THE SLAVES SUFFER FROM HUNGER—DECLARATIONS OF SLAVE-HOLDERS AND OTHERS
Hon. Alexander Smyth, a slave holder, and for ten years, Member of Congress from Virginia, in his speech on the Missouri question. Jan 28th, 1820.
"By confining the slaves to the Southern states, where crops are raised for exportation, and bread and meat are purchased, you doom them to scarcity and hunger. It is proposed to hem in the blacks where they are ILL FED."
Rev. George Whitefield, in his letter, to the slave holders of Md. Va. N.C. S.C. and Ga. published in Georgia, just one hundred years ago, 1739.
"My blood has frequently run cold within me, to think how many of your slaves have not sufficient food to eat; they are scarcely permitted to pick up the crumbs, that fall from their master's table."
Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley, Ohio, a native of Tennessee, and for same years a preacher in slave states.
"Thousands of the slaves are pressed with the gnawings of cruel hunger during their whole lives."
Report of the Gradual Emancipation Society, of North Carolina, 1826. Signed Moses Swain, President, and William Swain, Secretary.
Speaking of the condition of slaves, in the eastern part of that state, the report says,—"The master puts the unfortunate wretches upon short allowances, scarcely sufficient for their sustenance, so that a great part of them go half starved much of the time."
Mr. Asa A. Stone, a Theological Student, who resided near Natchez, Miss., in 1834-5.