Another conceivable plan would have been to replace slavery at large by serfdom. This would have attached the negroes to whatever lands they chanced to occupy at the time of the legislation. By force of necessity it would have checked the depletion of soils; but by preventing territorial transfer it would have robbed the negroes and their masters of all advantages afforded by the virginity of unoccupied lands. Serfdom could hardly be seriously considered by the citizens of a new and sparsely settled country such as the South then was.

Finally the conversion of slaves into freemen by a sweeping emancipation was a project which met little endorsement except among those who ignored the racial and cultural complications. Financially it would work drastic change in private fortunes, though the transfer of ownership from the masters to the laborers themselves need not necessarily have great effect for the time being upon the actual wealth of the community as a whole. Emancipation would most probably, however, break down the plantation system by making the labor supply unstable, and fill the country partly with peasant farmers and partly with an unattached and floating negro population. Exceptional negroes and mulattoes would be sure to thrive upon their new opportunities, but the generality of the blacks could be counted upon to relax into a greater slackness than they had previously been permitted to indulge in. The apprehension of industrial paralysis, however, appears to have been a smaller factor than the fear of social chaos as a deterrent in the minds of the Southern whites from thoughts of abolition.

The slaveholding régime kept money scarce, population sparse and land values accordingly low; it restricted the opportunities of many men of both races, and it kept many of the natural resources of the Southern country neglected. But it kept the main body of labor controlled, provisioned and mobile. Above all it maintained order and a notable degree of harmony in a community where confusion worse confounded would not have been far to seek. Plantation slavery had in strictly business aspects at least as many drawbacks as it had attractions. But in the large it was less a business than a life; it made fewer fortunes than it made men.

CHAPTER XX

TOWN SLAVES

Southern households in town as well as in country were commonly large, and the dwellings and grounds of the well-to-do were spacious. The dearth of gas and plumbing and the lack of electric light and central heating made for heavy chores in the drawing of water, the replenishment of fuel and the care of lamps. The gathering of vegetables from the kitchen garden, the dressing of poultry and the baking of relays' of hot breads at meal times likewise amplified the culinary routine. Maids of all work were therefore seldom employed. Comfortable circumstances required at least a cook and a housemaid, to which might be added as means permitted a laundress, a children's nurse, a seamstress, a milkmaid, a butler, a gardener and a coachman. While few but the rich had such ample staffs as this, none but the poor were devoid of domestics, and the ratio of servitors to the gross population was large. The repugnance of white laborers toward menial employment, furthermore, conspired with the traditional predilection of householders for negroes in a lasting tenure for their intimate services and gave the slaves a virtual monopoly of this calling. A census of Charleston in 1848,[94] for example, enumerated 5272 slave domestics as compared with 113 white and 27 free colored servants. The slaves were more numerous than the free also in the semi-domestic employments of coachmen and porters, and among the dray-men and the coopers and the unskilled laborers in addition.

[Footnote 94: J.L. Dawson and H.W. DeSaussure, Census of Charleston for 1848 (Charleston, 1849), pp. 31-36. The city's population then comprised some 20,000 whites, a like number of slaves, and about 3,500 free persons of color. The statistics of occupations are summarized in the accompanying table.]

MANUAL OCCUPATIONS IN CHARLESTON, 1848

Slaves | Free Negroes| Whites
Men | Women Men |Women Men |Women
Domestic servants 1,888 | 3,384 9 | 28 13 | 100
Cooks and
confectioners 7 | 12 18 | 18 … | 5
Nurses and midwives …| 2 … | 10 … | 5
Laundresses …| 33 … | 45 … | …
Seamstresses and
mantua makers … | 24 … | 196 … | 125
Milliners … | … … | 7 … | 44
Fruiterers, hucksters
and pedlers … | 18 6 | 5 46 | 18
Gardeners 3 | … …| … 5 | 1
Coachmen 15 | … 4 | … 2 | …
Draymen 67 | … 11 | … 13 | …
Porters 35 | … 5 | … 8 | …
Wharfingers and
stevedores 2 | … 1 | … 21 | …
Pilots and sailors 50 | … 1 | … 176 | …
Fishermen 11 | … 14 | … 10 | …
Carpenters 120 | … 27 | … 119 | …
Masons and
bricklayers 68 | … 10 | … 60 | …
Painters and
plasterers 16 | … 4 | … 18 | …
Tinners 3 | … 1 | … 10 | …
Ship carpenters
and joiners 51 | … 6 | … 52 | …
Coopers 61 | … 2 | … 20 | …
Coach makers and
wheelwrights 3 | … 1 | … 26 | …
Cabinet makers 8 | … … | … 26 | …
Upholsterers 1 | … 1 | … 10 | …
Gun, copper and
locksmiths 2 | … 1 | … 16 | …
Blacksmiths and
horseshoers 40 | … 4 | … 51 | …
Millwrights … | … 5 | … 4 | …
Boot and shoemakers 6 | … 17 | … 30 | …
Saddle and harness
makers 2 | … 1 | … 29 | …
Tailors and cap makers 36 | … 42 | 6 68 | 6
Butchers 5 | … 1 | … 10 | …
Millers … | … 1 | … 14 | …
Bakers 39 | … 1 | … 35 | 1
Barbers and hairdressers 4 | … 14 | … … | 6
Cigarmakers 5 | … 1 | … 10 | …
Bookbinders 3 | … … | … 10 | …
Printers 5 | … … | … 65 | …
Other mechanics [A] 45 | … 2 | … 182 | …
Apprentices 43 | 8 14 | 7 55 | 5
Unclassified, unskilled
laborers 838 | 378 19 | 2 192 | …
Superannuated 38 | 54 1 | 5 … | …

[Footnote A: The slaves and free negroes in this group were designated merely as mechanics. The whites were classified as follows: 3 joiners, 1 plumber, 8 gas fitters, 7 bell hangers, 1 paper hanger, 6 carvers and gilders, 9 sail makers, 5 riggers, 1 bottler, 8 sugar makers, 43 engineers, 10 machinists, 6 boilermakers, 7 stone cutters, 4 piano and organ builders, 23 silversmiths, 15 watchmakers, 3 hair braiders, 1 engraver, 1 cutler, 3 molders, 3 pump and block makers, 2 turners, 2 wigmakers, 1 basketmaker, 1 bleacher, 4 dyers, and 4 journeymen.