The Slaves Get Their Day ....

The Slaves Get Their Day

In the eighteenth century the slave was hardly better off than he was in the nineteenth century. But there were times when it seemed that he was. When the governor of Virginia wanted to make sure that his slaves did not get drunk on the Queen’s Birthday in 1711, he had to bargain with them. In exchange for their good behavior on that day, he promised to allow them to become drink as they wished the following day. The bargain worked well for both parties: the governor had well-behaved servants on the Queen’s Birthday; the slaves enjoyed an extraordinary feast the next day. In the nineteenth century the master would probably never have bargained with the slaves; he would simply order them to do as he wished.

The slaves who worked for William Bryd of Westover, one of Virginia’s most prominent landowners, were not half as fortunate as those who labored for the governor. Byrd often whipped his slaves, many times for no good reason. Once he whipped one of his slaves to punish his wife. She had whipped one of his slaves after he warned her not to. So he retaliated by whipping one of her slaves. In his diary, where he tells about the incident, he does not say if his whipping had a chastening effect on his wife.