Slave Life in Georgia - African American History

Slave Life in Georgia 99
they
24.03.2006
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will knock up and die. But they never seem to know when we are over-worked,
or to care about it when they do know. If we fall off our work, they call us idle,
and whip us up to their mark. They look upon us only as working cattle, but
seem to act on the principle that there are no bounds to human endurance. Half
the floggings I have had at any one time would have killed the strongest horse.
Our huts, or what are called the "nigger quarters," are only of logs, with a
flooring of mud, like I have described in the opening chapter of this narrative.
The wind and the rain come in, and the smoke will not go out. We are
indifferently clad, being nearly naked half our time; and our doctor, when we
are sick, is generally some old "Aunt" or "Uncle" who has "caught" a little
experience from others; and that not of the best. Our food is insufficient, and of
bad quality. We never get but two meals a day: breakfast at twelve, and supper
when our work is done. The general allowance is a peck of Indian corn a week,
which may cost at the rate of about a shilling a bushel. It ought to be good,
sound corn; but, more frequently than not, it is shrivelled up, and does not give
any thing like what it ought in meal. Once a fortnight, or perhaps
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once a week, we get about two ounces to a quarter of a pound of old bacon,
which is generally alive with "skippers," or honey-combed by them. If we did
not steal, we could scarcely live. I believe every master is plundered of corn,
hogs, chickens, turkeys, and such like, to a very large extent, by his slaves. They
are forced to do it. Hunger drives them to it, though they know they will be
flogged if they are found out. But the fear of punishment, instead of deterring
them from committing thefts, only makes them more cunning in trying not to be
found out.
I could say a good deal, too, about the laws, but I should have to write a large
book if I did. One thing I know, and that includes all. The laws are made for the
master, not for the slave. How should it be otherwise, when, in the eye of the
law, the slave is only a "chattel?" It is all nonsense to say that the law protects
the slave. It does no such thing for the slave; indeed, a coloured free man cannot
give evidence against a white man, so that even murder on the person of a slave
cannot be brought home to the man who commits it. The law says you may give
a slave thirty-nine lashes if he is found roaming about without a pass. I warrant