Note 19 — Chapter III · Economics of Slavery in Tennessee

“He should see,” said Williams, “that their cabins are kept clean and free from all kinds of filth, and that their hours of retiring should be regular and at an early period of the night. Their food should be nourishing and well cooked, with plenty of vegetables in heat of summer.

“He should have his negroes comfortably clad, winter and summer, and see that their persons as well as their clothing are kept clean and nice, and that they are not driven out in unsuitable weather (which is too often the case by over-bearing overseers), if he expects them to enjoy health or live to an age to be profitable to their masters. He should attend to their morals and instruct them himself, or employ others to do so, as regards their duties and obligations to their master and their Creator—so they may thoroughly understand the full nature of vice and crime, and their consequent punishment here and hereafter. These instructions will make them better servants by teaching them their true and relative positions, and prevent cases of insubordination which so often arise from ignorance and neglect. Let their treatment be mild and humane, at the same time stern and uncompromising in the punishment of offenses.”—The Practical Farmer and Mechanic, October 6, 1857.