The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

AMERICAN SLAVERY.

( From the Times.)
What is slavery " A slave," says Dr. Noah
Webster, in his dictionary published at New York,
" is a person wholly subject to the will of another ;
one who has no will of his own, but whose person
and services are wholly under the control of an-
other." The learned lexicographer—and surely at
New York men should be acquainted with the
rights of the subject—proceeds to inform us that in
the early ages of the world prisoners of war were
considered and treated as slaves. " The slaves of
modern times," he adds, " are generally purchased
like horses or oxen." Our own Dr. Johnson de-
fines a slave as being one " mameipated to a master"
—not a freeman—a dependent--one who has lost
the power of resistance." Mr. Charles Richardson,
on the other hand, considers a slave as a person
" who is reduced to captivity—to servitude--to
bondage • who is bound or compelled to serve, la-
bour, or toil for another." There is always some
little trouble about a definition, and probably it re-
quires the cobbling and filing of more than one
generation to produce anything like a perfect one.
There are, however, certain conditions of life which
any lexicographer would endeavour to include in
his dragnet, if he were attempting to give a defini-
tion of slavery. We are all agreed about the Uncle
Toms and coloured population of the southern states
of the American Union. They are slaves—not only
in name but in fact—kindly treated, we believe, in
the majority of instances—but still esentially slaves.
When we endeavour to go a little further we find
ourselves considerably embarrassed. A man is the
slave of his own bad passions,—of his lust after gain
or power. But this will scarcely do, for by enlarg-
ing the definition too much the essence and reality
of the thing to be defined is altogether lost.
It may perhaps be better to begin at the other
end, and ascend from particulars to generals.
Granting that the negro gangs who are worked
on the cotton grounds of the southern states
of North America, or in the sugar planta-
tions of Brazil, are slaves, in what way should
we speak of persons who are circumstanced in the
manner we are about to relate ? Let us consider
them as inhabitants of a distant region— say of
New Orleans—no matter about the colour of their
skins, and then ask ourselves what should be our
opinion of a nation in which such things are
tolerated. They are of a sex and age the least
qualified to struggle with the hardships of their
lot—young women, for the most part, between 16
and 30 years of age. As we would not deal in ex-
aggerations, we would premise that we take them
at their busy season, just as writers upon American
slavery are careful to select the season of cotton-
picking and sugar-crushing as illustrations of their
theories. The young female slaves, then, of whom
we speak, are worked in gangs in ill-ventilated
rooms, or rooms that are not ventilate) at all, for
it is found by experience that,.if air be admitted,
it brings with it " blacks" of another kind,
which damage the work upon which the seamstresses
are employed. Their occupation is to sew from
morning, till night and night till morning—stitch,
stitch, stitch, without pause—without speech—
without a smile—without a sigh. In the gray of
the morning they must be at work—say at 6 o'clock
—having a quarter of an hour allowed for breaking
their fast. The food served out to them is scanty
and miserable enough, but still, in all probability,
more than their fevered system can digest. We do
not, however, wish to make out a case of starva-
tion • the suffering is of another kind—equally
dreadful of endurance. From 6 o'clock, then, till
11 it is stitch, stitch. At 11 a small piece of dry
bread is served to each seamstress, but still she
must stitch on. At 1 o'clock 20 minutes are allowed
for dinner—a slice of meat and a potato, with a glass
of toast-and-water to each workwoman. Then again
to work—stitch, stitch—until 5 o'clock, when 15
minutes are again allowed for tea. The needles are
then set in motion once more—stitch, stitch—until
9 o'clock, when 15 minutes are allowed for supper
—a piece of dry bread and cheese, and a glass of
beer. From nine o'clock at night until one, two,
and three o'clock in the morning, stitch, stitch ; the
only break in this long period being a minute or
twe—just time enough to swallow a cup of strong
tea, which is supplied lest the young people should
" feel sleepy." At three o'clock a.m., to bed ;at
six o'clock a.m., out of it again to resume the duties
of the following day. There must be a good deal
of monotony in the occupation.
But when we have said that for certain months
of the year these unfortunate young persons are
worked in the manner we describe, we have not
said all. Even during the few hours allotted to
sleep--should we not rather say to a feverish cessa-
tion from toil ?—their miseries continue. They are
cooped up in sleeping-pens, ten in a room which
would perhaps be sufficient for the accommodation
of two persons. The alternation is from the tread-
mill—and what a treadmill !—to the Black Hole of
Calcutta. Not a word of remonstrance is allowed,
or is possible. The seamstresses may leave the mill,
no doubt, but what awaits them on the other side of
the door ?—starvation, if they be honest—if not, in
all probability, prostitution, and its consequences.
They would scarcely escape from slavery that way.
Surely this is a very terrible state of things, and
one which claims the anxious consideration of the
ladies of England, who have pronounced themselves
so loudly against the horrors of negro slavery in the
United States. Had this system of oppression
against persons of their own sex been really exer-
cised in New Orleans, it would have elicited from
them many expressions of sympathy for the suffer-
ers, and of abhorence for the cruel taskmasters who
could so cruelly overwork wretched creatures so
unfitted to the toil. It is idle to use any further
mystification in the matter. The scenes of misery
we have described exist at our own doors, and in
the most fashionable quarters of luxurious Lon-
don. It is in the dressmaking and millinery
establishments of the " West-end" that the
system is steadily pursued. The continuous
labour is bestowed upon the gay garments
in which the "ladies of England" love to
adorn themselves. It is to satisfy their whims and
caprices that their wretched sisters undergo these
days and nights of suffering and toil. It is but
right that we should confess the fault does not lie
so much at the door of the customers as with the
principals of these establishments. The milliners
and dressmakers of the metropolis will not employ
hands enough to do the work. They increase their
profits from the blood and life of the wretched
creatures in their employ. Certainly the prices
charged for articles of dress at any of the great West-
end establishments are sufficiently high—as most
English heads of families know to their cost—to
enable the proprietors to retain a competent staff
of workpeople, and at the same time to secure a very
handsome profit to themselves. Wherein, then,
lies the remedy? Will the case of these poor
seamstresses be bettered if the ladies of England
abstain partially, or in great measure, from giving
their usual orders to their usual houses ? In that
case it may be said some of the seamstresses will
be dismissed to starvation, and the remainder will
be overworked as before. We freely confess we
do not see our way through the difficulty ; for we
hold the most improbable event in our social
arrangements to be the fact that a lady of fashion
will employ a second-rate instead of a first-rate
house for the purchase of her annual finery. The
leading milliners and dressmakers of London have
hold of English society at both ends. They hold
the ladies by their vanity and their love of fine
clothes, and the seamstresses by what appears to
be their interest, and by their love of life. Now,
love of fine clothes' and love of life are two very
strong motive springs of human action.
A correspondent who has addressed us upon this
subject suggests that the ladies of England—the
censurers of American slavery—with the Duchess
of Sutherland at their head, .the
refuse to give
their patronage to
any
houses in which twelve-
hour system was not strictly adhered to. We con-
fess we see diffienitiee
in the way, but not greater
than " women's vie
might overcome 2 if fairly
principals, the seamstresses, are all women.
brought to bear won the question. The custom-
ers, the
They are more competent to
deal with each other
than men could by any possibility be. If the Suther-
land-house Committee would fairly
u
out their design with
343 the ex-
ample, and carry
wholesale
difficulty vigilance, we doubt not they could execute the
co
task. They did not .k fromgi the
raantua-
difficulty of emancipating
Unitedthe 3,000,000
or
4,000,000 negroes Londotates---whY
hesitate at grappling with
the
existence of the
thg
makers who are dependent for their
the goodwill and patronage of their customers ?
No doubt their intelligence will find
. a way out of
difficulties which puzzle the masculine brain.
yve
should be glad indeed to see any effective move-
ment afoot which would compel the milliners of the
metropolis to employ a sufficient .number of hands,
and consequently to work only for a limited num-
ber of hours. God knows, twelve hours of labour
and confinement are quite sufficient for any young
woman to go through in the course of a day. For
ourselves, we can but point to other climates where
toil meets with its appropriate reward, and urge
these unfortunates to leave their native shores as
soon as passage-money can be scraped together.
Those who go will find a better England at the
other side of the globe, and these who remain will
find the market in a more wholesome condition.
Almost every week we have to record a strike for
increase of wages among certain classes of male
labourers--it is time that the turn of the over-
worked women had come.
-

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