Abuse of Slaves-Not Tolerated by Richard C. Eppes

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Ran across this today, thought people may enjoy. From the journal of Richard Cocke Eppes, owner of Appomattox Plantation. See other listings in this forum on Eppes' plantation life before the war, if you're just catching on to these threads.



Wednesday Dec: 9th 1857.

Day damp & raw remained at home with a severe cold & sore throat [M]uch annoyed by an act of brutality perpetrated by Mrs Marks on Amy a small girl that I allowed to remain with her & assist about the children Susan the cook whose daughter Amy is, presented herself before Mrs Eppes with a shirt of Amy’s neck arm & half the back covered with blood with the report that it was produced by a blow from Mrs Marks with a press board. Wrote Mr Marks that I would not tolerate such conduct & gave orders to send the girl over for examination.

Thursday Dec: 10th 1857.

Examined Amy this morning & found a gash or cut on the back of her head at least an inch long with a knot nearly as large as a pullet egg. [C]oncluded to keep her on this being the desire of Mrs. Eppes. Crossed to Island [Eppes’ Island-EKD] with Mr Sanxy had a conversation with Marks in which he expressed a desire to leave my service and I though being perfectly satisfied with him, thinking that it would be impossible ever to have any peace with the infernal temper of his wife, agreed that it would be the best for both. He remains until Christmas though he goes to Surry next week to make arrangements for moving. Complaints also from Fanny about being beaten with stick by Mrs Marks really do not know what to do with this roman who I can scarcely believe is sane.
Visited Bermuda farm also with Mr Saxny found Crawford getting in corn a little too damp. [snip]

[GBaylor]

Re: Abuse of Slaves-Not Tolerated by Richard C. Eppes

Emmanuel,

I believe there were laws in some jurisdictions that prohibited the abuse of slaves. These would be found in the "Slave Codes". They were enacted for both humanitarian reasons and also to lessen the likelihood of slave revolts. I believe that Virginia, South Carolina, and Alabama had such measure within their "Slave Codes".

John Sweeney

[CYoungJSU]

Re: Abuse of Slaves-Not Tolerated by Richard C. Eppes

All-

Unfortunatley, most of the slave codes I have studied and read about made the laws more strict against the slaves themselves and were not so humanitarian based, especially non-abusive behavior to cut down on revolts. After all, the cruel reality is that they were property and had no legal rights. For example, after Nat Turner's rebellion, Virginia legislators revised and implimented harsher slave codes in 1832 "in order to restrict the blacks so stringently that they could never again mount a revolt. The revised laws not only strengthened the militia and patrol systems, but virtually stripped free Negroes from human rights...Thanks to white intransigence and to those oppressive new codes, Virginia's blacks were more shackled to the rack of slavery than they had ever been" (140-141). Also, take a look at the earlier revolts of Denmark Vesey (1822 S.C.) and Gabrial Prosser (1800 Va.) to see the gradual "scare" and the believed "need" to tighten these codes. Similar codes were in place in the other southern states, but several northern states had fairly harsh codes as well.

These two journal entries are very intesting and intriguing. I would like to know what eventually happened to Amy, Fanny, and the "not so sane" Mrs. Marks.


Bibliographic Information
Oates, Stephen B. The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion. Harper and Row: New York, 1975.