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In
1860 there were 3,017 slaves in Marion county - 1,406 males, 1,611
females. In 1850 the number was 2,852. The slave population was
about one-fifth of the free whites. The greater number of those
slaves were in Liberty and Fabius townships. In the latter, in
1850, the slaves formed one-third of the entire population. A
description of slavery, as it once existed in Liberty township
will suffice, therefore, for a general reference to the
institution throughout the county.
Slavery
in this county was transplanted from Kentucky and Virginia.
Certain families owned slaves in those States, and carried them
along when they came to the new country. Nearly all that were ever
here came with their masters or were natives of the county. Few
were ever brought here and sold on speculation. Many were taken
out of the county and sold to go into the far south, but there was
no profit in bringing them here for sale. Negroes are known to be
prolific when surrounded by favorable circumstances, and they
increased very rapidly under the workings and practices of the
system. Many slave girls became mothers at fourteen.
The
slave owners worked their slaves for profit. Slavery to them was
not only social power and supremacy, but it was wealth and a
source of wealth. The slaveholder therefore worked his slaves to
the best possible advantage for gain. Men and women worked in the
fields here, as they did in the cotton fields of Mississippi. They
were provided with comfortable cabins, with coarse but comfortable
clothing, with a sufficiency of food, and medical attendance was
furnished them when they were sick. The self-interest of the
master prompted this, if his humanity did not. It was rare in this
county that a master overworked and underfed his slaves, or
treated them with extreme harshness and cruelty.
Slaves
were property and rated a part of' a man's personal estate, as his
horses were. To be sure they were regarded as something more than
brood mares and stallions, though their value, in a certain sense
was the same- proportionate to their increase. This could not be
avoided. The owner of land had a right to its annual profits, the
owner of orchards to their annual fruits, and under the law the
owner of female slaves was entitled to their children. While in
Louisiana and perhaps another State
slaves were real estate in Missouri they were chattels. Though no
attention was given to their education, their religious
instruction was not neglected, and they were encouraged hold
meetings and to conduct revivals and prayer meetings, and in the
Pauline precept, 11 Servants obey your masters," was cited to
them as one of the teachings and commands of the Bible.
The
domestic relations of the slaves were regulated more with regard
to convenience than what would be considered propriety in these
days. Marriages between them were not made matters of record.
Quite frequently no ceremony was said at all -the parties simply
"took up". Occasionally the husband belonged to one
master, the wife to another. But in most instances the family
relation was observed, or at least imitated. Husband and wife
occupied one cabin, where they brought up children-and lived after
the fashion of today. The husband and wife not only did not have
to provide for themselves, but they were not expected to provide
for their children. That was the master's care and duty.
The
husband was usually satisfied with one wife at a time. There was
not that laxity of morals concerning the connubial relations here
that existed in the far South. There were numbers of mulatto
children, and quadroons and octoroons-as there are today - because
there were depraved and libidinous men then - as there are now.
Sometimes a father owned as slaves his own daughters, whose
children had for fathers their mothers' half-brothers. But these
cases were rare. The Northern abolitionists exaggerated and
magnified -the existence of evils -of this sort. Usually the
fathers of mulatto children were depraved and disreputable white
men who were not the owners of slaves.
While
there was frequently a harsh master, the instances of downright
cruelty to the slaves in this county were rare. There were cruel
masters, as there are cruel husbands and fathers, but the rule was
that slave-owners were considerate, reasonable and just. It was
necessary that there should be discipline, but this was enforced
with as few rigors as possible. In every municipal township there
were patrols, appointed by the county court, whose duties were to
patrol their respective townships a certain number of times per
month, and to keep a watch and scrutiny upon the movement of the
negroes.
As
remarked on another page of this volume, eternal vigilance was the
price of slavery. The slaves required continual oversight. There
were festive spirits among them with ideas of freedom whose.
movements had to be restrained; all insubordination had to be
repressed; all loafing and prowling for the purpose of petty
larceny had to be broken up and reproved. After the Southampton
insurrection and the fearful murders of Nat Turner and his
followers in 1831, "risings" and insurrections were
feared wherever there were considerable communities of' slaves. To
prevent, as far as possible any trouble among or about the slaves
was the office of the patrols. They made their rounds - one of
their number being the leader or - "captain" -as nearly
as possible at unexpected times and suddenly. No slave was allowed
off the farm where he belonged or was employed after 9 o'clock at
night without a written pass from his master or employer. All
offenders of this class were made prisoners and punished.
The
negroes had their happy times, and on the whole it is perhaps
nothing but the truth to say that their average physical condition
when in slavery was as good as it is to-day. The state of some of
them was better. Sentimental considerations must be left to
others. They had their dances, their frolics, and their
assemblages of various sorts. Corn huskings were made occasions of
merriment and diversion. In 1840 or later there was a custom, when
the large pile of corn was husked, to take up the master and. bear
him on the shoulders of the huskers at the bead of a procession
which marched around the premises singing songs improvised at the
time, and so called "corn songs."
These
"corn songs " were sung while the slaves were at work in
the tobacco fields, the hemp fields, the wheat fields, as well as
at the huskings. They were commonly without rhyme or reason, but
were sung with great volume and sometimes with much melody. The
following are extracts from some of the "corn songs"
sunfg in the olden time by the slaves of this county:
0,
go 'long, boys, an' husk dat corn!
Oh!
Ho! Oh! Ho!
'Twill
soon be time for de dinnah horn!
Oh!
Ho! Oh! Ho!
Old
Massa George he likes de fun,
Oh!
Ho! Oh! Ho!
An'
we'll dance dis night if de corn pile's done.
Oh!
Ho! Oh! Ho!
I'm
gwine, down to de ole plantation,
0le
plantation, 0le plantation;
To
see de gal dat's my salvation!
0le
plantation, 0le plantation;
Gwine
down all in a sweep,
An'
de darkeys say her massa's asleep,
On
de ole plantation, ole plantation.
In
1865, when the slaves were freed, the majority of them left their
masters and mistresses and set about doing for themselves. Very
many went to Palmyra and Hannibal, preferring town life to rural
life. Hundreds left the State, many going to Galesburg, Illinois
where were plenty of anti-slavery people from whom they expected
much substantial sympathy and assistance---but did not receive it.
Numbers believed that not only were they to receive their
freedom, but that in some way the government was to compensate
them for their term of servitude. A few are said to be yet looking
for the "forty acres of land and a mule!"
Slavery
received its death blow when the civil war began - so it turned
out. As elsewhere stated hundreds of slaves left their masters in
this county in 1862 and 1863. Even the slaves of Unionists ran
away. When in 1865 by legislative enactment and the adoption of
the XIII Amendment all slaves in this State were set free, there
was a great deal of discontent in this county. Men declared rashly
that they would not rent a negro a foot of land, or render him any
sort of aid in his efforts to make a living; but in time this
feeling passed away, the situation was accepted, and now there is
but the merest handful of persons who would re-establish slavery
if they had the power.
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