Anon., "Management of Negroes" As the proper management of our negroes is a subject not second in importance to any discussed in your columns, I hope it will not be deemed amiss if, in giving my views, I enter somewhat into detail. That on some points I shall be found to differ in opinion from some of your readers and correspondents, is to be expected. I shall not, however, object to any one's expressing his dissent, provided it be done in the spirit of kindness.
De Bow's Review, XIX (September, 1855), pp. 358-63.
358Our first obligation is undoubtedly to supply them with suitable food and clothing. Here the question arises, What is sufficient food? - for, as there is a difference in practice, there must be also in opinion, among owners. The most common practice is to allow each hand that labors, whether man, woman, or child, (for a boy or girl ten years old or over, who is healthy, and growing rapidly, will eat quite as much as a full-grown man or woman,) 3 1/2 pounds of bacon, if middling, or 4 pounds if shoulder, per week, and bread at will - or, if allowanced in this also, a peck of meal is usually thought sufficient; with plenty of vegetables, this allowance is quite sufficient; but if confined to meat and bread, negroes who work hard will eat a peck and a half of meal per week.
As I live on the farm, and occasionally inspect the cooking for the negroes, I see that they have enough, but nothing to waste; and I speak from personal observation when I state that, if without vegetables, they will eat this quantity.
With very little trouble we can always, during spring and summer, have plenty of cabbage, kale or mustard for greens; also squashes, Irish potatoes, and beans; in fall and winter, sweet potatoes, turnips, pumpkins, and peas. I believe there is no labor devoted to a provision crop that pays equal to that bestowed on a plain kitchen garden. As there is no vegetable of which negroes are more fond than of the common field pea, it is well to save enough of them in the fall to have them frequently during the spring and summer. They are very nutritious, and if cooked perfectly done, and well seasoned with red pepper, are quite healthy. If occasionally a little molasses be added to the allowance, the cost will be but a trifle, while the negro will esteem it as a great luxury. As most persons feel a great reluctance at paying out money for little luxuries for negroes,
359 I would suggest the propriety of sowing a small patch of wheat for their benefit. The time and labor will never be missed. Many persons are in the habit of giving out the allowance to their negroes once a week, and requiring them to do their own cooking. This plan is objectionable on various accounts. Unless better provided for taking care of their provisions than is common among negroes, some will steal the meat from others, and the loser is compelled for the remainder of the week to live on bread, or the master must give him an additional allow ance. The master cannot expect full work from one who is but partially fed; while, on the other hand, if he will give the loser an additional supply, the negroes soon learn to impose upon his kindness, by being intentionally careless, or by trading off their meat and pretending it has been stolen. Another objection is, that some are improvident, and will get through with their whole allowance of meat before the week is gone, and, consequently, are a part of their time without any.To making the negroes do their own cooking the objections are still more weighty. It encroaches upon the rest they should have, both at noon and at night. The cooking, being done in a hurry, is badly done; being usually burnt outside while it is raw within; and, consequently, is unhealthy. However abundant may be the supply of vegetables, the hands have no time to cook them, and consequently are badly fed, and have not the strength to do as much labor as they could otherwise perform with comfort.
The plan pursued by the writer is, to weigh out a certain amount of meat for each day, a portion of which is given to the cook every morning, to be boiled for dinner, and with it are cooked as many vegetables and as much bread as the negroes will eat; all of which is usually divided among them by the foreman. In the evening, enough is cooked for both supper and breakfast; so that by the time we are done feeding stock supper is ready, and the hands have only to eat and they are ready for bed. When the nights are long, the meat for supper and breakfast is sometimes divided without cooking. In addition to the above, the negroes, during spring and summer, usually get plenty of milk once a day. During fall and winter the quantity of milk is more limited, and what molasses they get they are made to win by picking cotton.
To make one negro cook for all is a saving of time. If there be but ten hands, and these are allowed two hours at noon, one of which is employed in cooking their dinner, for all purposes of rest, that hour had as well be spent in ploughing or hoeing, and would be equal to ten hours work of one hand; whereas tile fourth of that time would be sufficient for one to cook. for all. As there are usually a number of negro children to take care of, the cook can attend to these, and see that the nurses do their duty. I would add that, besides occasional inspection, it is made obligatory on the overseer frequently to examine the cooking and see that it is properly done.
One of your correspondents has endeavored to prove that lean meat is more nutritious than fat. It is, however, a well known fact that the more exhausting the labor, the fatter the meat which the negro's appetite craves, and it agrees well with him. This I regard as one of the instincts of nature, and think experience is opposed to your correspondent's theory.
As to clothing, less than three suits a year of every day clothes will not keep a negro decent, and many of them require more. Children, particularly boys, are worse than grown persons on their clothes, and, consequently, require more of them. I have never been able to keep a boy, from ten to sixteen years of age, decently clothed with less than four suits a year; nor would that answer if some of the women were not compelled to do their mending. It is also important that women who work out should, in addition to their usual clothing, have a change of drawers for winter.
As no article of water proof, suitable for an outter garment, and sufficiently cheap for plantation use, is to be had in the stores, the writer would suggest the propriety of having for each hand a long apron with sleeves, made of cotton osnaburgs and coated with well boiled linseed oil. In the fall, when picking cotton, this apron may be worn early in the morniring until the dew dries off, then laid aside. By making it sufficiently loose across the breast, it can be used as an over coat at any timne that the negro is necessarily exposed to the rain.
Patching may be done by the women on wet days, when they are compelled to be in tle house. Or when a breeding woman gets too heavy to go to the field, she may be made to do a general patching for all of the hands.
360 In furnishing negroes with bed clothes it is folly to buy the common blankets, such as sell for a dollar or a dollar and a quarter. They have but little warmth or durability. One that will cost double the money will do more than four times the service.
Besides whole clothes, negroes should have clean clothes; and in order to do this, they should have a little time allowed them to do their washing. As it is not convenient for all hands to wash at the same time, they may be divided into companies, and a certain evening assigned to each company. Those whose time it is to wash should be let off from tile field earlier than the rest of the hands, and on that night should be free from all attention to feeding stock. The rule works equal; for those who have to do extra feeding on one night are in their turn exempt. It should, however, be an invariable rule not to allow any of them - to wash on Saturday night, for they will be dirty on the Sabbath, and render as an excuse that their clothes are wet. On some large plantations, it is the daily business of one hand to wash and mend for the rest.
In building houses for negroes it is important to set them well up, (say 2 1/2 or 3 feet from the ground to the sills,) so as to be conveniently swept underneath. When thus elevated, if there should be any filth under them, the master or over seer in passing can see it and have it removed. The houses should be neat and comfortable, and as far as circumstances will allow, it looks best to have them of uniform size and appearance; 16 by 18 feet is a convenient size for a small family.
If there be many children in a family, a larger house will be necessary. Many persons, in building negro houses, in order to get clay convenient for filling the hearth and for mortar, dig a hole under the floor. As such excavations uniformly become a common receptacle for filth, which generates disease, they should, by no means, be allowed. In soils where the clay will make brick, the saving of fuel, and the greater security against fire, render it a matter of economy to build brick chimneys. In all cases, the chimneys should be extended fully two feet above the roof, that there may be less danger in discharging sparks. They are also less liable to smoke. In consequence of negro houses being but one story high, the lowness of the chimneys renders them very liable to smoke from currents of wind driving down the flue. This may be effectually prevented by the following simple precaution: Around the top of the chimney throw out a base some eight or ten inches wide, and from the outer edge of this draw in the cap at an angle of thirty-five or forty degrees with the horizon, until true with the flue. No matter in what direction the wind blows, on striking this inclined plane the current will glance upwards and pass the chimney, without the possi bility of blowing it down. On page 454 of Report of Commissioner of Patents, for 1844, will be found plates illustrative of my meaning. The wings of the angles, as explained in the report, are, however, unnecessary, as the remedy is effectual without them, though they evidently increase the draught. A coat of whitewash, inside and out, every summer, adds very much to the neat and com fortable appearance of the buildings, and is also, by its cleansing and purifying effect, conducive to health. The cost is almost nothing, as one barrel of good lime will whitewash a dozen common sized negro houses, and any negro can put it on.
If there be not natural shades sufficient to keep the houses comfortable, a row of mulberries, or such other shades as may suit the owner's fancy, should, by all means, be planted in front, and so as to protect the houses on the south and southwest.
The negroes should be required to keep their houses and yards clean; and in case of neglect should receive such punishment as will be likely to insure more cleanly habits in future.
In no case should two families be allowed to occupy the same house. The crowding a number into one house is unhealthy. It breeds contention; is destructive of delicacy of feeling, and it promotes immorality between the sexes.
In addition to their dwellings, where there are a number of negroes, they should be provided with a suitable number of properly located water closets. These may contribute an income much greater than their cost, by enabling the owner to prepare poudrette; while they serve the much more important purpose of cultivating feelings of delicacy.
There should, at all times, be plenty of wood hauled. Surely no man of any pretensions to humanity would require a negro, after having done a heavy day's work, to toil for a quarter of a mile under a load of wood before he can have a
361 fire. An economical way of supplying them with wood is to haul logs instead of small wood. This may be most conveniently done with a cart and pair of hooks, such as are used for hauling stocks to a saw-mill. Such hooks will often come in use, and the greater convenience and expedition of hooks instead of a chain will soon save more time than will pay for them.
The master should never establish any regulation among his slaves until he is fully convinced of its propriety and equity. Being thus convinced, and having issued his orders, implicit obedience should be required and rigidly enforced. Firmness of manner, and promptness to enforce obedience, will save much trouble, and be the means of avoiding the necessity for much whipping. The negro should feel that his master is his lawgiver and judge; and yet is his protector and friend, but so far above him, as never to be approached save in the most respectful manner. That where he has just cause, he may, with due deference, approach his master and lay before him his troubles and complaints; but not on false pretexts or trivial occasions. If the master be a tyrant, his negroes may be so much embarrassed by his presence as to be incapable of doing their work properly when he is near.
It is expected that servants should rise early enough to be at work by the time it is light. In sections of country that are sickly, it will be found conductive to health in the fall to make the hands eat their breakfast before going into the dew. In winter, as the days are short and nights long, it will be no encroachment upon their necessary rest to make them eat breakfast before daylight. One properly taken care of, and supplied with good tools, is certainly able to do more work than under other circumstances. While at work they should be brisk. If one is called to you, or sent from you, and he does not move briskly, chastise him at once. If this does not answer, repeat the dose and double the quantity. When at work I have no objection to their whistling or singing some lively tune, but no drawling tunes are allowed in the field, for their motions are almost certain to keep time with the music.
In winter a hand may be exposed all day, but not so in summer. In the first of the spring a hand need not be allowed any more time at noon than is sufficient to eat. As the days get longer and warmer, a longer rest is necessary. In May, from one and a-half to two hours; in June, two and a-half; in July and August, three hours rest at noon. If the day is unusually sultry, a longer time is better. When the weather is oppressive, it is best for all hands to take a nap at noon. It is refreshing, and they are better able to stand pressing the balance of the day. Hands, by being kept out of the sun during the hottest of the day, have better health, and can do more work through the season than those who take what they call a good steady gait, and work regularly from morning till night. They will certainly last much longer.
If the corn for feeding is in the shuck, the husking should be done at noon and all corn for milling should, during summer, be shelled at noon, that as the nights are short the hands may be ready for bed at an early hour.
If water be not convenient in the field where the hands are at work, instead of having it brought from a distance in buckets, it will be found more convenient to have a barrel fixed on wheels and carried full of water to some convenient place, and let a small boy or girl, with a bucket, supply the hands from the barrel. Some persons make each negro carry a jug or large gourd full of water to the field every morning, and this has to serve for the day.
During fall and winter, hands may be made to pack at night what cotton has been ginned in the day. The women may be required to spin what little roping will be necessary for plough lines, and to make some heavy bed quilts for themselves. Besides this there is very little that can properly be done of nights.
One of the most important regulations on a farm is to see that the hands get plenty of sleep. They are thoughtless, and, if allowed to do so, will sit up late of nights. Some of them will be up at all hours, and others, instead of going to bed, will sit on a stool or chair and nod or sleep till morning. By half past nine or ten o'clock, all hands should be in bed, and unless in case of sickness, or where a woman has been up with her child, if any one is caught out of bed after that hour, they should be punished.
A large-sized cow bell that could be heard two miles, and would not cost more than three or four dollars, would serve not only as a signal for bed time, but also for getting up of a morning, for ceasing work at noon and resuming it after dinner. Where the distance to be heard is not great, a common bar of cast steel,
362 hung up by passing a wire through one end. may be struck with a hammer, and will answer in place of a bell.
Most persons allow their negroes to cultivate a small crop of their own. For a number of reasons the plan is a bad one. It is next to impossible to keep them from working their crops on Sabbaths. They labor at nights when they should be at rest. There is no saving more than to give them the same amount, for like all other animals he is only capable of doing a certain amount of labor without injury. To this point he may be worked at his regular task, and any labor beyond this is an injury to both master and slave. They will pilfer to add to what corn or cotton they may have made. If they sell their crop and trade for themselves they are apt to be cheated out of a good portion of their labor. They will have many things in their possession under color of purchase which we know not whether they obtained honestly. As far as possible it is best to place temptation out of their reach. We have all their time and service, and can surely afford to furnish them with such things as they ought to have. Let us spend on them in extra presents as much as their crop (if they had one) would yield. By this means we may keep them from whiskey and supply them with articles of service to a much greater extent than they would get if allowed to trade for themselves, while we avoid the objections above stated.
Believing that the strolling about of negroes for a week at a time, during what are called Christmas holidays, is productive of much evil, the writer has set his face against the custom. Christmas is observed as a sacred festival. On that day as good a dinner as the plantation will afford is served for the negroes, and they all sit down to a common table, but the next day we go to work. From considerations both of morality and needful rest and recreation to the negro, I much prefer a week in July, when the crop is laid by, to giving three days at Christmas.
On small farms, where there are very few negroes, it may be proper to allow them to visit to a limited extent, but on large plantations there can be no want of society, and consequently no excuse for visiting except among themselves. If allowed to run about, they will rarely ever take wives at home. The men wish an excuse for absence, that under pretext of being at their wife's house they may run about all over the neighborhood. Let it be a settled principle that men and their wives must live together. That if they cannot be suited at home they must live single, and there will be no further difficulty. If a master has a servant and no suitable one of the sex for a companion, he had better give an extra price for such an one as he would be willing to marry, than to have one man owning the husband and another the wife. It frequently happens where husband and wife belong to different persons that one owner sells out and wishes to move. Neither is willing to part with the servant, or if one will consent, the other is not able to buy; consequently, the husband and wife must part. This is a sore evil, surely much greater than restricting to the plantation in making a selection.
In the infliction of punishment, it should ever be borne in mind that the object is correction. If the negro is humble and appears duly sensible of the impropriety of his conduct, a very moderate chastisement will answer better than a severe one. If, however, he is stubborn or impertinent, or perseveres in what you know to be a falsehood, a slight punishment will only make bad worse. The negro should, however, see from your cool, yet determined manner, that it is not in consequence of your excited temper, but of his fault, and for his correction that he is punished. As a general principle the legal maxim that "it is better ninety and nine guilty persons should escape than one innocent should suffer," is correct. It, however, has its exceptions. If, for instance, the negroes take to killing your pigs or stealing your chickens and eggs, and you cannot ascertain who are guilty, it is only necessary to put the whole "crowd " on half allowance of meat for a few days and the evil will end. This remedy is better than a perpetual fuss and suspicion on all.
In the intercouse of negroes among themselves, no quarrelling nor opprobrious epithets, no swearing nor obscene language, should ever be allowed. Children should be required to be respectful to those who are grown, more especially to the old, and the strong should never be allowed to impose on the weak. Men should be taught that it is disgraceful to abuse or impose on the weaker sex, and if a man should so far forget and disgrace himself as to strike a woman, the women should be made to give him the hickory and ride him on a rail. The wife, however, should never be required to strike her husband, for fear of its unhappy influences over their future respect for and kindness to each other.
363 The negroes should not be allowed to run about over the neighborhood; they should be encouraged to attend church, when it is within convenient distance. Where there are pious negroes on a plantation who are so disposed, they should be allowed and encouraged to hold prayer meetings among themselves; and when the number is too great to be accommodated in one of the negro houses, they should have a separate building for the purpose of worship. Where it can be done, the services of a minister should be procured for their special business. By having the appointments for preaching at noon, during summer, and at night during winter, the preacher could consult his own convenience as to the day of the week, without, in the least, interfering with the duties of the farm.A word to those who think and care but little about their own soul or the soul of the negro, and yet desire a good reputation for their children. Children are fond of the company of negroes, not only because the deference shown them makes them feel perfectly at ease, but the subjects of conversation are on a level with their capacity; while the simple tales, and the witch and ghost stories so common among negroes, excite the young imagination and enlist the feelings. If in this assocociation the child becomes familiar with indelicate, vulgar, and lascivious manners and conversation, an impression is made upon the mind and heart which lasts for years -- perhaps for life. Could we, in all cases, trace effects to their real causes, I doubt not but many young men and women of respectable parentage and bright prospects, who have made shipwreck of all their earthly hopes, have been led to the fatal step by the seeds of corruption which, in the days of childhood and youth, were sown in their hearts by the indelicate and lascivious manners and conversation of their father's negroes. If this opinion be correct, an effort to cherish and cultivate the feelings and habits of delicacy and morality among our negroes is forcibly urged upon us by a regard for the respectability of our children, to say nothing of the prospects of both child and servant in another world, and of our own responsibility when the great Master shall require an account of our stewardship.
I have given you, Messrs. Editors, an outline of my own manaagement. If any of your correspondents will point out a more excellent way, he will benefit your readers, and much oblige your friend.
AGRICOLA.