Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865 (21 page)

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Authors: Midori Takagi

Tags: #Social Science, #Ethnic Studies, #African American Studies, #test

BOOK: Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865
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Page 43
Question: Did you not hear my boys Sam & Daniel complain that they had not enough to eat?
Goode: I heard them complain but boys in Manufactories are very much in the habit of complaining.
Question: Did you not alwas give out as much provisions for the boys as you thought was necessary for them.
Goode: I alwas gave out as much as I used to give out at Price's factory where I lived, which I though was sufficient but the boys used to grumble there.
25
Sam and Daniel were not the only ones who went hungry. It appears that many industrial slaves did not receive enough food. Court records suggest that those who could not afford to buy extra food often stole it. Throughout these decades slaves were brought to court on charges of stealing food or purchasing stolen food. In 1822 David Russell, a slave, was convicted of buying "one piece of dried beef = $1.00 [and] one peck of meal = 50 cents" from another slave. In 1825 John Bailey, another slave, was charged with stealing corn and oats from a local shop.
26
In contrast to living arrangements and diet, the clothing provided to slave workers varied little by occupation and locale. Slaves generally received two sets of clothing (one for summer and the other for winter), a pair of stockings and shoes, and a blanket. Men received shirts made of osnaburg (coarse cotton material), two pairs of pantaloons (one of osnaburg and the other possibly made of wool), a jacket, and a hat. Women received two dresses, also made of osnaburg, and a jacket.
27
Sometimes slaves were given just the material to make their own clothing; but by the mid-nineteenth century owners increasingly hired seamstresses to sew the items or purchased clothes from local shops. By the 1840s buying ready-made slave clothing was quite common in Richmond as evidenced by the numerous advertisements for such items in the local newspaper.
Nondomestic slaves, particularly hired factory slaves, frequently possessed basic work clothing and little else.
28
And some lacked even these items. Antebellum court books are filled with charges against employers for not furnishing slaves with clothing and other goods. Catherine McCall, for example, sued employer George Ingles several times for refusing to clothe her slaves while in his service.
29
Urban slave workers found many ways to supplement their wardrobes. Domestic servants, for example, often owned in addition to their work clothes outfits of "colorful cast-off finery" from their masters and mistresses. Sy Gilliat, a well-known slave fiddler, was known to perform at barbecues and other outings dressed in a "silk coat and vest of faded
 
Page 44
lilac . . . silk stockings . . . terminating in shoes fastened . . . with large buckles," which he inherited from his owner. James Hamilton and Peter Woolfolk, two domestic slaves, had wardrobes with a variety of suits that they had received from their deceased owner Nathaniel Dunlop. Proud of their wardrobes, slaves prominently displayed their finery on Sundays and holidays, thereby brightening the usually dusty drab streets on those days. As traveler J.S. Buckingham described, "On Sundays . . . the females [slaves] wear white muslin and light silk gowns, with caps, bonnets, ribbons and feathers; some carry reticules on the arms and many are seen with parasols, while nearly all of them carry a white pocket-handkerchief. . . . the young men, among the slaves, wear white trousers, black stock[ing]s, broad-brimmed hats and carry walking-sticks." During the working week, though, nearly all slaves wore coarse cotton clothes to perform their duties.
30
Like food and shelter, medical care for slaves also varied depending on their working situation. Domestic servants, for example, might treat themselves or be treated by their master or the owners' family physician. Although few records exist concerning Richmond slaves' home remedies, legislation banning the sale or administration of any "medicine, domestic or foreign," to slaves suggests that such a practice did occur in the city. Evidence of remedies administered by owners is more commonplace. Masters and mistresses often treated their servants in hopes of curing a variety of ailments, including smallpox and pneumonia, using ingredients such as castor oil, magnesia, and Peruvian bark. Not all slave owners, however, showed such concern. One owner, a Mrs. Taylor, left her sick slave Rachel in the hands of a free black nurse for several weeks. Taylor literally abandoned Rachel, failing to clothe her slave or pay the nurse, Evey Jones, for her services.
31
Many Richmond slave owners summoned private physicians to treat their slaves. Mrs. Mary Williamson often called upon Dr. William Foushee Sr. to examine and treat both the enslaved and free members of her household. Court records show that Dr. James Currie frequently visited Peyton Randolph's household to treat "the old lady's negro maid" and his "negro Diane."
32
Slaves hired to small businesses were more likely to receive medical attention from private physicians than home remedies from their employers. Owners, concerned about their property, did not want employers to be administering home formulas, and many specified that a professional physician be summoned should their slaves fall ill. John Walker of King and Queen County demanded that his slave Daniel, who was hired to a business in Richmond, be examined by "no other physician but a Tomsonian doctor[,] they being my preference." James Martin
 
Page 45
made a similar demand for his slave Sally, who he insisted should "be attended by Doctors R & R Cabbles [and that] any other [will be] at the expense of the hirer." Such stipulations meant that employers most often summoned private physicians to examine their hired workers. Dr. Lewis Chamberlayne, a local physician, was one such practitioner frequently called to visit hired slaves, as his accounts indicate:
1835
Mr. George P. Crump,
May 11: To visit . . . Billy belonging to Frank Smith, $1.25.
July 14: ditto . . . $2.00
Mr. Edmund Brown
April 1: To advice . . . to Sam belonging to Dr. Richardson of James City, $1.00.
33
Slaves working on the canal and in the mines usually saw the company-employed physicians who visited the worksite several times a week or went to company-run hospitals. When Robert, a slave canal worker hired out for a year, fell ill, he was treated at the factory hospital for eleven days. Both free and enslaved canal workers who collapsed from heat exhaustion were placed in the small hospitals set up by the James River Company.
34
Slave patients also received treatment at the city hospitals. These facilities concentrated more on nursing and quarantining than curing persons with infectious diseases. In the early 1800s when cases of smallpox first appeared in Richmond, city officials established a public health facility to separate victims from other city residents. Another public hospital was opened during the early 1830s to treat cholera victims.
35
Slaves in need of treatment for non-life-threatening afflictions, however, could not depend on the hospitals because they were temporary facilities that closed once an epidemic passed. It was not until the late 1850s that permanent public health facilities were established to serve both free and enslaved patients with a variety of injuries and illnesses.
The preceding discussion of slaves' diet, clothing, medical care and housing suggests the wide range of material conditions under which city slaves lived. It also indicates the degree to which urbanization, industrialization, employers' budgets, and even the size of an owner's home affected working and living conditions, and how those circumstances prevented owners from using one common method of slave management. Given the diverse working conditions, a uniform slave system would have been impossible. What emerged, as owners and employers sought to shape urban slavery to meet their needs, was a set of control

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