LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY,
863 BROADWAY.
No. 58.
THE MASTERSHIP AND ITS FRUITS:
THE EMANCIPATED SLAVE
Face to Face with his Old Master.
A SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT TO
Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War,
By JAMES McKAYE, Special Commissioner.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY.
1864.
… Of all portions of the slave region to which the Commission have had access, the valley of the lower Mississippi affords the most interesting field for the observation and study of the slave system, as well as of the great changes which, at the present moment, slave society is everywhere undergoing. Unlike most other sections visited by the Commission, here are found all the elements of that society still in existence; but in a state of revolution and transformation. Here, facing the board river on either side, still stands the great white mansion of the planter; by its side, just without its shadow, the long rows of cabins called the negro quarters, and, a little in the rear, the great quadrangular structure, usually of brick, known as the sugarhouse. In many instances the old master still occupies the mansion, and the negroes their old quarters; but under circumstances and in relations quite new, strange, and full of anxiety to both.
… Before entering further into the considerations especially suggested by the state of things here presented, it is important to advert to some of the peculiar features of the slave system, as it existed in this part of the country.
In the first place, the origin and character of the first settlers of Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi had an important bearing in modifying many of its features. These settlers were for the most part, of French, Spanish, and Portuguese origin, or of what has been called the Latin Race, and it is said that the people of this race do by no means entertain the same rooted antipathies, and low consideration of the black race, as are generally ascribed to the races with a shade whiter skin.
However this may be, it is undoubtedly true that there is found here a much more general admixture of the black and white races than prevails elsewhere, even in the slave-breeding States. And all the evidence goes to show that there existed in this region, especially in the earlier days of its settlement, a much greater social equality between the two races. No such utter repudiation of the manhood of the negro race, existed here as constituted the basis of the slave system in the islands and coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. Hence, although the amount of labor imposed upon the slave was often greater, and the system of punishments as cruel, yet their ordinary and habitual condition was better, and their daily life on a higher scale. They were not so rigorously forbidden the use of a family name. Their habitations were much more like those of other human beings. Usually their cabins contained not less than two rooms, and often four. They were furnished with some sort of beds and bedding, and in their lodging those who considered themselves man and wife were separated from the single; the young, also, of different sexes slept in separate apartments; they did not usually eat at a family table, but they had dealt out to them, generally sufficiently cooked rations, which they might eat as they chose--the cooking being done for the whole force by regular details. On the other hand, "the hours of labor on the sugar plantations were from fifteen to eighteen per day, and at certain seasons of the year a greater part of the night was also occupied with labor. The hour of beginning work in the morning was from 3 to 4 o'clock. The overseer was expected to produce a certain crop with a given number of hands, and all were obliged to obey him in preference to the master. He was generally much more cruel than the master. Kind-hearted masters sometimes select cruel overseers."
