hment, it is pointed out by ex-slaves
themselves that they were at that time very valuable property, worth on
the market no less than from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars
each for a healthy, grown Negro and that it is unreasonable to suppose
that these slaveowners did not properly safeguard their investments with
the befitting care and attention such valuable property demanded or that
these masters would by rule or action bring about any condition
adversely effecting the health, efficiency or value of their slaves.

The spiritual and religious needs of the slaves received the attention
of the same minister who attended the like needs of the master and his
family, and services were often conducted on Sunday afternoons
exclusively for them at which times the minister exhorted his
congregation to live lives of righteousness and to be at all times
obedient, respectful and dutiful servants in the cause of both their
earthly and heavenly masters.

In the days of slavery, on occasion of the marriage of a couple in which
the participants were members of slave-owning families, it was the
custom for the father of each to provide the young couple with several
Negroes, the number of course depending on the relative wealth or
affluence of their respective families. It seems, however, that no less
than six or eight grown slaves were given in most instances as well as a
like number of children from two to four years of age. This provision on
the part of the parents of the newly-wedded pair was for the purpose as
"Uncle Dock" expressed it to give them a "start" of Negroes. The
children were not considered of much value at such an age and the young
master and his wife found themselves possessed with the responsibility
attached to their proper care and rearing until such time as they
reached the age at which they could perform some useful labor. These
responsibilities were bravely accepted and such children received the
best of care and attention, being it is said often kept in a room
provided for than in the master's own house where their needs could be
administered to under the watchful eye and supervision of their owners.
The food given these young children according to informants consisted
mainly of a sort of gruel composed of whole milk and bread made of whole
wheat flour which was set before them in a kind of trough and from which
they ate with great relish and grew rapidly.

Slaveowners, as a rule, arranged for their Neg