Mr. J P Adams,
Enjoyed reading your comments on life as a slave. With today's unemployment rate, you make it seem an attractive alternative. Free food, a place to stay, etc.. But, from what I have discovered and read on the subject of American Slavery in the South, the vast majority of slaves kept in the southern United States had a bit of a different reality than of what you speak. 50 percent of slave babies died within 12 months of being born, as 25 percent of white babies. The average birth weight of a slave was 5.5 lbs. or less. Their diet was farinaceous. A slave was at some form of labor by age three. The over all labor time was over 3000 hours or more per year. The cruelties of slavery were as harsh as any slave communities of the twentieth century, even those that existed in Germany in the 1930 – 40ss. Case in point:
"There was yet, however, another aspect of the question, which was that it sometimes clearly not the interest of the owner to prolong the life of his slaves; as in the case of inferior or superannuated labors, or the very notorious instance in which some of the owners of sugar plantations stated that they found it better worth their while to work off (i.e., kill with labor) a certain proportion of their workforce, and replace them by new hands every seven years, than work them less severely and maintain them in diminished efficiency for an indefinite length of time."
Source: Frances Anne Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation in 1838-1839., Brown Thrasher Books, The University of Georgia Press, 1984. page 242.
And education of slaves? If I recall, I believe there were municipal codes and state laws that prohibited the education of slaves throughout the south.
I hope this can be clarified and be of benefit for instruction on the conditions of the vast majority of those individuals who were enslaved in North America for over two hundred and fifty years.
If there are facts to the contrary, please inform. I would find it a disservice to perpetrate a myth or continue repeating misleading information with regard to those who lived as slaves.
J H Barnard
-----Original Message-----
>From: John Philip Adams <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: May 8, 2012 1:50 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention Of The Civil War
>
>A couple of issues
>1. Cost of feeding and clothing your slaves. Raising kids is really
>expensive, so why would feeding, clothing, medical, training and management
>of farm personnel be cheaper than a couple of cotton gins and cotton
>pickers.
>2. By 1860 a LOT of the 'slaves' were truly family members. I don't
>care what a lot of the whites say, the slaves were our kin. As mother would
>say, " if you see a black Hawkins, they are probably one of ours". Ask the
>Jefferson's and that small fight.
>3. Besides, the training and education of the slaves was forced upon
>even the most reluctant white farm owner.
>4. it was just going away.
>5. the Yankees were having their problems with manufacturing help. the
>iron mills and manufacturers were having to change from child and women
>laborers.
>6. lastly, the population was escaping the eastern problems and moving
>to the Midwest. Native American problems or not, the population was voting
>with their feet, black and white, by escaping the age old problems of the
>east.
>Texas was a great melting pot then, as it is today.
>John P. Adams
>Texas
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jeff Southmayd
>Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 1:41 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention Of The
>Civil War
>
>I would think based on accounts of how expensive slaves were to purchase and
>provide for, and accounts of how lazy and shiftless many were, Southerners
>would be pleased to substitute technology for the problems and expense
>involved in keeping slaves in their work force. With a ready market like
>Brazil for the sale of their slaves, they would have an out to recoup what
>they had into their slaves. While there may not have been a widespread
>movement for emancipation in the South, there was a widespread discussion on
>what to do with the burgeoning slave population which was becoming more and
>more problematic, to the extent that the northern Southern states were
>moving away from slavery and selling them to the deep Southern states.
>
>SOUTHMAYD & MILLER4 OCEAN RIDGE BOULEVARD SOUTH PALM COAST, FLORIDA 32137
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>> Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 10:44:50 -0700
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention
>> Of The Civil War
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> much different set of facts. Indian removal involved about 30,000 persons,
>overland, over a period of time. Many self-removed before the infamous
>forced removals. Plus they provided their own transport.
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: "Kimball, Gregg (LVA)" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 1:24 PM
>> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Peculiar Institution's End Without The
>> Intervention Of The Civil War
>>
>> Where did the United States find the money to remove Native Americans to
>the West? As Bill Freehling has pointed out, it at least demonstrates that
>the national government had the political will to execute a removal program
>given the right incentives. I freely admit that there were many differences
>in the two circumstances, but it gave a certain veneer of plausibility to
>colonization.
>>
>> Gregg Kimball
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Finkelman, Paul
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 1:05 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Peculiar Institution's End Without The
>> Intervention Of The Civil War
>>
>> Hard to imagine where would have found the ships and money for a mass
>exodus to Liberia.
>>
>> ========================================
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Kilby
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 12:34 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Peculiar Institution's End Without The
>> Intervention Of The Civil War
>>
>> I wrote that, and it was in connection Lincoln's initial plan to send
>freed slaves to Liberia. I clearly stated that that was veering off topic of
>this thread. Lincoln abandoned that plan due to vocal opposition from the
>black community.
>>
>> That sentence was part of a larger "conjecture" of how slavery would
>> have ended had the South won, whenever it ended, if it would ever end
>> (and it surely would.)
>>
>> Craig Kilby
>>
>> On May 7, 2012, at 11:53 PM, Finkelman, Paul
><[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> > One post suggested that "hundreds of thousands of blacks" might have
>gone to Liberia? On what boats? How many ships were around to move them?
>Who would pay for it?
>>
>>
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