ring the great plantation bell, and
spend the next several hours in exhorting, praying and singing their
curious, doleful hymns. The whites gave them instruction and training
along these lines. Heart and conscious were alike cultivated--not alone
the sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. Statistics show that there were
466,000 slaves belonging to churches in the South: Methodist, Baptist,
Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and other sects. So the owners of these
christianized people thought that they were doing missionary work
in saving them from the cannibalism of heathen Africa. Both men and
women were taught trades and useful occupations. There were tanners,
shoemakers, blacksmiths, farmers, gardeners, horticulturists and
carpenters among the men. The women could sew, cook, card, spin, weave,
knit, wash, iron, in fact what they produced in this way would put to
shame the acquirements and accomplishments of free labor. Many of the
older negroes refused to be freed, when the mighty proclamation came.
They would not withdraw from the protection of "Old Marster." Look at
the product of these two generations of freedom. What is he? Well we
know the painful answer.

But while the buying of slaves for domestic, or field service, was
legitimate, the man who pursued the traffic as a business, and purchased
merely to sell again, was despised. He was termed a "nigger-buyer," and
was a pariah in the lowest sense of ostracism. It was claimed that there
was a distinction with a very great difference. Three or four servants
for ordinary household duties were deemed sufficient. On a farm more
hands were needed, and the plantations further south required several
hundred. The refractory slave of Kentucky and the border states, was
sold "down the river" in commercial parlance, where the discipline
of the rice, sugar, and cotton plantations kept in check his evil
inclinations. There might have been cases of cruel punishment, but the
rule was kindness--if for no other reason, the master would not injure
that which stood for money, for property. The expense of keeping slaves
was enormous. Where is the laborer of to-day who is furnished his house,
clothing, doctors, medicine, and not a little pocket money on occasions?

The South employed her laborers to produce the great staple of cotton,
which was to clothe mankind. They were properly clothed, fed and made
comfortable. In addition, they were cared for when sick, and there
existed the warmest af