{114} Fights are characterized by the most savage ferocity. Gouging, or putting out the antagonist’s eyes, by thrusting the thumbs into the sockets, is a part of the modus operandi. An extension of the optic nerve occasions great pain to the sufferer. Kicking and biting are also ordinary means used in combat; I have seen several fingers that had been deformed, also several noses and ears, which have been mutilated, by this canine mode of fighting.
December 13. To-day a crowd of people were out witnessing the immersion of seven Baptists in a pool near the town. Many of them have a genteel and gay appearance; a slight shade of the ruddy complexion makes me suppose that the climate of this place is the best that I have known on this side of the Atlantic.
Dec. 15. Last night a man took the Sheriff of Fayette county aside, on pretence of business, and immediately commenced an attack on him. The officer of the law drew a dirk, and wounded the assailant.
I note down the prices of live stock, labour, some of the necessaries of life, &c.
| Dollars | Cents | ||
| Price of a young male negro, arrived at puberty, | 800 | — | |
| Hire of ditto per annum, with provisions and clothes, | 100 to 150 | — | |
| Price of a young female ditto, | 600 | — | |
| Hire of ditto, per annum, with provisions and clothes, | 120 | — | |
| Price of a work-horse, from | 100 to 120 | — | |
| Price of a fine saddle horse, | 200 to 300 | — | |
| Hire of a four horse team and driver, without provisions, | 4 | — | |
| Hire of a saddle horse per day, | 1 | — | |
| Mechanics per day, with board, | 3/4 to 1 | — | |
| Labourers per day, with board, | 1/2 to | 75 | |
| Wheat per bushel, | 1 to | 75 | |
| Rye, | 50 | ||
| Corn, (Maize) | 371/2 | ||
| {115} Oats, | — | 331/3 | |
| Potatoes, | — | 331/3 | |
| Flour per 100 lbs. | 3 | — | |
| Beef, per pound, from | 5 to 6 | ||
| Pork, ditto, from | 4 to 5 | ||
| Mutton, ditto, from | — | 3 to 4 | |
| Turkeys, from 50 cents | to 1 | — | |
| Hens and Ducks, | 121/2 | ||
| Eggs per dozen, | — | 121/2 | |
| Butter per lb. | — | 25 | |
| Cheese, ditto, | — | 18 | |
| Whisky per gallon, | — | 40 | |
| Tobacco, per 100 lbs. | 5 | — | |
| Hemp, | 8 | — | |
| Wool, per lb. | 331/3 |
The indolence and disorderly conduct of slaves, together with their frequent elopements, occasion much uneasiness to their holders. It is not uncommon to hear the master, in ill humour, say that he wishes there was not a slave in the country; but the man who is tenacious of this sort of stock, or who purchases it at a high price, will always find it difficult to convince other people, that his pretensions to humanity towards slaves are in earnest. Some say that the fault is with the British, who first introduced them. Others reprobate the practice; but affirm that, while the laws of the country permit it, and while slaves must be somewhere, we may have them as well as our neighbours; and there are a few who vindicate both principle and practice, by declaring, that the negro is a being of an inferior species formed for servitude: and allege that slave-keeping has the divine sanction, as in the case of the Jews.
Negroes, even in America, are said to be more prolific than the white variety of the species. They do not delay marriage because they are not in possession of lands, slaves, horses, and the other essentials of their masters: nor does the support of {116} their progeny give them much concern; the coloured children being held as the property of the owner of the mother. By him they are reared with more or less tenderness, or sold to another, as he thinks fit.
The treatment of slaves is understood to be much milder in Kentucky than in the south-easterly part of the Union, where provisions are dearer, and blacks sell at a lower price. At Lexington slaves are well fed, and have a healthy appearance, and the greater part of them are well clothed. Some of the abettors of the system assert, that negroes are happier here than the free poor of other countries; but there are several circumstances which may be opposed to this position. The happy Kentuckian slave lives under the danger of being cow-hided, (a term signifying a whipping, with a stripe of half tanned leather, which is twisted into the form of a tapered switch of a very rigid texture,) for the slightest real or imaginary offence. His evidence is not received in court when he is opposed to a white man. Thus he has not the protection of the law, and less hope of bettering his condition. The practice disregards the strongest ties of kindred and of nature. The husband is torn from the wife, and the child from the parent, to be sold into an unhealthy region, where a more galling yoke is imposed. He must not eat nor even converse in the room where white men are. Every degrading mark is set upon him. While white men ransack the Christian volume, that they may find fit names to their children, heathenish appellations, such as Pompey, Nero, &c. usually given to dogs, are bestowed on the coloured infant. The ordinary names of dogs and horses, the days of the week, and the months of the year, seem now exhausted in the negro nomenclature.
{117} It does not require a high degree of philanthropic feeling to regret the numerous obstacles which oppose their amelioration. The governments of new territories are allowing vast tracts of country to become markets; and the older slave-keeping states are converted into nurseries, from which multitudes of slaves are procured. If this course of policy is persisted in, the humane exertions of individuals, and the benevolent associations in Britain, and elsewhere, cannot counteract the growing abuse. Emancipation can scarcely be contemplated, where its objects are multiplied with such rapidity. Amalgamation with the whites, extermination, or ultimate preponderance, present themselves to the penetrating mind.
The baneful effects of slave-keeping are not confined to negroes, but are widely diffused amongst white people. The necessity of personal labour being removed from the master, he either indulges in idleness, or spends his time in amusements that are incompatible with industrious habits. His progeny, seeing that every sort of useful labour is performed by the slaves, whom they are taught to regard as an inferior class of beings, naturally conceive that the cultivation of the earth is a pursuit too degrading for white men. Where such early impressions are entertained, we need not be surprised with the multitudes of idlers, hunters, horse-racers, gamesters and dissipated persons, that are here so prevalent. Were it not for the immaculate purity of the female constitution, the most invaluable half of the human character would be rendered susceptible of receiving a tinge. Fortunately for white Miss, she is able to turn to her own advantage the apparently adverse circumstances under which she is placed. The sable domestics with whom she is constantly surrounded, and {118} who obey her every nod, serve as a foil, or back ground, which, by drawing a contrast, greatly enhances her charms. The female slaves performing every menial and almost every household service, she has on this account much leisure for the decoration of her person. She is also at her ease, and acquires all the tenderness of frame which forms the delicate lady. Here also, as in some other places, the society of the two sexes is strictly regulated. Private interviews are guarded against with the most jealous care. The suitor must announce the object of his first visit, and the courtship must proceed under the eye of a parent, or of some other confidential person. In this happy seclusion from the scandalous affairs of the world, it is only through the medium of a female negro secretary that evasions can be conveniently practised when sentiment prevails over prudence. Married ladies also are relieved from the drudgery of giving suck to their own children. It sometimes happens that the infant boy entertains a stronger affection for his black nurse than for his white mother; and that his affection for the sooty hue may not be altogether effaced in maturer life. If the feeling is not directly conducive to the happiness of slaves, it has, at least, a tendency to abate prejudices arising from their colour.