Slaves
Little is known about slavery on the farm. There were two main slaves that were spoken of consistently. The house slave was Easter, who was a valued family-like servant. She either slept in the room near the children upstairs, or in a cabin with her husband, "Uncle Alfred". A slave foreman was stolen by Indians, possibly Cherokee, and taken east. When Smith was a Senator, the slave contacted him and asked for a bounty so that he could be returned to his old master. The bounty of $900 was paid to the captors, and the man returned to the servitude of Daniel Smith, of whom the man said was “anxious to return to his old master and home.” By 1860, there were 98 slaves. In 1833, there are two letters of bill of sale that name the following slaves being sold from George Smith to Harry Smith:
Isaac, Martin, Charles, Cheshire, Larkin, Ina, Toby, Wilson, David, Henry, Sarah, Rachel, Judy or Juda, Baty, Patricia and her two children, Henrietta, Silva or Silvia, Mitchel, Daniel and Jeffrey.
Read more about this topic: Rock Castle (Hendersonville, Tennessee)
Famous quotes containing the word slaves:
“When white men were willing to put their own offspring in the kitchen and corn field and allowed them to be sold into bondage as slaves and degraded them as another man’s slave, the retribution of wrath was hanging over this country and the South paid penance in four years of bloody war.”
—Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835–1930)
“I rejoice that horses and steers have to be broken before they can be made the slaves of men, and that men themselves have some wild oats still left to sow before they become submissive members of society. Undoubtedly, all men are not equally fit subjects for civilization; and because the majority, like dogs and sheep, are tame by inherited disposition, this is no reason why the others should have their natures broken that they may be reduced to the same level.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George and continue the slaves of King Prejudice? What is it to be born free and not to live free? What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom? Is it a freedom to be slaves, or a freedom to be free, of which we boast?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)