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| The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin
Chapter III: Mr. and Mrs. Shelby.
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
It was the design of the writer, in delineating
the domestic arrangements of Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, to show a picture of the
fairest side of slave-life, where easy indulgence and good-natured forbearance
are tempered by just discipline and religious instruction, skilfully and judiciously
imparted.
The writer did not come to her task without reading much upon both sides
of the question, and making a particular effort to collect all the most favourable
representations of slavery which she could obtain. And, as the reader may
have a curiosity to examine some of the documents, the writer will present
them quite at large. There is no kind of danger to the world in letting the
very fairest side of slavery be seen; in fact, the horrors and barbarities
which are necessarily inherent in it are so terrible that one stands absolutely
in need of all the comfort which can be gained from incidents like the subjoined,
to save them from utter despair of human nature. The first account is from
Mr. J. K. Paulding's Letters on Slavery; and is a letter from a Virginia planter,
whom we should judge, from his style, to be a very amiable, agreeable man,
and who probably describes very fairly the state of things on his own domain.
DEAR SIR, --As regards the first query,
which relates to the "rights and duties of the slave," I do not
know how extensive a view of this branch of the subject is contemplated. In
its simplest aspect, as understood and acted on in Virginia, I should say
that the slave is entitled to an abundance of good plain food; to coarse but
comfortable apparel; to a warm but humble dwelling; to protection when well,
and to succour when sick; and, in return, that it is his duty to render to
his master all the service he can consistently with perfect health, and to
behave submissively and honestly. Other remarks suggest themselves, but they
will be more appropriately introduced under different heads.
2nd. The domestic relations of master and slave.--These
relations are much misunderstood by many persons at the North, who regard
the terms as synonymous with oppressor and oppressed. Nothing can be further
from the fact. The condition of the negroes in this State has been greatly
ameliorated. The proprietors were formerly fewer and richer than
at present. Distant quarters were often kept up to support the aristocratic
mansion. They were rarely visited by their owners; and heartless overseers,
frequently changed, were employed to manage them for a share of the crop.
These men scourged the land, and sometimes the slaves. Their tenure was but
for a year, and of course they made the most of their brief authority. Owing
to the influence of our institutions, property has become subdivided, and
most persons live on or near their estates. There are exceptions to be sure,
and particularly among wealthy gentlemen in the towns; but these last are
almost all enlightened and humane, and alike liberal to the soil and to the
slave who cultivates it. I could point out some noble instances of patriotic
and spirited improvement among them. But, to return to the resident proprietors:
most of them have been raised on the estates; from the older negroes they
have received in infancy numberless acts of kindness; the younger ones have
not unfrequently been their playmates (not the most suitable, I admit), and
much good-will is thus generated on both sides. In addition to this, most
men feel attached to their property; and this attachment is stronger in the
case of persons than of things. I know it, and feel it. It is true there are
harsh masters; but there are also bad husbands and bad fathers. They are all
exceptions to the rule, not the rule itself. Shall we therefore condemn in
the gross those relations, and the rights and authority they imply, from their
occasional abuse? I could mention many instances of strong attachment on the
part of the slave, but will only adduce one or two, of which I have been the
object. It became a question whether a faithful servant, bred up with me from
boyhood, should give up his master, or his wife and children, to whom he was
affectionately attached, and most attentive and kind. The trial was a severe
one, but he determined to break those tender ties, and remain with me. I left
it entirely to his discretion, though I would not, from considerations of
interest, have taken for him quadruple the price I should probably have obtained.
Fortunately, in the sequel, I was enabled to purchase his family, with the
exception of a daughter, happily situated; and nothing but death shall henceforth
part them. Were it put to the test, I am convinced that many masters would
receive this striking proof of devotion. A gentleman but a day or two since
informed me of a similar, and even stronger case, afforded by one of his slaves.
As the reward of assiduous and delicate attention to a venerated parent, in
her last illness, I proposed to purchase and liberate a healthy and intelligent
woman, about thirty years of age, the best nurse, and, in all respects, one
of the best servants in the State, of which I was only part owner; but she
declined to leave the family, and has been since rather better than free.
I shall be excused for stating a ludicrous case I heard of some time ago.
A favourite and indulged servant requested his master to sell him to another
gentleman. His master refused to do so, but told him he was at perfect liberty
to go to the North, if he were not already free enough. After a while he repeated
the request; and, on being urged to give an explanation of his singular conduct,
told his master that he considered himself consumptive, and would soon die;
and he thought Mr. B-- was better able to bear the loss than his master.
He was sent to a medicinal spring, and recovered his health, if, indeed, he
had ever lost it, of which his master had been unapprised. It may not be amiss
to describe my deportment towards my servants, whom I endeavour to render
happy while I make them profitable. I never turn a deaf ear, but listen patiently
to their communications. I chat familiarly with those who
have passed service, or have not begun to render it. With the others I observe
a more prudent reserve, but I encourage all to approach me without awe. I
hardly ever go to town without having commissions to execute for some of them;
and think they prefer to employ me, from a belief that, if their money should
not quite hold out, I would add a little to it; and I not unfrequently do,
in order to get a better article. The relation between myself and my slaves
is decidedly friendly. I keep up pretty exact discipline, mingled with kindness,
and hardly ever lose property by thievish, or labour by runaway slaves. I
never lock the outer doors of my house. It is done, but done by the servants;
and I rarely bestow a thought on the matter. I leave home periodically for
two months, and commit the dwelling-house, plate, and other valuables, to
the servants, without even an enumeration of the articles.
3rd. The duration of the labour of the slave.--The
day is usually considered long enough. Employment at night is not exacted
by me, except to shell corn once a week for their own consumption, and on
a few other extraordinary occasions. The people, as
we generally call them, are required to leave their houses at daybreak, and
to work until dark, with the intermission of half an hour to an hour at breakfast,
and one to two hours at dinner, according to the season and sort of work.
In this respect I suppose our negroes will bear a favourable comparison with
any labourers whatever.
4th. The liberty usually allowed the slave--his
holidays and amusements, and the way in which they usually spend their evenings
and holidays.--They are prohibited from going off the estate without
first obtaining leave; though they often transgress, and with impunity, except
in flagrant cases. Those who have wives on other plantations visit them on
certain specified nights, and have an allowance of time for going and returning,
proportioned to the distance. My negroes are permitted, and indeed, encouraged,
to raise as many ducks and chickens as they can; to cultivate vegetables for
their own use, and a patch of corn for sale; to exercise their trades, when
they possess one, which many do; to catch muskrats and other animals for the
fur or the flesh; to raise bees; and, in fine, to earn an honest penny in
any way which chance or their own ingenuity may offer. The modes specified
are, however, those most commonly resorted to, and enable provident servants
to make from five to thirty dollars a-piece. The corn is a different sort
from that which I cultivate, and is all bought by me. A great many fowls are
raised; I have this year known ten dollars' worth sold by one man at one time.
One of the chief sources of profit is the fur of the muskrat; for the purpose
of catching which the marshes on the estate have been parcelled out and appropriated
from time immemorial, and held by a tenure little short of fee-simple. The
negroes are indebted to Nat Turner and Tappan for a curtailment of some of their
privileges. As a sincere friend
to the blacks, I have much regretted the reckless interference of these persons,
on account of the restrictions it has become, or been thought, necessary to
impose. Since the exploit of the former hero, they have been forbidden to
preach, except to their fellow slaves, the property of the same owner; to
have public funerals, unless a white person officiates; or to be taught to
read and write. Their funerals formerly gave them great satisfaction, and
it was customary here to furnish the relations of the deceased
with bacon, spirit, flour, sugar, and butter, with which a grand entertainment,
in their way, was got up. We were once much amused by a hearty fellow requesting
his mistress to let him have his funeral during his lifetime, when it would
do him some good. The waggish request was granted; and I venture to say there
never was a funeral the subject of which enjoyed it so much. When permitted,
some of our negroes preached with great fluency. I was present a few years
since, when an Episcopal minister addressed the people, by appointment. On
the conclusion of an excellent sermon, a negro preacher rose and thanked the
gentleman kindly for his discourse, but frankly told him the congregation
"did not understand his lingo." He then
proceeded himself, with great vehemence and volubility, coining words where
they had not been made to his hand, or rather his tongue, and impressing his
hearers, doubtless, with a decided opinion of his superiority over his white
co-labourer in the field of grace. My brother and I, who own contiguous estates,
have lately erected a chapel on the line between them, and have employed an
acceptable minister of the Baptist persuasion, to which the negroes almost
exclusively belong, to afford them religious instruction. Except as a preparatory
step to emancipation, I consider it exceedingly impolitic, even as regards
the slaves themselves, to permit them to read and write: "Where ignorance
is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." And it is certainly impolitic as regards
their masters, on the principle that "knowledge is power." My
servants have not as long holidays as those of most other persons. I allow
three days at Christmas, and at each of three other periods, besides a little
time to work their patches; or, if very busy, I sometimes prefer to work them
myself. Most of the ancient pastimes have been lost in this neighbourhood,
and religion, mock or real, has succeeded them. The banjo, their national
instrument, is known but in name or in a few of the tunes which have survived.
Some of the younger negroes sing and dance, but the evenings and holidays
are usually occupied in working, in visiting, and in praying and singing hymns.
The primitive customs and sports are, I believe, better preserved further
south, where slaves were brought from Africa long after they ceased to come
here.
6th. The provision usually made for their food and clothing,
for those who are too young or too old to labour.--My men receive
twelve quarts of Indian meal (the abundant and universal allowance in this
State), seven salted herrings, and two pounds of smoked bacon or three pounds
of pork, a-week; the other hands proportionally less. But, generally speaking,
their food is issued daily, with the exception of meal, and consists of fish
or bacon for breakfast, and meat, fresh or salted, with vegetables whenever
we can provide them, for dinner; or for a month or two in the spring, fresh
fish cooked with a little bacon. This mode is rather more expensive to me
than that of weekly rations, but more comfortable to the servants. Superannuated
or invalid slaves draw their provisions regularly once a-week; and the moment
a child ceases to be nourished by its mother, it receives eight quarts of
meal (more than it can consume) and one half-pound of lard. Besides the food
furnished by me, nearly all the servants are able to make some addition from
their private stores; and there is among the adults hardly an instance of
one so improvident as not to do it. He must be an unthrifty fellow, indeed,
who cannot realise the wish of the famous Henry IV. in regard to the French
peasantry, and enjoy his fowl on Sunday. I always keep on hand, for the use
of the negroes, sugar, molasses, &c., which, though not
regularly issued, are applied for on the slightest pretexts, and frequently
no pretext at all, and are never refused except in cases of misconduct. In
regard to clothing: the men and boys receive a winter coat and trousers of
strong cloth, three shirts, a stout pair of shoes and socks, and a pair of
summer pantaloons, every year; a hat about every second year, and a great-coat
and blanket every third year. Instead of great-coats and hats, the women have
large capes to protect the bust in bad weather, and handkerchiefs for the
head. The articles furnished are good and serviceable; and, with their own
acquisitions, make their appearance decent and respectable. On Sunday these
are even fine. The aged and invalid are clad as regularly as the rest, but
less substantially. Mothers receive a little raw cotton, in proportion to
the number of children, with the privilege of having the yarn, when spun,
woven at my expense. I provide them with blankets. Orphans are put with careful
women, and treated with tenderness. I am attached to the little slaves, and
encourage familiarity among them. Sometimes, when I ride near the quarters,
they come running after me with the most whimsical requests, and are rendered
happy by the distribution of some little donation. The clothing described
is that which is given to the crop hands. Home-servants, a numerous class
in Virginia, are of course clad in a different and very superior manner. I
neglected to mention, in the proper place, that there are on each of my plantations
a kitchen, an oven, and one or more cooks; and that each hand is furnished
with a tin bucket for his food, which is carried into the field by little
negroes, who also supply the labourers with water.
6th. Their treatment when sick.--My negroes
go, or are carried, as soon as they are attacked, to a spacious and well-ventilated
hospital, near the mansion-house. They are there received by an attentive
nurse, who has an assortment of medicine, additional bed-clothing, and the
command of as much light food as she may require, either from the table or
the store-room of the proprietor. Wine, sago, rice, and other little comforts
appertaining to such an establishment, are always kept on hand. The condition
of the sick is much better than that of the poor whites or free coloured people
in the neighbourhood.
7th. Their rewards and punishments.--I occasionally
bestow little gratuities for good conduct, and particularly after harvest;
and hardly ever refuse a favour asked by those who faithfully perform their
duty. Vicious and idle servants are punished with stripes, moderately inflicted;
to which, in the case of theft, is added privation of meat, a severe punishment
to those who are never suffered to be without it on any other account. From
my limited observation, I think that servants to the North work much harder
than our slaves. I was educated at a college in one of the free States, and,
on my return to Virginia, was struck with the contrast. I was astonished at
the number of idle domestics, and actually worried my mother, much to my contrition
since, to reduce the establishment: I say to my contrition, because, after
eighteen years' residence in the good Old Dominion, I find myself surrounded
by a troop of servants about as numerous as that against which I formerly
so loudly exclaimed. While on this subject it may not be amiss to state a
case of manumission which occurred about three years since. My nearest neighbour,
a man of immense wealth, owned a favourite servant, a fine fellow, with polished
manners and excellent disposition, who reads and writes, and is thoroughly
versed in the duties of a butler and housekeeper, in the performance
of which he was trusted without limit. This man was, on the death of his master,
emancipated with a legacy of 6,000 dollars, besides about 2,000 dollars more
which he had been permitted to accumulate, and had deposited with his master,
who had given him credit for it. The use that this man, apparently so well
qualified for freedom, and who has had an opportunity of travelling and of
judging for himself, makes of his money and his time, is somewhat remarkable.
In consequence of his exemplary conduct, he has been permitted to reside in
the State, and for very moderate wages occupies the same situation he did
in the old establishment, and will probably continue to occupy it as long
as he lives. He has no children of his own, but has put a little girl, a relation
of his, to school. Except in this instance, and in the purchase of a few plain
articles of furniture, his freedom and his money seem not much to have benefited
him. A servant of mine who is intimate with him, thinks he is not as happy
as he was before his liberation. Several other servants were freed at the
same time, with smaller legacies, but I do not know what has become of them.
I do not regard negro slavery, however mitigated, as a Utopian system,
and have not intended so to delineate it. But it exists, and the difficulty
of removing it is felt and acknowledged by all, save the fanatics, who, like
"fools, rush in where angels dare not tread." It is pleasing to
know that its burdens are not too heavy to be borne. That the treatment of
slaves in this State is humane, and even indulgent, may be inferred from the
fact of their rapid increase and great longevity. I believe that, constituted
as they are, morally and physically, they are as happy as any peasantry in
the world; and I venture to affirm, as the result of my reading and inquiry,
that in no country are the labourers so liberally and invariably supplied
with bread and meat as are the negro slaves of the United States. However
great the dearth of provisions, famine never reaches them.
P.S. It might have been stated above that on this estate there are about
one hundred and sixty blacks. With the exception of infants, there has been,
in eighteen months, but one death, that I remember--that of a man fully
sixty-five years of age. The bill for medical attendance, from the second
day of last November, comprising upwards of a year, is less than forty dollars.
The following accounts are taken from "Ingraham's Travels in the
South-west," a work which seems to have been written as much to show
the beauties of slavery as anything else. Speaking of the state of things
on some Southern plantations, he gives the following pictures, which are presented
without note or comment:
The little candidates for "field honours" are useless articles
on a plantation during the first five or six years of their existence. They
are then to take their first lesson in the elementary part of their education.
When they have learned their manual alphabet tolerably well, they are placed
in the field to take a spell at cotton-picking. The first day in the field
is their proudest day. The young negroes look forward to it with as much restlessness
and impatience as school-boys to a vacation. Black children are not put to
work so young as many children of poor parents in the North. It is often the
case that the children of the domestic servants become pets in the house and
the playmates of the white children of the family. No scene can be
livelier or more interesting to a Northerner, than that which the negro quarters
of a well-regulated plantation present on a Sabbath morning, just before church
hours. In every cabin the men are shaving and dressing; the women, arrayed
in their gay muslins, are arranging their frizzly hair--in which they
take no little pride--or investigating the condition of their children;
the old people, neatly clothed, are quietly conversing or smoking about the
doors; and those of the younger portion who are not undergoing the infliction
of the wash-tub are enjoying themselves in the shade of the trees, or around
some little pond, with as much zest as though slavery and freedom were synonymous
terms. When all are dressed, and the hour arrives for worship, they lock up
their cabins, and the whole population of the little village proceeds to chapel,
where divine service is performed, sometimes by an officiating clergyman,
and often by the planter himself, if a church member. The whole plantation
is also frequently formed into a Sabbath class, which is instructed by the
planter, or some member of his family; and often, such is the anxiety of the
master that they should perfectly understand what they are taught--a
hard matter in the present state of their intellect--that no means calculated
to advance their progress are left untried. I was not long since shown a manuscript
catechism, drawn up with great care and judgment by a distinguished planter,
on a plan admirably adapted to the comprehension of the negroes.
It is now popular to treat slaves with kindness; and those planters who
are known to be inhumanly rigorous to their slaves are scarcely countenanced
by the more intelligent and humane portion of the community. Such instances,
however, are very rare; but there are unprincipled men everywhere, who will
give vent to their ill-feelings and bad passions, not with less good-will
upon the back of an indented apprentice than upon that of a purchased slave.
Private chapels are now introduced upon most of the plantations of the more
wealthy, which are far from any church; Sabbath-schools are instituted for
the black children, and Bible-classes for the parents, which are superintended
by the planter, a chaplain, or some of the female members of the family.
Nor are planters indifferent to the comfort of their grey-headed slaves.
I have been much affected at beholding many exhibitions of their kindly feeling
towards them. They always address them in a mild and pleasant manner, as "Uncle,"
or "Aunty," titles as peculiar to the old negro and negress as
"boy" and "girl" to all under forty years of age.
Some old Africans are allowed to spend their last years in their houses, without
doing any kind of labour; these, if not too infirm, cultivate little patches
of ground, on which they raise a few vegetables--for vegetables grow
nearly all the year round in this climate--and make a little money to
purchase a few extra comforts. They are also always receiving presents from
their masters and mistresses, and the negroes on the estate, the latter of
whom are extremely desirous of seeing the old people comfortable. A relation
of the extra comforts which some planters allow their slaves would hardly
obtain credit at the North. But you must recollect that Southern planters
are men, and men of feeling, generous and high-minded, and possessing as much
of the "milk of human kindness" as the sons of colder climes--although
they may have been educated to regard that as right which a different education
has led Northerners to consider wrong.
With regard to the character of Mrs. Shelby, the writer must say a few
words. While travelling in Kentucky, a few years since, some
pious ladies expressed to her the same sentiments with regard to slavery which
the reader has heard expressed by Mrs. Shelby.
There are many whose natural sense of justice cannot be made to tolerate
the enormities of the system, even though they hear it defended by clergymen
from the pulpit, and see it countenanced by all that is most honourable in
rank and wealth.
A pious lady said to the author, with regard to instructing her slaves,
"I am ashamed to teach them what is right; I know that they know as
well as I do that it is wrong to hold them as slaves, and I am ashamed to
look them in the face." Pointing to an intelligent mulatto woman who
passed through the room, she continued, "Now, there's B--: she
is as intelligent and capable as any white woman I ever knew, and as well
able to have her liberty and take care of herself; and she knows it isn't
right to keep her as we do, and I know it too; and yet I cannot get my husband
to think as I do, or I should be glad to set them free."
A venerable friend of the writer, a lady born and educated a slaveholder,
used to the writer the very words attributed to Mrs. Shelby: "I never
thought it was right to hold slaves. I always thought it was wrong when I
was a girl, and I thought so still more when I came to join the church."
An incident related by this friend of her examination for the church, shows
in a striking manner what a difference may often exist between theoretical
and practical benevolence.
A certain class of theologians in New England have advocated the doctrine
of disinterested benevolence with such zeal, as to make it an imperative article
of belief, that every individual ought to be willing to endure everlasting
misery, if by doing so they could, on the whole, produce a greater amount
of general good in the universe; and the inquiry was sometimes made of candidates
for church-membership, whether they could bring themselves to this point as
a test of their sincerity. The clergyman who was to examine this lady, was
particularly interested in these speculations. When he came to inquire of
her with regard to her views as to the obligations of Christianity, she informed
him decidedly that she had brought her mind to the point of emancipating all
her slaves, of whom she had a large number. The clergyman seemed rather to
consider this as an excess of zeal, and recommended that she should take time
to reflect upon it. He was, however, very urgent to know whether, if it should
appear for the greatest good of the universe, she would be willing to be damned.
Entirely unaccustomed to theological speculations, the good
woman answered, with some vehemence, that "she was sure she was not;"
adding, naturally enough, that if that had been her purpose, she need not
have come to join the church. The good lady, however, was admitted, and proved
her devotion to the general good by the more tangible method of setting all
her slaves at liberty, and carefully watching over their education and interests
after they were liberated.
Mrs. Shelby is a fair type of the very best class of Southern women; and
while the evils of the institution are felt and deplored, and while the world
looks with just indignation on the national support and patronage which is
given to it, and on the men who, knowing its nature, deliberately make efforts
to perpetuate and extend it, it is but justice that it should bear in mind
the virtues of such persons.
Many of them, surrounded by circumstances over which they can have no control,
perplexed by domestic cares, of which women in free States can have very little
conception, loaded down by duties and responsibilities which wear upon the
very springs of life, still go on bravely and patiently from day to day, doing
all they can to alleviate what they cannot prevent, and, as far as the sphere
of their own immediate power extends, rescuing those who are dependent upon
them from the evils of the system.
We read of Him who shall at last come to judgment, that "His fan
is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat
into the garner." Out of the great abyss of national sin he will rescue
every grain of good and honest purpose and intention. His eyes, which are
as a flame of fire, penetrate at once those intricate mazes where human judgment
is lost, and will save and honour at last the truly good and sincere, however
they may have been involved with the evil; and such souls as have resisted
the greatest temptations, and persisted in good under the most perplexing
circumstances, are those of whom he has written, "And they shall be
mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I
will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."
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