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Questions and Answers on Slavery
by James Madison
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In 1823, James Madison, no longer President
and in retirement at Montpelier, received a letter from Dr. Jedidiah
Morse enclosing 34 questions concerning slavery that Dr. Morse
had received from an English abolitionist. Madison replied promptly
answering all but a few of the questions. Madison's answers are
brief, but provide an interesting perspective on slavery from
a man who thought slavery was evil, but was nonetheless dependent
upon it. Madison's answers make clear that he fears and distrusts
freed slaves, a common attitude of whites in the slave owning
states. His admission that an owner can break up the families
of his slaves is a stark "Yes."
Madison attributes the three per cent annual
growth rate of the slave population to the "comparative defect
of moral and prudential restraint on the sexual connexion."
This is very unfair as the growth rate of the White population
is also about three per cent per year.
The questions and answers are two separate lists
in the original; but they have been interspersed here for ease
of reading. Dr. Morse's cover letter has been moved to the beginning
to provide an introduction and Madison's in response has been
moved to the end to provide a closing.
—JMU Editor
Hon. James Madison, Esq.
New Haven, Mar. 14, 1823
Sir,
The foregoing [now below] was transmitted to me from a respectable
correspondent in Liverpool, deeply engaged in the abolition of
the slave trade, and the amelioration of the condition of slaves.
If, sir, your leisure will allow you, and it is agreeable to you
to furnish brief answers to these questions, you will, I conceive,
essentially serve the cause of humanity, and gratify and oblige
the Society above named, and Sir, with high consideration and
esteem, your most ob't serv't,
JED'H MORSE
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Do the planters generally live on their
own estates?
Yes.
-
Does a planter with ten or fifteen
slaves employ an overlooker, or does he overlook his slaves
himself?
Employs an overseer for that number of slaves, with few
exceptions.
-
Obtain estimates of the culture of
Sugar and Cotton, to show what difference it makes where the
planter resides on his estate, or where he employs attorneys,
overlookers, &c.
— [no answer]
-
Is it a common or general practice
to mortgage slave estates?
Not uncommonly the land; sometimes the slaves; very rarely
both together.
-
Are sales of slave estates very frequent
under execution for debt, and what proportion of the whole
may be thus sold annually?
The common law, as in England, governs the relation between
land and debts; slaves are often sold under execution for
debt; the proportion to the whole cannot be great within a
year, and varies, of course, with the amount of debts and
the urgency of creditors.
-
Does the Planter possess the power
of selling the different branches of a family separate?
Yes.
-
When the prices of produce, Cotton,
Sugar, &c., are high, do the Planters purchase, instead
of raising, their corn and other provisions?
Instances are rare where the tobacco planters do not
raise their own provisions.
-
When the prices of produce are low,
do they then raise their own corn and other provisions?
[see 7 above]
-
Do the Negroes fare better when the
Corn, &c., is raised upon their master's estate, or when
he buys it?
[see 7 above]
-
Do the tobacco planters in America
ever buy their own Corn or other food, or do they always raise
it?
[see 7 above]
-
If they always, or mostly, raise it,
can any other reason be given for the difference of the system
pursued by them and that pursued by the Sugar and Cotton planters
than that the cultivation of tobacco is less profitable that
that of Cotton or Sugar?
The proper comparison, not between the culture of tobacco
and that of sugar and cotton, but between each of these cultures
and that of provisions. The tobacco planter finds it cheaper
to make them a part of his crop than to buy them. The cotton
and sugar planters to buy them, where this is the case, than
to raise them. The term, cheaper, embraces the comparative
facility and certainty of procuring the supplies.
-
Do any of the Planters manufacture
the packages for their produce, or the clothing for their
Negroes? and if they do, are their Negroes better clothed
than when clothing is purchased?
Generally best clothed when from the household manufactures,
which are increasing.
-
Where, and by whom, is the Cotton bagging
of the Brazils made? is it principally made by free
men or slaves?
[no answer]
-
Is it the general system to employ
the Negroes in task work, or by the day?
Slaves seldom employed in regular task work. They prefer
it only when rewarded with the surplus time gained by their
industry.
-
How many hours are they generally at
work in the former case? how many in the latter? Which system
is generally preferred by the master? which by the slaves?
[see 14 above]
-
Is it common to allow them a certain
portion of time instead of their allowance of provisions?
In this case, how much is allowed? Where the slaves have the
option, which do they generally choose? On which system do
the slaves look the best, and acquire the most comforts?
Not the practice to substitute an allowance of time for
the allowance of provisions.
-
Are there many small plantations where
the owners possess only a few slaves? What proportion of the
whole may be supposed to be held in this way? Very many,
and increasing with the progressive subdivisions of property;
the proportion cannot be stated.
-
In such cases, are the slaves treated
or almost considered a part of the family? The fewer
the slaves, the fewer the holders of slaves, the greater the
indulgence and familiarity. In districts composing large masses
of slaves there is no difference in their condition, whether
held in small or large numbers beyond the difference in the
dispositions of the owners, and the greater strictness of
attention where the number is greater.
-
Do the slaves fare the best when their
situations and that of the master are brought nearest together?
[see 18 above]
-
In what state are the slaves as to
religion or religious instruction? There is no general
system of religious instruction. There are few spots where
religious worship is not within reach, and to which they do
not resort. Many are regular members of Congregations, chiefly
Baptist; and some Preachers also, though rarely able to read.
-
Is it common for the slaves to be regularly
married? Not common; but instances are increasing.
-
If a man forms an attachment to a woman
on a different or distant plantation, is it the general practice
for some accommodation to take place between the owners of
the man and woman, so that they may live together?
The accommodation not unfrequent where the plantations
are very distant. The slaves prefer wives on a different plantation,
as affording occasions and pretexts for going abroad, and
exempting them on holidays from a share of the little calls
to which those at home are liable.
-
In the United States of America, the
slaves are found to increase at about the rate of 3 percent
per annum. Does the same take place in other places? Give
a census, if such is taken. Show what cause contributes to
this increase, or what prevents it where it does not take
place.
The remarkable increase of slaves, as shewn by the census,
results from the comparative defect of moral and prudential
restraint on the sexual connexion; and from the absence, at
the same, of that counteracting licentiousness of intercourse,
of which the worst examples are to be traced where the African
trade, as in the West Indies, kept the number of females less
than of the males.
-
Obtain a variety of estimates from
the Planters of the cost of bringing up a child, and at what
age it becomes a clear gain to its owner.
The annual expense of food an raiment in rearing a child
may be stated at about 8, 9, or 10 dollars; and the age at
which it begins to be gainful to its owner about 9 or 10 years.
-
Obtain information respecting the comparative
cheapness of cultivation by slaves or by free men.
The practice here does not furnish data for a comparison
of cheapness between these two modes of cultivation.
-
Is it common for the free blacks to
labour in the field?
They are sometimes hired for field labour in time of
time of harvest, and on other particular occasions.
-
Where the labourers consist of free
blacks and of white men, what are the relative prices of their
labour when employed about the same work? The examples
are too few to have established any such relative prices.
-
What is the proportion of free blacks
and slaves?
See the census.
-
Is it considered that the increase
in the proportion of free blacks to slaves increases or diminishes
the danger of insurrection?
Rather increases.
-
Are the free blacks employed in the
defence of the Country, and do they and the Creoles preclude
the necessity of European troops?
— [no answer]
-
Do the free blacks appear to consider
themselves as more closely connected with the slaves or with
the white population? and in cases of insurrection, with which
have they generally taken part?
More closely with the slaves, and more likely to side
with them in a case of insurrection.
-
What is their general character with
respect to industry and order, as compared with that of the
slaves?
Generally idle and depraved; appearing to retain the
bad qualities of the slaves, with whom they continue to associate,
without acquiring any of the good ones of the whites, from
whom [they] continue separated by prejudices against their
colour, and other peculiarities.
-
Are there any instances of emancipation
in particular estates, and what is the result?
There are occasional instances in the present legal condition
of leaving the State.
-
Is there any general plan of emancipation
in progress, and what?
None.
-
What was the mode and progress of emancipation
in those States in America where slavery has ceased to exist?
—[no answer]
To Dr. Morse.
March 28, 1823.
J. Madison presents his respects to Dr. Morse,
with the annexed answers to the queries accompanying his letter
of the 14th instant, so far as they were applicable to this State.
The answer could not conveniently be as much as might, perhaps,
be desired. Their brevity and inadequacy will be an apology for
requesting that, if any use be made of them, it may be done without
a reference to the source furnishing them.
Letter to Dr. Morse, March 28, 1823 (Madison
1865, III, pages 310-315).
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