The division into crafts was essential where the plantation represented a community well-nigh completely self-sustaining. There was the agricultural department, so ordered as to provide the right proportion of plowmen and hoe-hands, each with its foreman. In every case the foreman or head-man was a Negro of marked ability as a workman and leader, who was not a mere driver but a teacher. Generally he exacted the task and demanded that it be well done. Often he got what he wanted by tactful resource and consummate human wisdom, as one of them expressed it, “I never discouraged, but him that was hindmost I praised the most.” His leadership involved every detail, both of prompt and well-done service, and of the care of the tools; in the case of the plowman, the proper care of the livestock and its management. There were the carpenter shops, where all the wood-work was done; with the house carpenter, sometimes the cabinetmaker, and always the toolmaker for the wood-work of plows, wagons, etc. Often, in the beginning, they had been taught by white experts fresh from their apprenticeships in England or Ireland. They understood the care and seasoning of timbers and lumber, from the cutting in the forest to the sawing and shaping in the shop. Under them there were often one or more young apprentices who had shown aptitude. The system, the exactness, the careful planning that no want should be unsupplied when needed; the care to be ready for instant repairs that other departments might not be delayed—all of this was entrusted to the head of each department of carpentry, who was a man to be trusted and relied upon; and the master, with mind always busy looking forward and eyes seeing everything, knew it, as in kindly confidential contact, he rather suggested and counselled than ordered. Here is a little extract from a colloquy once heard in a very busy time.
“Uncle Ned, where are those plow stocks? Didn’t I tell you we would need them tomorrow”?
“Marse John, who is making dese plows? Don’t I know when dey is needed”?
And with a chuckle, Marse John receives the retort of offended dignity, and beats a retreat, having seen the various parts of the plows, stacked in order, ready to be assembled in a trifle of time, and proud of the old reliable.
There was the blacksmith’s shop, where everything was made, from a nail to a lock and key, from a plow-shovel to a wagon-axle and spindle, from a bridle-pit to steel stirrups. Gradually these were replaced by manufactured articles; but to the last, any might be repaired or replaced if necessity required.
The women had their tasks. There were the hoe-hands—women, boys, and girls—to be taught under easy, short tasks, but with the care always required by their foreman. There was the weave-room, where cotton and wool were spun and woven into cloth for home use. The dyeing was done at home. There was the sewing-room where, under the oversight of the mistress, clothing in proper quantity was cut and made for “top and bottom” wear. There was the day nursery where the young mothers, busied with the half tasks allotted them, left their little ones under the care of the older experienced women who, under the mistress, were at times nurses, and at other times mid-wives.
Some plantations also had “the sick house” for severe cases; but, in most cases, the sick were at home, visited regularly by master or mistress or both, and by the family doctor where his attention was needed. The last was often distant, and the master and mistress were generally good substitutes, always supplied with simple remedies. The day-nursery provided the opportunity for instruction in baby-farming, which many a mistress used to great advantage. For instruction in domestic service, the “Big House” was the school, and none better. A southern negro boy would as soon have been disrespectful to his father as “sassed” the dignified butler; a punishment would even more certainly have followed the latter, if known. And the relation of love between children and “Mammy,” and between family and servants, is too charmingly commonplace to remark.
Dr. Washington, writing of God’s hand in it all, says: “First, He made the southern white man do business with the Negro for 250 years in a way that no one else has done business with him. If a southern white man wanted a house or a bridge built, he consulted a negro mechanic about the plan and the actual building of the house or bridge. If he wanted a suit of clothes or a pair of shoes made, it was to the negro tailor or shoemaker that he talked. Secondly, every large plantation in the South was, in a limited way, an industrial school. On these plantations, there were scores of young colored men and women who were constantly being trained, not only as common farmers, but as carpenters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, plasterers, brickmasons, engineers, bridge-builders, cooks, dress-makers, housekeepers, etc. I would be the last to apologize for the curse of slavery; but I am simply stating facts. This training was crude and was given for selfish purposes; and did not answer the highest needs, because there was the absence of brain-training in connection with that of the hand.”
It is good to have the Negro speak for himself. The last sentence would have been written differently by his white friend. Though given for selfish purposes in part, the training was definitely also for the good of the pupil; and while often crude, it was more often very definitely expert. Some of the more skilled workers, in every generation of the slavery days and in spite of adverse laws, were taught to read and cipher; they drew their plans, estimated their materials, and made their own calculations for the work in hand. Yet it is also true that the laws against school-training, though never fully obeyed, vastly hindered the general development of the race.
One other important division of farm economics should be mentioned, i. e., the food supply, involving the raising of cattle, hogs and poultry; the cure of meats; the storage of grain and vegetables, etc. In all this there were plantation experts, as well as happy joyous faces and overfed bodies at “hog-killin’ times.” In practically all cases, Saturday was half-holiday, often utilized by the slaves in their home-gardens or in other work yielding money to be spent at their own pleasure. Poultry and eggs, the weaving of baskets or other articles, were other sources of income. Not infrequently the Negroes continued the crafts native to their tribes in Africa.