The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,269 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4.

The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,269 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4.

“The woman thus situated had been for more than a day in travail, without any assistance, any nurse, or any kind of proper provision—­during the night she said some fellow slave woman would stay with her, and the aforesaid children through the day.  From a woman, who was a slave of Keen’s at the same time, my informant learned, that this poor woman suffered for three days, and then died—­when too late to save her life her master sent assistance.  It was understood to be a rule of his, to neglect his women entirely in such times of trial, unless they previously came and informed him, and asked for aid.”

Rev. PHINEAS SMITH, of Centreville, N.Y, who has resided four years at the south, says: 

“Often when the slaves are sick, their accustomed toil is exacted from them.  Physicians are rarely called for their benefit.”

Rev. HORACE MOULTON, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church in Marlborough, Mass., who resided a number of years in Georgia, says: 

“Another dark side of slavery is the neglect of the aged and sick.  Many when sick, are suspected by their masters of feigning sickness, and are therefore whipped out to work after disease has got fast hold of them; when the masters learn, that they are really sick, they are in many instances left alone in their cabins during work hours; not a few of the slaves are left to die without having one friend to wipe off the sweat of death.  When the slaves are sick, the masters do not, as a general thing, employ physicians, but “doctor” them themselves, and their mode of practice in almost all cases is to bleed and give salts.  When women are confined they have no physician, but are committed to the care of slave midwives.  Slaves complain very little when sick, when they die they are frequently buried at night without much ceremony, and in many instances without any; their coffins are made by nailing together rough boards, frequently with their feet sticking out at the end, and sometimes they are put into the ground without a coffin or box of any kind.”

PERSONAL NARRATIVES—­PART II.

TESTIMONY OF THE REV.  WILLIAM T. ALLAN, LATE OF ALABAMA.

Mr. ALLAN is a son of the Rev. Dr. Allan, a slaveholder and pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Huntsville, Alabama.  He has recently become the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Chatham, Illinois.

“I was born and have lived most of my life in the slave states, mainly in the village of Huntsville, Alabama, where my parents still reside.  I seldom went to a plantation, and as my visits were confined almost exclusively to the families of professing Christians, my personal knowledge of slavery, was consequently a knowledge of its fairest side, (if fairest may be predicated of foul.)

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The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.