UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

"
"
" When theyreturn to their miserable huts at
night,theyfind not there the means of comfort-
44 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
mechanic,white or colored,would call a
able
bed,nor a
solitarypartition, to separatethe sexes."
William Ladd, Esq.,Minot, Maine, President
of the American Peace Society, formerly a slaveholder
in Florida in 1835.
"
"
"
in Florida. The dwellings of the slaves
were palmettohuts,built by themselves of stakes
and
and poles țhatched with the palmetto-leaf. The
door, when they had any, was generally of the
same materialsșometimes boards found on the
The Rev. C. C. Jones,to whom we have
beach. They had no floors,no separateapartments
alreadyalluded,when taking a survey of
; except the Guinea negroes
had sometimes the condition of the negroes considered as a
a small enclosure for their ' god houses.' These fieldfor missionary effort, takes into account
huts the slaves built themselves after task and on
allthe conditions of their external life. He
Sundays."
Rev. Joseph M. Sadd, pastor Presbyterian speaks of a part of Georgiawhere as much
Church, Castile, Greene Co., N. Y., who lived in attention had been paidto the comfort of the
Missouri five years previous to 1837- "
" The slaves
livegenerally in miserable negro
huts,which as in any part of the United States.
are without
He gives
floors; and have a singleapartment only, the following picture
where
:
both sexes are herded promiscuously together." Their general mode of livingis coarse and vulgar.
Mr. George W. Westgate, member of the Congregational
Many negro houses are small,low to the
church in Quincy,Illinois, who has ground, blackened with smoke, often with dirt
spent a number of in
"
years
slave states. On old floors, and the furniture of the plainest kind. On
plantations the negro quartersare of frame and some estates the houses are framed, weatherboarded,neatlywhite-washed,and
made sufficiently
clapboards, seldom affording a comfortable shelter
from wind or rain ; their size varies from eight large and comfortable in every respect.
by ten to ten by twelve feet,and six or eight feet The improvement in the size,material and finish,
high; sometimes there is a holecut for a window, of negro houses,is extending.Occasionally they
but I never saw a sash,or glass, in any. In the new
may be found constructed of tabbyor brick.
country, and in the woods, the quarters are generally
Religious Instruction of the Negroes,p. 116.
built of logs, of similar dimensions."
Mr. Cornelius Johnson, a member of a Christian Now, admitting what Mr. Jones says, to
church in Farmington,Ohio. Mr. J. lived in wit, that improvements with regardto the
"
Mississippi in
"
1837-8. Their houses were commonly
accommodation of the negroes
are continually
built of logs; sometimes theywere framed,
making
often they had no floor ; some of them have among enlightened and Christian
two
apartments,commonly but one ; each of those peopleștill, if we take into account how
apartments contained a family. Sometimes these many peoplethere are who are neither enlightened
families consisted of a man and his wife and children,
nor Christian, how unproductive
while in other instances persons of both sexes
of
were thrown together, without any regard to family any
benefit to the master all these improvement
are,
relationship."
and how entirely, therefore,
The Western Medical Reformer,in an articleon theymust be the result either of native
the Cachexia Africana,by a Kentuckyphysician, generosity or of Christian sentimentțhe
thus speaks of the huts of the slaves : " They are
crowded together in a small hut, and sometimes
having an imperfect and sometimes no floor, and
seldom raised from the ground, ill ventilated, and
rest ; but on the cold ground they must lie
without covering, and shiver while they slumber."
Philemon Bliss,Esq., Elyria,Ohio,who lived
"
The dwellings of the slaves
are usually small open loghuts, with but one apartment,
very generally icithout floors.'"
Slaveryas It Is, p. 43.
reader may fairly
are
conclude that such improvement
the exception, rather
the rule.
surrounded with filth."
A friend of the writer,travelling in Georgia
Mr. William Leftwich,a native of Virginia, but during the last month,thus writes :
has resided most of his life in Madison Co., Alabama.
"
The dwellings of the slaves are loghuts, Upon the long line of rice and cotton plantations
from ten to twelve feet square, often without extendingalongthe railroad from Savannah
windows, doors or floors ; theyhave neither chairs,
to this city țhe negro quarters contain scarcelya
table,or bedstead."
singlehut which a Northern farmer would deem fit
Reuben L. Macy, of Hudson, N. Y.
,
a member shelter for his cattle. They are all built of poles,
of the religious societyof Friends. He lived in with the ends so slightlynotched that theyare almost
"
South Carolina in 1818-19. " The houses for the
as open as children's cob-houses (whichthey
field-slaves were about fourteen feet square, built very much resemble) ,
without a singleglazed window,
in the coarsest manner, with one room, without and with only one mud chimneyto each cluster
any chimney or flooring,with a hole in the roof to of^roin four to eight cabins. And yet
our fellow-travel
letthe smoke out."
were quietlyexpatiating upon tho
Mr. Lemuel Sapington, of Lancaster,Pa.,a native
negro'sstrangeinability to endure cold weather !
"
slave-holder."
of The
Maryland,formerlya
Let thismodern picture
descriptions generallygiven of negro quarters be comparedwith
are
correct ; the quarters are without floors, and the account
not
givenby the Rev. Horace Moulton,who
spent five years in Georgiabetween
sufficient to keepoffthe inclemencyof the weather ;
they are uncomfortable both in summer and winter."
1817 and 1824,and it will be seen, in that
state at leastțhere is some resemblance between
"
Rev. John Rankin, a native of Tennessee.
than
the more remote and more recent
practice :