Mr. Eleazar Powel, Chippewa, Beaver county, Penn., who lived in Mississippi in 1836 and 1837.

“The slaves had to cook and eat their breakfast and be in the field by daylight, and continue there till dark.”

Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer in Elyria, Ohio, who resided in Florida in 1834 and 1835.

“The slaves commence labor by daylight in the morning, and do not leave the field till dark in the evening.”

“Travels in Louisiana,” page 87.

“Both in summer and winter the slave must be in the field by the first dawning of day.”

Mr. Henry E. Knapp, member of a Christian church in Farmington, Ohio, who lived in Mississippi in 1837 and 1838.

“The slaves were made to work, from as soon as they could see in the morning, till as late as they could see at night.  Sometimes they were made to work till nine o’clock at night, in such work as they could do, as burning cotton stalks, &c.”

A New Orleans paper, dated March 23, 1826, says:  “To judge from the activity reigning in the cotton presses of the suburbs of St. Mary, and the late hours during which their slaves work, the cotton trade was never more brisk.”

Mr. GEORGE W. WESTGATE, a member of the Congregational Church at Quincy, Illinois, who lived in the south western slaves states a number of years says, “the slaves are driven to the field in the morning about four o’clock, the general calculation is to get them at work by daylight; the time for breakfast is between nine and ten o’clock, this meal is sometimes eaten ‘bite and work,’ others allow fifteen minutes, and this is the only rest the slave has while in the field.  I have never known a case of stopping for an hour, in Louisiana; in Mississippi the rule is milder, though entirely subject to the will of the master.  On cotton plantations, in cotton picking time, that is from October to Christmas, each hand has a certain quantity to pick, and is flogged if his task is not accomplished; their tasks are such as to keep them all the while busy.”

The preceding testimony under this head has sole reference to the actual labor of the slaves in the field.  In order to determine how many hours are left for sleep, we must take into the account, the time spent in going to and from the field, which is often at a distance of one, two and sometimes three miles; also the time necessary for pounding, or grinding their corn, and preparing, overnight, their food for the next day; also the preparation of tools, getting fuel and preparing it, making fires and cooking their suppers, if they have any, the occasional mending and washing of their clothes, &c.  Besides this, as everyone knows who has lived on a southern plantation, many little errands and chores are to be done for their masters and mistresses, old and young, which have accumulated during the day and been kept in reserve till the slaves return from the field at night.