In a separate study, Fogel observes the following page 2

In a separate study, Fogel observes the following page

Michael T. Griffith

2006

@All Rights Reserved

Ex-slaves of the Sea Islands in South Carolina showed great kindness to their former masters when the masters fell on hard times. The freedmen "did not enjoy seeing their old masters suffer." They "offered help and even, when they could, gave them money" (in Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, p. 312 n). An ex-slave in Georgia remained on his former master's estate to work for wages "so that, in a variety of ways, he could take care of the distressed white family. . . ." (in Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, p. 312 n). In another case, Clarence Fripp, a former Sea Islands slaveowner whose plantation had been sold from him, went back to his old plantation and asked his ex-slaves for money because he was nearly destitute. The former slaves took up a collection for Fripp and gave him a "significant amount of money" (in Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, p. 312 n). Two years earlier, "a northerner among the Sea Islanders reported that 'all' the ex-slaves 'speak with great affection of Fripp'" (in Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, p. 312 n).

"Many ex-slaves," notes Leslie Howard Owens, "chose to live with their masters after emancipation, some out of affection" (This Species of Property, p. 86). Owens continues,

The affection that masters and domestics [domestic slaves] showed one another took many forms. At the death of Jimmy, a "faithful servant," one of her owners, whom she had suckled in his infancy, experienced her loss deeply. He lamented that she "always felt more like a mother than a servant to me and was a kind mother to all my children." Masters' feelings at these times seem to strip the slave's personality of any resemblance to stereotypes. Jimmy's master continued his tribute as follows: she "was a kind mother to all my children. I frequently left them entirely in her care and always found her faithful in nursing and taking care of them and they all loved her as a mother and she loved them. . . ." In other cases, masters compared their domestics to relatives and friends: [In speaking to his sister during a funeral, one master said] "True, sister, he was a servant, and you may be vexed or ashamed, that I should in any manner compare him with yourself . . . but although his skin was black his heart was always in the right place." (This Species of Property, pp. 116-117)

Some female slaves occupied an especially honored place in plantation homes. Owens observes that one of "the most privileged domestics was the black mammy of the large estate" (This Species of Property, p. 118). Owens provides further information on these women:

She "is in fact the foster Mother of her Master's children and is treated with all the respect due to the faithful discharge of the duties of her station. . . ." The mammy nursed them through their illnesses and watched them as they grew into adulthood. She also showered them with a loving affection, which they returned. Many whites mourned for her at her death. (This Species of Property, p. 118)

One almost never hears about the fact that at times free blacks sought refuge on slaveholders' plantations to escape persecution during periods of rumored slave revolts. Says Owens,

There were times, too, when slaves witnessed the hasty retreat of free blacks to the plantation's safety in order to escape repression by whites during periods of rumored slave uprisings. Elizabeth Jefferson of Mississippi remarked that her "grand father let a negro free and gave him a trade. He was a competent brickmason. Often he came to the plantation for protection, sometimes remaining there for weeks." And this was not all. "There was an old . . . [slave] freed by a relative of our family. He was prosperous and finally bought his wife and children. He and his family on several occasions came to Greenwood for protection." This was not an atypical situation. (This Species of Property, pp. 86-87, emphasis added)

Most masters strove to accommodate a slave couple's desire to get married, and some sought to provide a form of recognition for the marriage. Cooper says "most slaveowners . . . recognized families among their slaves, despite the absence of any statutory provision or protection for the slave family" (Jefferson Davis, American, p. 251).  As a matter of fact, Fogel and Engerman observe that slave marriages “were not only recognized but actively promoted under plantation codes” (Fogel and Engerman, Time on the Cross, p. 128).  This promotion, say Fogel and Engerman, came in various forms:

To promote the stability of slave families, planters often combined exhortations with a system of rewards and sanctions.  The rewards included such subsidies as separate houses for married couples, gifts of household goods, and cash bonuses.  They often sought to make the marriage a solemn event by embedding it in a well-defined ritual.  Some marriage ceremonies were performed in churches, others by the planter in the “big house.”  In either case, marriages were often accompanied by feasts and sometimes made the occasion for a general holiday. . . .

For most slaves it was the law of the plantation, not of the state, that was relevant.  Only a small proportion of the slaves ever had to deal with the law enforcement mechanism of the state.  Their daily lives were governed by plantation law.  Consequently, the emphasis put on the sanctity of the slave family by many planters, and the legal status given to the slave family under plantation law, cannot be lightly dismissed. (Time on the Cross, pp. 128-129)

Gutman observes,

The recollections of elderly ex-slaves and other historical evidence disclose a variety of ways in which slave marriages were publicly announced and legitimized. . . . Elderly ex-slaves also recollected owner-sponsored ceremonies. (The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, pp. 273-274)