman.
It is a notorious fact, well known to every one who has had opportunities of making observations, that in those parts of the United States where the operations of farming have been confided mostly to slaves, the lands are exhausted of their fertility and have become barren and unproductive. Some lands are now in this condition, which were originally the finest in the United States. Eastern Virginia is a good sample of the effects of slave labor on the fertility of lands. This all results from the ignorance, carelessness and inattention of those to whom the operations of farming are confided. All soils are capable of improvement by judicious culture, and the interests of farmers, individually and collectively, as well as the interest of every American citizen, requires at their hands to so cultivate their lands as to augment their fertility; and not solely with a view to their present productiveness. It is a duty incumbent on them as good citizens; a duty they owe to themselves; to their posterity; to the nation; to the world.
CHAPTER VI.
There is yet another evil growing out of slavery which I must notice before I bring my remarks to a close on this topic. I allude to the degraded condition of a portion of the white population in the slave States. There are, throughout the slave States, a class of the white population who are so debased by ignorance and vice, that the slaves are in many respects their superiors. They are about on a par with the free negroes. About the larger cities in the North, a similar class may be found, a majority of whom are free negroes and foreigners. The poverty, vice, ignorance and degradation of this class of persons, in the South, is a sore evil, and demands the attention of every Christian philanthropist in the Southern States. This, I conceive, has originated partly from the competition of slave and free labor, but mainly, I presume, from the association of this class with the African population. There are other agencies, no doubt, which have contributed to debase and brutalize this class of the white population, but I judge, that the causes above indicated, are the principal ones. Some will, no doubt, attribute this in part to the disparity between the lower classes in the South, and what they choose to term the slaveholding aristocracy. They will contend, that the vast difference between the higher and lower classes in the South, results in the deterioration of the latter. There is some plausibility in the argument, and it may be that there is some truth in it, but such individuals have forgotten that the same agency is in active operation in the free as well as the slave States. I am aware that men of wealth do not feel themselves under any obligation to associate with their less fortunate neighbors, the world over. It is one of the characteristics of human nature. But men of wealth in the Southern part of the United States, are not more haughty, distant and overbearing, than the same class in other parts of the Union. On the contrary, there is an urbanity about Southern slaveholders, that enables the lower classes to approach them with less embarrassment than they feel when they attempt to approach the frigid, stiff, and less polite Northerner. Gentlemen and ladies, in the Southern part of the United States, are accustomed to treat every one that approaches them, rich or poor, with a degree of civility and courteous ease, that is unknown among the same class in any other part of the civilized world. Their blandness and kindness cannot fail to make the poor man feel happier and better. If he is forced to approach them for the purpose of soliciting aid, he is seldom turned away empty. They are universally liberal and hospitable. Having practiced medicine among them twenty years, I have no recollection of a solitary instance in which any of them made a long face, when I made out a long bill for services. I will here relate some anecdotes which will serve to illustrate Southern character. Being pressed at a certain time for two hundred dollars, and not having time at my disposal to collect it, and having rendered important services for a wealthy citizen near the town in which I resided; I seated myself at my table, with an intention of making out a bill against him that would liquidate the claim against myself. With considerable difficulty, I at length screwed up the bill to two hundred dollars, and off I posted to his house. I found him at home and presented the bill; not without some misgivings, that perchance he might take exceptions to the amount charged for services. But I was disappointed, for after looking over the bill a few moments, he remarked, “why sir, you have not charged me half enough; you ought to have charged me five hundred dollars.” He paid the bill, made me a present of fifty dollars, and told me that if I needed mone
y at any time to “call and get it.” At another time I was employed by a gentleman to attend his son, who had been, for several years previous to that time, subject to epileptic attacks. The fee, per visit, was stipulated at the outset, and I was paid for each visit before leaving the house, according to contract. I attended the young gentleman near two years, and during the time was pressed for money and borrowed one hundred dollars of the old gentleman, and executed my note for that amount. Some years after I had dismissed my patient, I called for my note, and presented the amount, principal and interest. The gentleman handed me the note, but refused to receive the money, and when I pressed him to take it, he replied, “No sir, I shall not receive the money, I always intended to give it to you, provided that you cured my son, and I presume he is well.”
On a bright sunny morning, when a boy, I was seated on a rock watching a flock of lambs, that were frisking and skipping about in a meadow. An old lady by name S., and a gentleman by name M., met within a few yards from where I sat. After the usual salutations; “Well, Mrs. S.,” said the gentleman, “I understand that you have sustained a heavy loss by fire.” “Yes,” replied Mrs. S. “Well I am very sorry to hear it, and I intend to send you a wagon load of provisions, &c., shortly.” “I thank you Mr. M., but don’t trouble yourself about the matter, for we have already received twice as much as we lost by the fire.” I will relate yet another.
A wealthy gentleman being informed that a poor Irish widow in his neighborhood was likely to suffer for provisions; went immediately to her cabin in order to ascertain her condition. When about taking his leave, he remarked to the widow, “if she would send over, she could have some Irish potatoes, and any other articles of food that her family needed.”
“Bless your dear soul,” replied the widow, “when you undertake to do a good and charitable deed, and sarve the Lord Jasus, if you expect a blessing on your soul, don’t half do the thing, and leave a poor widow to do the other half. Go home and send the potatoes, and send some meat to cook with the potatoes, and send meal to make bread, to eat with the meat; and then may ye expect a blessing on yer soul.” The gentleman returned home and complied with her request.
Whatever the faults of Southern slaveholders may be, and they are many, these are redeeming traits in their characters; nor are they so devoid of sympathy for their slaves, as is generally supposed in the North. I know that they are represented by a certain class in the North, as a set of tyrants, ruling their slaves with a rod of iron. All such representations are untrue, for a majority of them seldom correct an adult slave with the rod, except as a punishment for some flagitious crime, for which a white man would be fined or imprisoned, or else, confined in the State penitentiary.
Go to the field, and there you will find the aged slave and his master, busily engaged in the same employment; listen to their kind and familiar converse. Direct your steps from thence to the parlor, and there behold the aged house-woman and her mistress, seated side by side. Listen to the soothing and affectionate tones of this amiable lady, and behold the happy, joyful countenance, of this aged African. Cast your eyes around the splendid mansion, and behold the indiscriminate groups of white and black children, chattering, skipping, jumping, wrestling or rolling over the fine Turkey carpet. If freedom was tendered to these aged slaves, what think you, would they accept it? No, they would spurn the offer with indignation. They are happier than their masters or mistresses, and they well know it. They are provided for; partake of the same food, while they are exempt from the cares which perplex and embarrass, and too often embitter the lives of those who have charge of families. A large majority of the slaves in the Southern States are contented and happy. This will appear to many, no doubt, improbable. Nevertheless, it is true. If African character was generally better understood, it would silence much of that clamor and agitation of the subject, which is so annoying to all patriotic, peaceable and good citizens. The African desires but little, and aspires to but little; consequently it requires but little to render, him happy. Happiness consists in the gratification of our appetites, passions and propensities. Those of the African, occupy but a small space; therefore but little is necessary to satisfy him. On the contrary; the appetites, passions and propensities of the Anglo-Saxon are boundless; therefore, much is requisite for their happiness, or otherwise to satisfy them. For this reason, an individual may be miserable, though he possess all the comforts and luxuries that the world can afford; and he may be happy with a bare sufficiency of coarse food and coarse clothing. He that is satisfied with what he has, is happy; be it little or much. Slaves, as a general rule, are happy in a state of servitude, because in a state of servitude they have all that they desire — all to which they aspire. Hence the evils of slavery, so far as the slave is concerned, are more in appearance than reality, because the African is happy under circumstances, in which an Anglo-Saxon would be miserable.
In the present condition of the African race they are happier as slaves, than they would be as free men, because they are incapable of providing for themselves, and are therefore incompetent to enjoy the rights and privileges of free men.
I could fill a volume with anecdotes, which ought to make those who vilify and traduce slaveholders blush for shame; but I have neither time nor space at present. I will, however, relate one and pass on. I visited professionally, many years ago, an aged infidel. A more benevolent man I have seldom seen. Humanity appeared to be a constituent element in his composition, and kindness an innate principle of his heart. In one corner of the yard, in a log cabin, lived a pious old slave with his family. It was the custom of the old slave to pray in his family every night before retiring to bed. Old massa was never forgotten in his prayers. He never failed to present him before a throne of grace. The old infidel never doubted the sincerity of his slave, nor yet the purity of his motives, though he sincerely believed that it was all delusion. He had listened for many years to the prayers of this slave, and could distinctly hear the slave pray for “old massa.” Some years after my first visit to this worthy old gentleman, he was suddenly taken very ill. I was again summoned to his aid. All my efforts availed nothing; he must die. All hopes of his recovery were abandoned. Then did the prayers of the poor old slave become long and loud. “Massa must die, and must he die unprepared? O Lord, spare him — O Lord, convert him — O Lord, save him,” was the prayer of the slave. While the slave was praying an arrow pierced the infidels heart, and he cried aloud for mercy. The slave was invited into the house, and he knelt at the bed-side of his dying master, and there petitioned a throne of grace in his behalf. The old infidel made a profession of religion, and shortly afterwards died happy.
Complete Works of Harriet Beecher Stowe Page 914
