ing too great an interest in the size
of the crop, the master unconsciously encouraged cruelty by the
overseer.

As to the general severity of the work, writers differ. Rhodes, in his
history of the United States, says that the slaves presented a picture
of sadness and fear, and that they toiled from morning until night,
working on an average of fifteen hours a day, while during the picking
season on the cotton plantations they worked sixteen hours and during
the grinding season on the sugar plantations they labored eighteen
hours daily. On the other hand, Murat, in his history of the United
States, says that the work of the slaves was less strenuous than that
of the free workers of the North, that they worked from sunrise till
three o'clock in the afternoon, resting two hours at noon and
receiving Sunday as a holiday and a half holiday on Saturday, and that
they received many privileges, such as farming a small piece of land
for themselves and selling its products. According to him, the slaves
were supremely happy and contented. Which of these views is correct,
it is difficult to say, for it is doubtless true that some slaves were
driven to the extreme, while others enjoyed a comparatively easy life.
When it is remembered, however, that, since the Constitution forbade
the importation of slaves after 1808, the price of slaves had steadily
risen, it is safe to conclude that the work was no more severe to the
slaves than was agricultural life to the whites in the North, for it
was advantageous to the owner to keep the slave in good health as long
as possible, and this was not to be accomplished by overworking him.

The family life of the Negro was regulated by the planter, who, in
return for the service of the slave, provided him with food,
clothing, shelter, and all the necessities of life. This part of slave
life is very sad. "A slave, his wife, and their children, around that
charmed centre, a family table, with its influence of love,
instruction, discipline, humble as they necessarily would be, yet such
as God has given them, are too seldom seen."[10] Negroes were married
only that slaves might be bred for the master to sell. The Negro
families ranged from fifteen to twenty-five children. A certain man in
Virginia said that he was fortunate "because his women were uncommonly
good breeders; he did not suppose there was a lot of women anywhere
that bred faster than his; he never heard of babies coming faster than
they