Reminiscences of Slavery Days
By J. W. Beverly, Principal State Normal School, Montgomery, Ala.
Slavery was introduced into English colonies by way of the colony of Virginia in 1619. However, the first landing of slaves in what is now the Unit ed States was in Florida in 1565.
As early as 1637 some Pequod Indians were exchanged for Negroes from the Bermudas. It is worth while to note that the Indians were exchanged because they would not obey their masters.
Note the Negro, as a class, had always been obedient to authority. Of course there have been and will always be cases of disloyalty; but the Negro as a class is loyal even when he is mistreated. A mere declaration of this sort would amount to but little ; but all history will bear out this statement.
In some cases in the New England colonies, there is record of the fact that when slaves were no longer serviceable to their masters by reason of having spent their energies, they manumitted them to live on charity or do otherwise. But in 1702, in Connecticut, a law was soon passed compelling the former owners to care for these manumitted and worn out slaves.
Washington and Jefferson were both opposed to buying or selling Negroes off the plantations to which they belonged. Washington manumitted his slaves in his last will. Thomas Jefferson never favored slavery; and Benjamin Franklin was opposed to the trafflce in human beings.
Patrick Henry said of the overseer of his time, "They are the most abject, and unprincipled race." The above statement is quoted to show, that most of the oppression and cruelty practiced against Negroes came not from the hand of the master; but from that of the overseer.
Sometimes, yes often times, cruel and oppressive Negroes were used as slave drivers. These Negro drivers were most crude in many instances.
History fails to produce a parallel case to that of the fidelity of the Negro towards his master in the time of the Civil War.
While the best blood of the South was at the front, fighting to retain slavery, the Negro, the bone of contention, was at home and was tilling the fields, and caring for the family left behind.
The leading white men and the public press have ever since that day declared that this act of fidelity on the part of the Negro is deserving to be celebrated in song, and to be recorded on the pages of history. They have declared that the Negro fidelity in these trying times has endeared the race to the entire white South,
Almost any other race on the face of the globe, with conditions so favorable for revolt and destruction, would have used the opportunity.
Many colored men went to the war to act as body guards to their masters and when the master was cut down the Negro body guard with loving hands would remove the body and accompany it home to be laid away in the home cemtery. And well does the writer know of instances, where the faithful Negro slave would turn over the body of his dead master and search it for valuable belongings such as a gold watch, a fine ring, and would report these things to the white folks at home. And many a time, the family would say to the faithful slave, "you may have the watch or what not."
In this world, and as we colored people are wont to stay, "in this cold and unfriendly world" there is no abiding place, no continuing city unless it be in the loving remembrance, of good deeds done whch will enshrine us in the heart and affection of mankind.
The late Booker T .Washington used to say that, every Negro had his white man that he could go to in times of need, and that every white man had his Negro friend that he could trust in the dark house of this unfriendly world.
And there is much in this inter-dependence the white needing the Negroes, and the Negroes needing the whites. What do the Scriptures say about this? The members of the body can not say the one to the other "I have no need of thee. Can the eye say to the hand. I have no need of thee?"
That many masters were cruel to their slaves no one will deny but the main source of cruelty was not the master ; but usually the overseer, or Negro driver. He had no interest in the slave, and so had no care for him.
There were many free Negroes even in the slave states. The free Negro in a slave state had to be under the protection of some white man, who represented him in some legal phases. Some masters manumitted their slave. s George Washington, the father of his country it is said, manumitted his slaves. Many masters allowed certain skilled mechanics of their slaves to hire themselves out for a certain wage by the year, a portion of the wage to go to the slave and a portion to the master in the way of purchase of the slave by his own labor.
The writer's own great grandfather, a good doctor purchased himself from his master.
Thousands of the best blood of the South will forever bless the memory of the Negro race for the many kind and nice attentions given by the "Black Mammy" and the attachment between the white children and the "Black Mammy" have come down from the days of slavery with endearing sentiment to many distinguished white men of the South.
Many a "Black Mammy" has been cared for while living; and peacefully laid away after death by the loving hands of white men, whose parents used to own them.
And these "Mammies" in the days of slavery were the real rulers of the household. What they demanded for the children of the family usually was granted even in opposition to the mistress' wishes. The "Mammy" had her way in most matters that concerned the whims or welfare of the children ; and to her would the children look for refuge even to the restraining of the rod corrections in conduct.
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