"They live on a coarse, _crude, unwholesome diet_."

Professor A.G. Smith, of the New York Medical College; formerly a
physician in Louisville, Kentucky.

I have myself known numerous instances of large families of _badly
fed_ negroes swept off by a prevailing epidemic; and it is well known
to many intelligent planters in the south, that the best method of
preventing that horrible malady, _Chachexia Africana_, is to feed the
negroes with _nutritious_ food.

4. NUMBER AND TIME OF MEALS EACH DAY.

In determining whether or not the slaves suffer for want of food, the
number of hours intervening, and the labor performed between their
meals, and the number of meals each day, should be taken into
consideration.

Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer in Elyria, Ohio, and member of the
Presbyterian church, who lived in Florida, in 1834, and 1835.

"The slaves go to the field in the morning; they carry with them corn
meal wet with water, and at _noon_ build a fire on the ground and bake
it in the ashes. After the labors of the day are over, they take their
_second_ meal of ash-cake."

President Edwards, the younger.

"The slaves eat _twice_ during the day."

Mr. Eleazar Powell, Chippewa, Beaver county, Penn., who resided in
Mississippi in 1836 and 1837.

"The slaves received _two_ meals during the day. Those who have their
food cooked for them get their breakfast about eleven o'clock, and
their other meal _after night_."

Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, Waterford, Conn., who spent eleven winters in
North Carolina.

"The _breakfast_ of the slaves was generally about _ten or eleven_
o'clock."

Rev. Phineas Smith, Centreville, N.Y., who has lived at the south some
years.

"The slaves have usually _two_ meals a day, viz: at eleven o'clock
and at night."

Rev. C.S. Renshaw, Quincy, Illinois--the testimony of a Virginian.

"The slaves have _two_ meals a day. They breakfast at from ten to
eleven, A.M., and eat their supper at from six to nine or ten at
night, as the season and crops may be."

The preceding testimony establishes the following points.

1st. That the slaves are allowed, in general, _no meat_. This appears
from the fact, that in the _only_ slave states which regulate the
slaves' rations _by law_, (North Carolina and Louisiana,) the _legal
ration_ contains _no meat_. Besides, the late Hon. R.J. Turnbull, one
of the largest planters in South Carolina, says expressly, "meat, when
given, is only by