Just to add briefly to Henry's point. I think there is a myth masters had no regard for the lives of their slaves. This is mostly simply not true. Slaves were valuable property, and masters took care to insure that their valuable property was well maintained -- enough food,clothing,shelter, and even medical care to keep slaves alive and healthy enough to work. This, of course plantation records show expenses for slave maintenance. Bu maintaining "harmony" was not the object of these expenditures. It was maintaining valuable property.
But, let's not forget that as property, slaves were subject to the whims and cruelty of masters. Two of Thomas Jefferson's nephews in Kentucky chopped up a slave with an axe until he was dead, but were never charged with a crime because there were not white witnesses. But some masters allowed their white neighbors to winess their barbaric behavior.
Consider the record in the Virginia Court of Appeals of the case of Souther v. Commonwealth, 7 Gratt (Va.) 672 (1851): "
The prisoner was . . .. convicted of murder in
the second degree, . . . and was sentenced to the penitentiary for five years,
. . . The murder consisted in the killing of a negro man slave by the name of
Sam, the property of the prisoner, by cruel and excessive whipping and torture,
inflicted by Souther, aided by two of his other slaves, on the 1st day of
September 1849. .. .
The indictment contains fifteen counts, and sets
forth a case of the most cruel an excessive whipping and torture. The negro was
tied to a tree and whipped with switches. When Souther became fatigued with the
labour of whipping, he called upon a negro man of his, and made him cob Sam
with a shingle. He also made a negro woman of his help to cob him. And after
cobbing and whipping, he applied fire to the body of the slave; about his back,
belly and private parts. He then caused him to be washed down with hot water,
in which pods of red pepper had been steeped. The negro was also tied to a log
and to the bed post with ropes, which choked him, and he was kicked and stamped
by Souther. This sort of punishment was continued and repeated until the negro
died under its infliction."
Souther was clearly unusual -- a sadist who destroyed his own property for the apparent pleasure of doing so. He was sentenced to five years in jail and of course not deprived of his other slaves, who were presumably waiting for him when he got out of prison.
----
Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, NY 12208
518-445-3386 (p)
518-445-3363 (f)
[log in to unmask]
www.paulfinkelman.com
--- On Fri, 7/31/09, Henry Wiencek <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Henry Wiencek <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] slaves
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Friday, July 31, 2009, 11:23 AM
Craig Kilby writes that "Contrary to some popular myths about slavery: the
accounts of estates are replete with expenses for clothing, food, medical
care and burial expenses for slaves. . . . The picture this project has
painted is one of relative harmony. . . "
But there is no myth-puncturing here. It was routine for owners to pay for
their slaves' clothing, food, and medical care. To me this doesn't suggest
unusual harmony but routine maintenance.
Perhaps I misunderstand the posting.
Henry Wiencek
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