J.W. FOWLER in Coahoma County, Mississippi recorded the following instructions to overseers on his cotton plantation, where he employed about 80 slaves in the mid-19th century (Annals of America, Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 8; pp. 478-479):

The health, happiness, good discipline and obedience; good, sufficient, and comfortable clothing; a sufficiency of food being indispensably necessary to successful planting, as well as reasonable dividends for the amount of capital invested, without saying anything about the master’s duty to his dependents, to himself and his God, I do hereby establish the following rules and regulations for the management of my plantation:

Punishment must never be cruel or abusive, for it is absolutely mean and unmanly to whip a Negro from mere passion or malice, and any man who can do this is entirely unworthy and unfit to have control of either man or beast.

My Negroes are permitted to come to me with their complaints and grievances, and in no instance shall they be punished for so doing. On examination, should I find they have been cruelly treated, it shall be considered a good and sufficient cause for the immediate discharge of the overseer.

Prove and show by your conduct toward the Negroes that you feel a kind and considerate regard for them. Never cruelly punish or overwork them, never require them to do what they cannot reasonably accomplish or otherwise abuse them, but seek to render their situation as comfortable as possible.

See that their necessities are supplied, that their food and clothing be good and sufficient, their houses comfortable, and be kind and attentive to them in sickness and old age. See that the Negroes are regularly fed and that their food be wholesome, nutritious, and well-cooked. See to it that you attend to everything that conduces to their health and happiness.

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