Sophistry may for a while delude, but the mind reposes upon the
stability of truth.

From this digression let us return to the examination of the
negro slave of Louisiana. He has the faults of a slave. He is
lazy, libertine, and given to lying, but not incorrigibly wicked.
His labour is not severe, unless it be at the rolling of sugars,
an interval of from two to three months, when the number of
labourers is not proportionate to the labour; then he works both
by day and night. It must be allowed that forty negroes rolling a
hundred and twenty thousand weight of sugar, and as many
hogsheads of syrup, in the short space of two cold, foggy, rainy
months (November and December) under all the difficulties and
embarrassments resulting from the season, the shortness of the
days, and the length of the nights, cannot but labour severely;
abridged of their sleep, they scarce retire to rest during the
whole period. It is true they are then fed more plentifully, but
their toils are nevertheless excessive. [230] In the country
where there are not those resources that distinguished the
Antilles, nor its spontaneous supplies, such as bananas, yams,
sweet potatoes, &c. the food of the negroes is less abundant.

The fixed ration of each negro a month is a barrel of maize not
pounded; indian corn being the only grain of the colony which can
assure an unfailing subsistence to the slaves. The rice, beans
and potatoes cultivated here, would not supply a quarter of them
with food. Some masters, more humane than others, add to the
ration a little salt.

The negro, during his hours of respite from labour, is busied in
pounding his corn; he has afterwards to bake it with what wood he
can procure himself. Both in summer and winter, he must be in the
fields at the first dawn of day. He carries his sorry pittance of
a breakfast with him, which he eats on the spot; he is, however,
scarce allowed time to digest it. His labour is suspended from
noon till two, when he dines, or rather makes a supplement to his
former meal. At two his labour re-commences, and he prosecutes it
till dark, sometimes visited by his master, but always exposed
to the menaces, blows and scourges either of a white overseer, or
a black driver.

The good negro, during the hours of respite al