I have also known instances where seamstresses were kept in cold entries to work by the stair case lamps for one or two hours, every evening in winter—­they could not see without standing up all the time, though the work was often too large and heavy for them to sew upon it in that position without great inconvenience, and yet they were expected to do their work as well with their cold fingers, and standing up, as if they had been sitting by a comfortable fire and provided with the necessary light.  House slaves suffer a great deal also from not being allowed to leave the house without permission.  If they wish to go even for a draught of water, they must ask leave, and if they stay longer than the mistress thinks necessary, they are liable to be punished, and often are scolded or slapped, or kept from going down to the next meal.

It frequently happens that relatives, among slaves, are separated for weeks or months, by the husband or brother being taken by the master on a journey, to attend on his horses and himself.—­When they return, the white husband seeks the wife of his love; but the black husband must wait to see his wife, until mistress pleases to let her chambermaid leave her room.  Yes, such is the despotism of slavery, that wives and sisters dare not run to meet their husbands and brothers after such separations, and hours sometimes elapse before they are allowed to meet; and, at times, a fiendish pleasure is taken in keeping them asunder—­this furnishes an opportunity to vent feelings of spite for any little neglect of “duty.”

The sufferings to which slaves are subjected by separations of various kinds, cannot be imagined by those unacquainted with the working out of the system behind the curtain.  Take the following instances.

Chambermaids and seamstresses often sleep in their mistresses’ apartments, but with no bedding at all.  I know an instance of a woman who has been married eleven years, and yet has never been allowed to sleep out of her mistress’s chamber.—­This is a great hardship to slaves.  When we consider that house slaves are rarely allowed social intercourse during the day, as their work generally separates them; the barbarity of such an arrangement is obvious.  It is peculiarly a hardship in the above case, as the husband of the woman does not “belong” to her “owner;” and because he is subject to dreadful attacks of illness, and can have but little attention from his wife in the day.  And yet her mistress, who is an old lady, gives her the highest character as a faithful servant, and told a friend of mine, that she was “entirely dependent upon her for all her comforts; she dressed and undressed her, gave her all her food, and was so necessary to her that she could not do without her.”  I may add, that this couple are tenderly attached to each other.