Then I’ll pass from grace to glory,
Then I’ll sing my suffering o’er;
For then grief, and pain, and sorrow,
Shall be felt and known no more.
CHAP. II.
All the slaves, both men and women, except those about the house, were forced to work in the field. We raised corn, wheat and tobacco.
The provision for each slave, per week, was a peck of corn, two dozens of herrings, and about four pounds of meat. The children, under eight years of age, were not allowed anything. The women were allowed four weeks of leisure at child birth; after which, they were compelled to leave their infants to provide for themselves, and to the mercy of Providence, while they were again forced to labor in the field, sometimes a mile from the house.
Often the older children had to take care of the younger, sometimes the mother, until her babe was about three or four months old, if she had a kind and humane overseer, could come to the house once between meals, and nurse her child; but such favors were but seldom granted. More frequently the mother must take her child with her to the field, place it at the side where she could see it as she came to the end of the row; moving it along as she moved from row to row.
The slaves were called out from their quarters at daylight. The breakfast must be prepared and eaten before going to work, and if not done before the overseer called them to the field, they must go without it; and often the children, being asleep at this time, were of course obliged to go without their breakfast.