They are summoned at five in the morning to begin their work.  This work may be divided into two kinds, the culture of the fields, and the collection of grass for cattle.  The last is the most laborious and intolerable employment; as the grass can only be collected blade by blade, and is to be fetched frequently twice a day at a considerable distance from the plantation.  In these two occupations they are jointly taken up, with no other intermission than that of taking their subsistence twice, till nine at night.  They then separate for their respective huts, when they gather sticks, prepare their supper, and attend their families.  This employs them till midnight, when they go to rest.  Such is their daily way of life for rather more than half the year.  They are sixteen hours, including two intervals at meals, in the service of their masters:  they are employed three afterwards in their own necessary concerns; five only remain for sleep, and their day is finished.

During the remaining portion of the year, or the time of crop, the nature, as well as the time of their employment, is considerably changed.  The whole gang is generally divided into two or three bodies.  One of these, besides the ordinary labour of the day, is kept in turn at the mills, that are constantly going, during the whole of the night.  This is a dreadful encroachment upon their time of rest, which was before too short to permit them perfectly to refresh their wearied limbs, and actually reduces their sleep, as long as this season lasts, to about three hours and an half a night, upon a moderate computation[062].  Those who can keep their eyes open during their nightly labour, and are willing to resist the drowsiness that is continually coming upon them, are presently worn out; while some of those, who are overcome, and who feed the mill between asleep and awake, suffer, for thus obeying the calls of nature, by the loss of a limb[063].  In this manner they go on, with little or no respite from their work, till the crop season is over, when the year (from the time of our first description) is completed.

To support[064] a life of such unparalleled drudgery, we should at least expect:  to find, that they were comfortably clothed, and plentifully fed.  But sad reverse! they have scarcely a covering to defend themselves against the inclemency of the night.  Their provisions are frequently bad, and are always dealt out to them with such a sparing hand, that the means of a bare livelihood are not placed within the reach of four out of five of these unhappy people.  It is a fact, that many of the disorders of slaves are contracted from eating the vegetables, which their little spots produce, before they are sufficiently ripe:  a clear indication, that the calls of hunger are frequently so pressing, as not to suffer them to wait, till they can really enjoy them.