The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 26, July 1922 - April, 1923 Page: 106
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
debt for land with negroes.78 Before this in 1837, George Ham-
meken had written Perry from New Orleans of an opportunity to
buy one Gouverneur's slaves.79 Whether or not Perry closed with
any of these proposals is not apparent. The list of field hands in
the record is supposedly complete, but there is nothing to indicate
the number of domestic slaves.
There is scarcely anything in the records to indicate how the
negroes lived. No punishments for the negroes are recorded.
They seem to have been on the whole fairly healthy. The record
for 1841 is probably a representative year. In this year, Ben
was out of the field on account of a snake bite. George was sick
all of the cotton picking season of 1841. John and Becky were
out a few days. Mary was away from the field 26 days, 17 of
these following the birth of a son on October 11. This is the
only record of the birth of a child to any of the slaves on the
plantation; in fact, there are no records of there being any chil-
dren unless this is implied in the labor of driving the birds away
from the young corn. This sort of work would probably be done
by children or infirm negroes. In 1848 Allin was sick practically
all the Spring; Westley, for part of May; and Mary, during the
fall. Stephen Perry, in his synopsis of the months of January,
February and March, said, "The atmosphere has become so im-
pure, which has produced sickness among the negroes, they com-
plain principally of pains in the breast and sides, sores, and
rumatisms &c &c." As far as the farm journal carried the record
in 1848, the negroes lost from the field 115 days from sickness.
The only record of any of Perry's slaves running off was in an
entry of May 30, 1848. Tom ran away and was gone until June
7. No reason was assigned for his running away. Nothing is
shown as to the negroes' social life. There is an entry in Novem-
ber, 1839, that they had a half day's picking and that Sam was
married that day.
Perry hired out his own slaves, and in turn, employed the
slaves of others as need arose. He frequently had to hire addi-
tional labor in the sugar making of the fifties. Such emergencies
were met by mutual accommodation of neighbors, and not by
?"White to Perry, September 16, 1841, and January 20, 1848. Austin
Papers.
79Hammeken to Perry, July 26, 1837. Austin Papers.106
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 26, July 1922 - April, 1923, periodical, 1923; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101084/m1/112/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.