“The descriptions generally given of negro quarters, are correct; the quarters are without floors, and not sufficient to keep off the inclemency of the weather; they are uncomfortable both in summer and winter.”

Rev. John Rankin, a native of Tennessee.

“When they return to their miserable huts at night, they find not there the means of comfortable rest; but on the cold ground they must lie without covering, and shiver while they slumber."

Philemon Bliss, Esq.  Elyria, Ohio, who lived in Florida, in 1835.

“The dwellings of the slaves are usually small open log huts, with but one apartment, and very generally without floors.”

Mr. W.C.  Gildersleeve, Wilkesbarre, Pa., a native of Georgia.

“Their huts were generally put up without a nail, frequently without floors, and with a single apartment.”

Hon. R.J.  Turnbull, of South Carolina, a slaveholder.

“The slaves live in clay cabins.”

V. TREATMENT OF THE SICK.

THE SLAVES SUFFER FROM HUMAN NEGLECT WHEN SICK

In proof of this we subjoin the following testimony: 

Rev. Dr. CHANNING of Boston, who once resided in Virginia, relates the following fact in his work on slavery, page 163, 1st edition.

“I cannot forget my feelings on visiting a hospital belonging to the plantation of a gentleman highly esteemed for his virtues, and whose manners and conversation expressed much benevolence and conscientiousness.  When I entered with him the hospital, the first object on which my eye fell was a young woman, very ill, probably approaching death.  She was stretched on the floor.  Her head rested on something like a pillow; but her body and limbs were extended on the hard boards. The owner, I doubt not, had at least as much kindness as myself; but he was so used to see the slaves living without common comforts, that the idea of unkindness in the present instance did not enter his mind.”

This dying young woman “was stretched on the floor”—­“her body and limbs extended upon the hard boards,”—­and yet her master “was highly esteemed for his virtues,” and his general demeanor produced upon Dr. Channing the impression of “benevolence and conscientiousness” If the sick and dying female slaves of such a master, suffer such barbarous neglect, whose heart does not fail him, at the thought of that inhumanity, exercised by the majority of slaveholders, towards their aged, sick, and dying victims.

The following testimony is furnished by SARAH M. GRIMKE, a sister of the late Hon. Thomas S. Grimke, of Charleston, South Carolina.