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Show 182 NOTES ON at the South, she would have known without, "that tho negroes prefer to take their allowa.ncc of corn and 'crack' it for themselves, rather than to receive meal, because they think the mill·ground meaJ does not make as sweet bread." Qua shy, I am thinking, won't thank Mrs. Stowe for wanting to take awa.y the sweetness ft·om his u peck of corn:" she had better unde1·stand him, before she undertakes to cater for him, or, in her ignorance, she may get him into "a peck of trouble." In what I have said thus far on the food of the negroes, I have taken ~frs. Stowe's representation of it. I must now add that large numbers of them-nearly, or quite, all, in Maryland, and probably full one lmlf, in the South generally, have their regular weekly allowance of animal food,* and that there are very few who do not get it occasionally. But even where they do not, they arc better off than the peasant in Ireland or in Hindostan, the former of whom would gladly exchange his potatoes, and the latter his rice;[ for the .._ "Ob, 1\Iissis, my husb:~nd,-ho working now out on de farm,-so he hab 'lowancc Jo!tr p01mds bacon and one peck of meal ciJory week." Letter to Mrs. Stowe," from. a friend/' (Key, p. 153.) According to " Uncle 'fom at Home," (a. work in defence of Uncle '!'om's Cabin,) " In Alllbama, the act of her Lcgisla.turc provides a proper ,.ali01t of meat every day for the slave, establishing a penalty if the master withholds it.'' (p. 100.) t 'l'ho Maryland Journal and Ballimol'e Advertiser, 1\fay 30, 1788, says, "A single peck of corn, or the same measure of rice, is il1e ordinary provision for n. hard-working til:tvc, to which a small quantity uf mcn.t is occa,sionrdly, though rarely, added." (Key, p. 45) A tea-cupful ofricewi\1 m l~ke a. pretty g(,oJ.-sizcJ. pudJ.ing, as a bachelor friend of mine in Virginia can testify. Ue once-undertook to mnko one, and having tied the rice in a. bag, in default of a pot, put it into a lca-keflle, where it swelled so much that. he could not get i1. outwllok. Moreover, in tying it up, he had not left room enouglt for it to swell in; accordingly, he harl to dig it out, for it was nc:1.rly as lmrd as " rice snuff-box; I tried some of it, but my 1!Wlar.t a1td Ui--cttSJJids gave it UNCLE TOM's CA RTN. 11c?ro's H peck of corn a week," arid both of whom would gam by the bargain. A word on the negro cabins. The dcscript.ioh of them Of\ p3gc 44, is not by any means a fair description of them now though it may h:1vc been ten or fifteen years 3go ; but te~ or fifteen years ago, I coul1l have shown nirs. Stowe plenty ~ of such in Illinois, and those not always of tho lowest cluss of whites either, but of those who had seen better days. _As to. tlJC _" Cachexia Af1·icana," it is not a very fatal disease, JUclgmg from the increase of the negro population, and, though not by any means desirable, it is not so Ioa.theso~ e, b.y half, as a. eert~in other disease, for some time past, epidemiC at the North, m ccrtn.in "loca.lities "-\Vorcestcr for instance, and Syracuse,-! mean, the Oac:etlt.es Afri('ana: anglice, AFRICAN ITcn; a disease, of which, in my opinion, the Old Saratclt is at the bottom. In chapter eleventh, l\Irs. Stowe informs us that " The custom of unceremoniously separating the infant from its mother, when tho latter is about to be taken from a. North~ rn to a Southern ~arket, is a matter of every-day notoriety 111 tho trade. It IS not done occnsionally and sometimes, but ah~ays, ';hcncver there is occasion for it; and the mother s a.gomcs are no more regarded than those of a cow when her calf is separated from her." Will it be believed that the only shadow of eviJcnce she ~as g1ven, throughout the whole chapter\ of this ''custom" Is, negro testimony to four isolated inst.ances! Could she not bring up, with her dt·ag-net, a single white witness to a "~ustom" of "every-day notoriety?" After such 3bsolutc fatlure to substantiate her assertion, what are we to think up, ~ a ba.d job. Now if a tea-cupful will fill 1\ tea-kettle a peek ~:u pe::c~~ t~o~:retty ~ood wcc~'s al\o,~ance: yet the negro~s prefer (Key, p. -15.) ' and complam of bemg faint when fed on rice/' |