Not only was the slave a source of smaller expense than the white servant in point of food and clothing, and perhaps in lodgings, but it is highly probable in the matter of medical attendance also. The planters incurred very considerable loss from the seasoning through which the white laborers, with few exceptions, passed on their first arrival in Virginia. Valuable time thus slipped away before any return was derived from their labor. The white servants not infrequently died as the result of this attack of illness, and the money or tobacco expended in their purchase was thrown away. The slaves do not appear to have been subject to this form of sickness, and were much less affected by exposure to the oppressive heat of the sun in the months of July, August, and September. It is an interesting fact that of the twenty negroes who were imported in 1619, the first who had arrived in the Colony, not one had died previous to 1624, an indication of the ease with which they stood the deleterious influences of the climate. There was at this time no parallel instance in the history of the white servants.
There is no reason to doubt that the planters were as a body just and humane in their treatment of their slaves. The solicitude exhibited by John Page of York was not uncommon: in his will, he instructed his heirs to provide for the old age of all the negroes who descended to them from him, with as much care in point of food, clothing, and other necessaries, as if they were still capable of the most profitable labor.[1] Occasionally, the records of the
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1690-1694, p. 138, Va. State Library. Slaves, it would seem, were not permitted to hold property, as the following regulation shows: “horses, cattle, and hogs marked with the mark of a slave, to be converted by the owner of the slave to the uses and marks of the owner; otherwise forfeited to the Parish.” Hening’s Statutes, vol. III, p. 103.
