The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1860-11-15

. at the cook house for their pone of col
bread, which constituted their allowan,
for supper, to be washed down with W
ter. From this time no slave is permi
ted to leave bis cabin until the turn o,
bell rings in the morning. The secon
morning bell, which is the signal f
turning out to work, is rupg at the ca
hest dawn; when the men, boys, CIR
and women that have no small children
are at once marshalled and on their Wa
to the cotton field and the women VIII
have children under ten are hurried o
with them to The children house, wher
the little things are committed to tn
charge of an old slave appointed for lh
purpose, who makes the larger children
take care of the helpless ones Here tn
nursing mothers were set to gathcrin,
cotton near the house, and the rest sen
after the gang. The children unde
thr"o mouths old, were TO be nursed fou
times a day; between three and 81,
months, three times; from six to nine
months, twice day; and once day
thereafter until weaned, at the end oil
twelve months.
This species of slave stock is too valu
able to be exposed to careless or unskil
ful management. The old nurse has hel
rules laid down. whicE she must rigidly
observe. Care is taken that the mother
does not nurse her infant while her blood
is heated by toiling in the sun.
When the dew is off, an old female
slave brings out all the children over six,
to gather cotton. In her hand is bum
die of switches, "to teach the young idea
how to shoot" though she stimulates
them more with other appliances than
with the rod ; such as the fear of the
overseer and black driver, and encourag-
ing them to race with one another in
cotton picking. These juvenile laborers
are generally between the ages of six and
ten; all over ten 60 out with the main
gang.
The dews are very heavy in the Mis-
sissippi Valley. When nearly of, the
slaves breakfast comes out in cart,
which consists of box Of bread and
meat, accompanied with barrel of wa.
ter. Con this plantation, a half pound
of meat was the daily allowance for each
working slave.) The black driver then
calls to the slaves to bring their cotton
to the baskets, change their wet clothes
aud get t cir breakfast, the prescribed
allowance of which he deals out to each
one, while they seat themselves on the
ground, or on the ed ge of basket. to eat.
Their dinner is brought out and dis
tributed in like manner, about one
o clock.
The above is fair specimen of life on
a cotton plantation, during the cotton
picking season, which extends through
period of near y five months. Other
crops, such as corn, peas and pumpkins,
are also to be gathered :'"''"e Pa,' "
the same r~.,od, which is generally done
=. wet weather, when cotton could not
be dried, if picked.
Toward the close of the cotton picking
season, when the weather becomes cold
and wet, and the slaves need more blood
stirring exercise to protect them from
such diseases as colds, rheumatism and
pneumonia, the strong men are put to
maulng rails, clearing land, or ditching,
and the feebler ones, together with the
females, to clearing off the stalks from
the corn and cotton fields.
When a slave is sick he applies to the
overseer, who examines his pulse and
tongue, and, if infammatory symptoms
appear, sends him to the sick house, to
the care of an old slave, who gives him
such medicine as the ovcrseer prescribes.
But if no visibie symptoms of disease can
be detected he turns a deaf ear to ali
his complaints, curses and sometimes
fogs him for playing possun' to deceive
him, and drives him out to his hard toll,
weeping and groaning, perhaps with real
disease ami suffering. Should he appeal
to the black driver, as his last resort, for
pity and favor, his reply would probably
be: "Do you think | is fool, niger. to
let white folks cut up my hide? No,
sir-ee-dis nigger not goin' to be kotch.
ed in dat manner. Ii you not able to
work, go to white folks, aud if white
folks send you back to work, you am got
to work. Dat am dis niggcrs business
wi dis whip. So don't fool you time
gruntin' to dis niger, l tell you cause
if you does, you is goin to grunt more
worse 'eu dat, frs ting you know"
Now, suppose this to be a case Of real
ick"ess and suffering. and not feigned-
and there are nultitudes of just such
cases, he is responsible for this afro
cious cruelty? Not the poor black dri,
yer, surely; he is impelled by inexorable
necessity. Is it the overseer? Should
he adopt different course, his occupa.
tion would be gone his work would new,
er be done; every slave that could get
rid Of work by feigniug sickness would
be sure to do it. No; it is the system
which is the legitimate source of all this
cruelty--a system which has been bias
phemously lauded as the offspring of God
and indicative of the highest type of civ
ilization Voluntary labor, stimulated
by hope or desire, has no organism tt
feigh sickness. The question Of ability
to work may be safely left to the labore1
himself. But the victim of co-erced Ia
Dor cannot be trusted thus-his drive
must decide the question for him, ant
he is very liable to decide it cruelty
though unihteutionally. But in charg
ing this cruelty npon the system, which
10 mere abstraction, We charge it, b,
implication, upon all who sustain tn
system, either directly or by connivance
j. r.
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