Chapter XXIII: The Force of the Law (2)

The violence of city mobs is a thing peculiar to no time or place. Rural Southern lynch law in that period, however, was in large part a special product of the sparseness of population and the resulting weakness of legal machinery, for as Olmsted justly remarked in the middle 'fifties, the whole South was virtually still in a frontier condition.[42] In _post bellum_ decades, on the other hand, an increase of racial antipathy has offset the effect of the densification of settlement and has abnormally prolonged the liability to the lynching impulse.

[Footnote 42: F.L. Olmsted, _Journey in the Back Country_, p. 413.]

While the records have no parallel for Madame Lalaurie in her systematic and wholesale torture of slaves, there were thousands of masters and mistresses as tolerant and kindly as she was fiendish; and these were virtually without restraint of public authority in their benevolent rule. Lawmakers and magistrates by personal status in their own plantation provinces, they ruled with a large degree of consent and cooperation by the governed, for indeed no other course was feasible in the long run by men and women of normal type. Concessions and friendly services beyond the countenance and contemplation of the statutes were habitual with those whose name was legion. The law, for example, conceded no property rights to the slaves, and some statutes forbade specifically their possession of horses, but the following characteristic letter of a South Carolina mistress to an influential citizen tells an opposite story: "I hope you will pardon the liberty I take in addressing you on the subject of John, the slave of Professor Henry, Susy his wife, and the orphan children of my faithful servant Pompey, the first husband of Susy. In the first instance, Pompey owned a horse which he exchanged for a mare, which mare I permitted Susy to use after her marriage with John, but told them both I would sell it and the young colt and give Susy a third of the money, reserving the other two thirds for her children. Before I could do so, however, the mare and the colt were exchanged and sent out of my way by this dishonest couple. I then hoped at least to secure forty-five dollars for which another colt was sold to Mr. Haskell, and sent my message to him to say that Susy had no claim on the colt and that the money was to be paid to me for the children of Pompey. A few days since I sent to Mr. Haskell again who informed me that he had paid for the colt, and referred me to you. I do assure you that whatever Susy may affirm, she has no right to the money. It is not my intention to meddle with the law on the occasion, and I infinitely prefer relying on you to do justice to the parties. My manager, who will deliver this to you, is perfectly acquainted with all the circumstances; and [if] after having a conversation with him you should decide in favor of the children I shall be much gratified."[43]

[Footnote 43: Letter of Caroline Raoul, Belleville, S.C., Dec. 26, 1829, to James H. Hammond. MS. among the Hammond papers in the Library of Congress.]

Likewise where the family affairs of slaves were concerned the silence and passiveness of the law gave masters occasion for eloquence and activity. Thus a Georgian wrote to a neighbor: "I have a girl Amanda that has your servant Phil for a husband. I should be very glad indeed if you would purchase her. She is a very good seamstress, an excellent cook--makes cake and preserves beautifully--and washes and irons very nicely, and cannot be excelled in cleaning up a house. Her disposition is very amiable. I have had her for years and I assure you that I have not exaggerated as regards her worth.... I will send her down to see you at any time."[44] That offers of purchase were no less likely than those of sale to be prompted by such considerations is suggested by another Georgia letter: "I have made every attempt to get the boy Frank, the son of James Nixon; and in order to gratify James have offered as far as five hundred dollars for him--more than I would pay for any negro child in Georgia were it not James' son."[45] It was therefore not wholly in idyllic strain that a South Carolinian after long magisterial service remarked: "Experience and observation fully satisfy me that the first law of slavery is that of kindness from the master to the slave. With that ... slavery becomes a family relation, next in its attachments to that of parent and child."[46]

[Footnote 44: Letter of E.N. Thompson, Vineville, Ga. (a suburb of Macon), to J.B. Lamar at Macon, Ga., Aug. 7, 1854. MS. in the possession of Mrs. A.S. Erwin, Athens, Ga.]

[Footnote 45: Letter of Henry Jackson, Jan. 11, 1837, to Howell Cobb. MS. in the possession of Mrs. A.S. Erwin, Athens, Ga.]

[Footnote 46: J.B. O'Neall in J.B.D. DeBow ed., _Industrial Resources of the South and West_, II (New Orleans, 1852), 278.]

On the whole, the several sorts of documents emanating from the Old South have a character of true depiction inversely proportioned to their abundance and accessibility. The statutes, copious and easily available, describe a hypothetical régime, not an actual one. The court records are on the one hand plentiful only for the higher tribunals, whither questions of human adjustments rarely penetrated, and on the other hand the decisions were themselves largely controlled by the statutes, perverse for ordinary practical purposes as these often were. It is therefore to the letters, journals and miscellaneous records of private persons dwelling in the régime and by their practices molding it more powerfully than legislatures and courts combined, that the main recourse for intimate knowledge must be had. Regrettably fugitive and fragmentary as these are, enough it may be hoped have been found and used herein to show the true nature of the living order.

The government of slaves was for the ninety and nine by men, and only for the hundredth by laws. There were injustice, oppression, brutality and heartburning in the régime,--but where in the struggling world are these absent? There were also gentleness, kind-hearted friendship and mutual loyalty to a degree hard for him to believe who regards the system with a theorist's eye and a partisan squint. For him on the other hand who has known the considerate and cordial, courteous and charming men and women, white and black, which that picturesque life in its best phases produced, it is impossible to agree that its basis and its operation were wholly evil, the law and the prophets to the contrary notwithstanding.

INDEX

Acklen, Joseph A.S., plantation home of rules of, for overseers Africa, West, _see_ Guinea Agriculture, _see_ cotton, indigo, rice, sugar and tobacco culture Aiken, William, rice plantation of Aime, Valcour, sugar plantation of Amissa, enslaved and restored to Africa Angolas, tribal traits of revolt of Antipathy, racial, Jefferson's views on in Massachusetts in North and South compared Northern spokesmen of Arabs, in the Guinea trade Asiento Azurara, Gomez E.

Baltimore, negro churches in
Barbados,
emigration from,
to Carolina
to Jamaica
founding of
planters' committee of
slave laws of,
sugar culture in
Belmead plantation
Benin
Black codes,
administration of
attitude of citizens toward
local ordinances
origin of,
in Barbados
in the Northern colonies
in Louisiana
in South Carolina
in Virginia
tenor of,
in the North
in the South
Bobolinks, in rice fields
Bonny
Boré, Etienne de, sugar planter
Bosman, William, in the Guinea trade
Branding of slaves
Bristol, citizens of, in the slave trade
Burial societies, negro
Burnside, John, merchant and sugar planter
Butler, Pierce,
the younger,
slaves of, sold

Cain, Elisha, overseer Cairnes, J.E., views of, on slavery Calabar, New Calabar, Old Cape Coast Castle Capers, William, overseer Capital, investment of, in slaves Charleston, commerce of, free negroes in industrial census of racial adjustments in, problem of slave misdemeanors in Denmark Vesey's plot Churches, racial adjustments in, rural urban Clarkson, Thomas, views of, on the effects of closing the slave trade Columbus, Christopher, policy of Concubinage Congoes, tribal traits of Connecticut, slavery in, disestablishment of Cooper, Thomas, views of, on the economics of slavery Corbin, Richard, plantation rules of Coromantees, conspiracy of, tribal traits of Corporations, ownership of slaves by Cotton culture, sea-island introduction of, methods and scale of upland, engrossment of thought and energy by improvements in methods and scale of stimulates westward migration Cotton gin, invention of Cotton mills slave operatives in Cotton plantations, _see_ plantations, cotton Cotton prices, sea-island, upland, chart facing Cottonseed, oil extracted from used as fertilizer Covington, Leonard, planter, migration of Creoles, Louisiana Criminality among free negroes among slaves Cuba

Dabney, Thomas S., planter, migration of Dahomeys Dale, Sir Thomas Davis, Joseph and Jefferson, plantation policy of Delaware, slaves and free negroes in forbids export of slaves Depression, financial, in Mississippi in Virginia Dirt-eating, among Jamaica slaves Discipline, of slaves Diseases, characteristic, in Africa among Jamaica slaves venereal Doctors, black, in Jamaica in South Carolina in Virginia "Doctoress," slave, in Georgia Drivers (plantation foremen) Driving of slaves to death, question of Dutch, in the slave trade Dutch West India Company

Early, Peter, debates the closing of the foreign slave trade East India Company, in the slave trade Eboes, tribal traits of El Mina Elliott, William, planter economic views of Ellsworth, Oliver Emancipation, _see_ manumission Encomiendia system, in the Spanish West Indies England, policy of, toward the slave trade Epitaph of Peyton, a slave Evans, Henry, negro preacher

Factorage, in planters' dealings
Factorage, in the slave trade,
in American ports
in Guinea
Farmers,
free negro
white,
in the Piedmont
in the plantation colonies
segregation of
in the westward movement
Federal Convention
Festivities, of slaves
Fithian, Philip V., observations by
Foremen, plantation
Foulahs
Fowler, J.W.,
cotton picking records of
plantation rules of
Franklin and Armfield, slave-dealers
Free negroes,
antipathy toward
criminality among
discriminations against
emigration projects of
endorsements of
kidnapping of
legal seizure of, attempts at
mob violence against
occupations of, in Augusta
in Charleston
in New Orleans and New York
prominent characters among
processes of procuring freedom by
qualities and status of
reënslavement of
secret societies among
slaveholding by
French, in the slave trade
Fugitive slaves, _see_ slaves, runaway,
rendition, in the Federal Constitution,
act of 1793
Funerals, negro

Gaboons, tribal traits of Gabriel, insurrection led by Gadsden, Christopher Gambia, slave trade on the Gang system, in plantation work Genoese, in the slave trade Georgia, founding of, free negress visits slave imports forbidden in, permitted in restricted by uplands, development of Gerry, Elbridge Gibson, Arthur H., views of, on the economics of slavery Godkin, Edwin L., on the migration of planters Gold Coast Goodloe, Daniel R., views of, on slavery Gowrie, rice plantation Grandy King George, African chief, wants of Guiana, British, invites free negro immigration cotton culture in Dutch Guinea, coastal explorations of life and institutions in slave exports from, beginnings of, volume of tribal traits in _See also_ negroes and slave trade

Hairston, Samuel, planter Hammond, James H., planter and writer Hampton, Wade, planter Harrison, Jesse Burton, views of, on slavery Hawkins, Sir John, adventures of, in the slave trade Hayti (Hispaniola) Hearn, Lafcadio, on sugar-cane harvesting Helper, Hinton R., views of, on slavery Hemp Henry, Patrick Henry, Prince, the Navigator Heyward, Nathaniel, planter Hodgson, W.B., planter Holidays, of slaves, plantation urban Hundley D.R., on slave traders

Immigrants, in the South
_See also_ Irish
Importations of slaves
prohibition of
Indians, enslaved,
in New England
in South Carolina
in West Indies, subjugated by Spaniards
Indigo culture,
introduction of,
in Georgia
in South Carolina
methods of
Insurrection of slaves, _see_ slave plots
Irish, labor of, on plantations

Jamaica,
capture and development of
maroons of
nabobs, absentee
plantations in
runaway slaves in, statistics of
Jefferson, Thomas,
on the foreign slave trade
on negroes and slavery
Jennison, Nathaniel, prosecution of
Job Ben Solomon, enslaved and restored to Africa
Joloffs

Kentucky, settlement of Kidnapping of free negroes King, Rufus Kingsley, Z., plantation experience of

Lace, Ambrose, slave trader Lalaurie, Madame Lamar, John B., planter Las Casas, Bartholomeo de la Laurens, Henry, factor and planter Liberia Lincecum, Gideon, peregrinations of Lindo, Moses, indigo merchant Liverpool, in the slave trade, types of ships employed Loango Lodges, negro London, in the slave trade London Company Loria, Achille, views of, on slavery economics Louisiana, cotton culture in, slave laws of sugar culture in L'Ouverture, Toussaint Lucas, Eliza Lynchings

M'Culloch, J.R., views of, on slavery McDonogh, John, manumission by, method of Macon, Nathaniel Madagascar, slaves procured from Malaria, in Africa in South Carolina Mandingoes, tribal traits of Manigault, Charles, planter rules of Manors in Maryland Manumission, of slaves Maroons, negro, in Jamaica on the Savannah River Martinique Maryland, founding of free negroes in manors in plantations in slave imports prohibited by slaveholdings in, scale of slavery in, projects for the disestablishment of Massachusetts, in the slave trade slavery in abolition of Matthews, Samuel, planter Medical attention to slaves Mercer, James, planter Merolla, Jerom, missionary Middle passage, _see_ slave trade, African Midwives, slave Migration Mill, John Stuart, views of, on slavery Miller, Phineas, partner of Eli Whitney Misdemeanors of slaves, in Charleston Missouri, decline of slavery in settlement of Mississippi, depression in product of long-fibre cotton in sale of slaves from Mobs, violence of, toward free negroes Mocoes, tribal traits of Molasses Moore, Francis, Royal African Company factor Moors Mulattoes Mules

Nagoes, tribal traits of
Negro traits,
American
Angola
Congo
Coromantee
Ebo
Gaboon
Mandingo
Nago
Paw Paw
Whydah
Negroes, _see_ antipathy, black codes, church adjustments, free
negroes, funerals, plantation labor, plantation life, slave plots
slave trade, slaveholdings, slavery, slaves
New England,
in the slave trade,
type of ships employed
slavery in,
disestablishment of
New Jersey,
slavery in,
disestablishment of
New Netherlands, slavery in
New Orleans, as a slave market,
free negroes in
New York,
negro plots in
slavery in,
disestablishment of
Nicholson, J.S., views of, on slavery
Nobility, English, as Jamaica plantation owners
North Carolina,
early conditions in
sentiment on slavery
Northrup, a kidnapped free negro, career of
Northwest Territory, prohibition of slavery in

Oglethorpe, James,
administers the Royal African Company
founds Georgia
restores a slave to Africa
Olmsted, Frederick L., observations by
Overseers, plantation, functions, salaries, and experiences of

Panics, financial, effects on slave prices
Park, Mungo, in Guinea
"Particular plantations," in Virginia
Paths, in Guinea, character of
Paw Paws, tribal traits of
Pennsylvania, slavery in,
disestablishment of
Peyton, a slave, epitaph of
Philips, Martin W.,
planter and writer
slave epitaph by
Pickering, Timothy
_Plantation and Frontier_, citation of title in full
Plantation labor
Plantation life
Plantation management
Plantation mistress
Plantation rules
Plantation system,
cherishment of slaves in
as a civilizing agency
gang and task methods in
severity in, question of
soil exhaustion in
towns and factories hampered in growth by
westward spread of
Plantation tendencies
Plantations, cotton, sea island
Plantations,
cotton,
upland,
J.H. Hammond estate
Retreat
indigo
rice,
Butler's Island
Gowrie and East Hermitage
Jehossee Island
sugar,
in Barbados,
Drax Hall
in Jamaica,
Worthy Park
in Louisiana,
Valcour Aime's estate
tobacco,
Belmead
James Mercer's estate
Planters,
absenteeism among
concern of, for slaves
dietary of
exemplified,
in J.A.S. Acklen
in William Aiken
in John Burnside
in Robert Carter
in Christopher Codrington
in Thomas S. Dabney
in Jefferson and Joseph Davis
in Samuel Hairston
in James H. Hammond
in Wade Hampton
in Nathaniel Heywood
in W.B. Hodgson
in Z. Kingsley
in John B. Lamar
in Henry Laurens
in Charles Manigault
in Samuel Matthews
in James Mercer
in A.H. Pemberton
in Martin W. Philips
in George Washington
in David R. Williams
gentility of
homesteads of
innovations by
management by
migration of
purchases of slaves by
rules of
sales of slaves by
sports of
temper of
Poor whites,
in the South,
Cairnes' assertions concerning
Portugal, activities of, in Guinea,
an appandage of Spain
negroes in
Preachers, negro
Procter, Billy, a slave, letter of
Providence, "Old," a Puritan colony in the tropics, career of
Puritans, attitude of, toward slavery

Quakers, relationship of, to slavery Quincy, Josiah

Railroad companies, slave ownership by
Randolph, Edmund, disrelishes slavery
Randolph, John, of Roanoke,
on the coasting trade in slaves
on depression in Virginia
manumits his slaves
Randolph, Richard, provides for the manumission of his slaves
Rape, by negroes in the ante-bellum South
Rats, a pest in Jamaica
Rattoons, of sugar cane
Religion, among slaves,
rural
urban
Retreat, cotton plantation
Revolution, American,
doctrines of
effects of, on slavery
Negroes in
radicalism of, waning of
Rhode Island,
in the slave trade
resolution advocating the stoppage of the slave trade
slavery in,
disestablishment of
Rice birds (bobolinks), damage from
Rice culture,
introduced into Georgia
into South Carolina
methods of
plantations in,
scale of
Rishworth, Samuel, early agitator against slavery
Rolfe, John, introduces tobacco culture into Virginia
Roustabouts, Irish,
qualities of
negro
Royal African Company
Ruffin, Edmund,
advocates agricultural reforms
views of, on slavery
Rum,
product of, in Jamaica
rations issued to slaves,
in Jamaica
in South Carolina
use of, in the Guinea trade
Runaway slaves,
general problem
of George Washington
in Georgia
in Jamaica
in Mississippi
Russell, Irwin, "Christmas in the Quarters,"
Sabine Fields, rice plantation
Sahara, slave trade across
Saluda factory, slave operatives in
San Domingo,
emigration from, to Louisiana
revolution in
Say, J.B., views of, on slavery
Sea-island cotton,
introduced into the United States
methods and scale of culture
Seasoning of slaves, in Jamaica
Secret societies, negro
Senegal, slave trade in
Senegalese, tribal traits of
Senegambia
Serfdom
Servants,
white indentured,
in Barbados
in Connecticut
in Jamaica
in Maryland
in Massachusetts
in Pennsylvania
in South Carolina and Georgia
in Virginia
revolts by
Servitude, indentured, tendencies of
Shackles, used on slaves
Shenendoah Valley
Ships, types of, in the slave trade
Sierra' Leone
Slave Coast
Slave felons
Slave plots and insurrections,
general survey of
disquiet caused by
Gabriel's uprising
in "Old" Providence
in New York
proclivity of Coromantees toward
San Domingan revolution
Stono rebellion
Nat Turner's (Southampton), revolt
Denmark Vesey's conspiracy
Slave trade, African,
the asiento
barter in
chieftains active in
closing of, by various states,
by Congress
effects of
drain of funds by
Liverpool's prominence in
the middle passage
reopening, project of
Royal African Company
ships employed in,
types of
care and custody of slaves on
tricks of
Yankee traders in
Slave trade,
domestic,
beginnings of
effects of
methods in
to Louisiana
scale of
Slave traders,
domestic,
Franklin and Armfield
methods and qualities of
reputations of, blackened
maritime
Slaveholding, vicissitudes of
Slaveholdings,
by corporations
by free negroes,
scale of, in the cotton belt
in Jamaica
in Maryland
in New York
in towns
in Virginia
on the South Carolina coast
Slavery,
in Africa
in the American Revolution
in ancient Rome
in the British West Indies
in Europe
in Georgia
in Louisiana
in the North
disestablishment of
in South Carolina
in Spanish America
in Virginia
_See also_ black codes, negroes, and plantation labor, life
and management
Slaves, negro,
artizans among
as factory operatives
birth rates of
branding of
"breaking in" of
breeding, forced, question of
capital invested in
children, care and control of
church adjustments of
conspiracies of, _see_ slave plots and insurrections
crimes of
crops of, private
dealers in, _see_ slave traders
discipline of
diseases and death rates of
driving of, to death, question of
earnings of private
felons among, disposal of
festivities of
food and clothing of
foemen among
hiring of
to themselves
holidays of
hospitals for
labor of, schedule of
laws concerning
life insurance of
manumission of
marriages of
annulment of
medical and surgical care of
plots and insurrections of
police of
preachers among
prices of
property of
protection of, from strain and exposure
punishments of
purchases of
by themselves
drain of funds, caused by
quarters of
sanitation of
rape by
religion among
revolts of, _see_ slave plots and insurrections
rewards of
rum allowances to
running away by
sales of
shackling of
social stratification among
speculation in
stealing of
strikes by
suicide of
suits by, for freedom,
concerning
temper of
torture of
town adjustments of
undesirable types of
wages of
in the westward movement
women among, care and control of
work, rates of
working of, to death, question of
Smart, William, views of, on slavery
Smith, Adam, views of, on slavery
Smith, Captain John
Smith, Landgrave Thomas
Snelgrave, William, in the maritime slave trade
Soil exhaustion
Southampton insurrection
South Carolina,
closing and reopening of the foreign slave trade in
cotton culture in
emigration from
founding of
indigo culture in
rice culture in
slave imports,
prohibited by
reopened by
slave laws of
slaveholdings in, scale of
uplands, development of
Spain,
annexation of Portugal by
asiento instituted by
negroes in
police of American dominions by
policy of, toward Indians and negroes
Spaulding, Thomas, planter
Spinners, on plantations
Spratt, L.W., views of, on conditions in South Carolina
Staples, _see_ cotton, hemp, indigo, rice, sugar and tobacco culture
and plantations
Steamboat laborers,
Irish
negro
Sugar culture,
in Barbados
in Jamaica
in Louisiana
methods and apparatus of
plantations in,
scale of
types of
in the Spanish West Indies

Task system, in plantation industry Taylor, John, of Caroline, agricultural writings of Telfair, Alexander, plantations of rules of Tennessee, settlement of Texas Thomas, E.S., bookseller, experience of Thorpe, George, Virginia colonist Tobacco culture, in Maryland method of in North Carolina plantations in, scale of types of in the uplands of South Carolina and Georgia in Virginia Towns, Southern, growth of, hampered slaves in Tucker, St. George, project of, for extinguishing slavery in Virginia Turner, Nat, insurrection led by

Utrecht, treaty of, grants the asiento to England

Van Buren, A. de Puy, observations by
Venetians, in the Levantine slave trade
Vermont, prohibition of slavery by
Vesey, Denmark, conspiracy of
Vigilance committees
Virginia,
founding and early experience of
free negroes in
plantations in,
"particular"
private
servants, indentured, in
slave crimes in
slave imports, prohibited by
slave laws of
slave revolts in
slaveholdings in, scale of
slavery,
introduced in
disestablishment in, projects of
tobacco culture in

Walker, Quork, suits concerning the freedom of Washington, George apprehensions of, concerning slave property desires the gradual abolition of slavery imports cotton as a planter West Indies, British, prosperity and decline in, progression of servile plots and insurrections in slave prices in, on the eve of abolition Spanish, colonization of negro slavery in, introduction of Weston, P.C., plantation rules of Westward movement Whitney, Eli, invents the cotton gin Whydahs, tribal traits of Williams, David R., planter Williams, Francis, a free negro, career of Women, slave, care of, in pregnancy and childbirth difficulties in controlling Working of slaves to death, question of Worthy Park, Jamaica plantation, records of

Yeomanry, white, in the South

End of Project Gutenberg's American Negro Slavery, by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips