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Dreamland
This page intentionally left blank
Dreamland
Amer­i­ca’s Immigration Lottery
in an Age of Restriction

CARLY GOODMA N

The University of North Carolina Press ​Chapel Hill

© 2023 Carly Goodman
All rights reserved
Set in Charis by Westchester Publishing Services
Manufactured in the United States of Amer­i­ca

Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data

Names: Goodman, Carly, author.
Title: Dreamland : Amer­i­ca’s immigration lottery in an age of restriction /
Carly Goodman.
Description: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2023] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2022035684 | isbn 9781469673042 (cloth : alk. paper) |
isbn 9781469673059 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: United States—­Emigration and immigration. | United
States. Immigration Act of 1990. | Visas—­United States. | Africans—­
United States. | Africa—­Emigration and immigration.
Classification: lcc JV6465 .G66 2023 | ddc 325.73—­dc23/eng/20220816
lc rec­ord available at https://­lccn​.­loc​.­gov​/­2022035684

Jacket photo of Yaoundé, Cameroon, by Carly Goodman (2015).

For Sylvia and Rose
And for the p
­ eople who move
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 Contents

List of Illustrations, ix

Introduction, 1

Part I

1 Undocumented and Irish, 13

2 Getting L
­ egal, 22

3 Past and Pre­sent, 33

4 Diversity, 42

5 Immigration Act of 1990, 54

6 Winds of Change, 68

7 Green Card ­Lawyers, 81

Part II

8 Walisu Alhassan, 97

9 Structural Adjustment, 106

10 Luck, 113

11 419 and Scams, 126

12 Post Office Rumors, 134

13 Falling Bush, 144

14 Cyber Cafés, 153

15 Soft Power, 169

16 Return, 183
 Part III

17 Amadou Diallo, 199

18 Homeland, 213

19 Obama’s Return, 227

20 Reform, 241

21 “Shithole Countries,” 256

Coda, 270
The Lottery Age

Acknowl­edgments, 279
Notes, 283
Bibliography, 343
Index, 371
Illustrations

Envelope from Ghana to Los Angeles, postmarked October 13, 1995, 2

Poster with Barack Obama, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 4
Poster advertising the American lottery, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 9
MyCom Internet Café and Computer Shop, Tamale, Ghana, 99
Lottery booth, Accra, Ghana, 116
Landair Travel and Tours, Kumasi, Ghana, 122
Gates Solution Center, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 154
Cybercafe Telephonie Internationale, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 156
Photo Dave, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 159
Loterie Americaine visa services, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 162
Photography and lottery entry ser­vices, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 164
Banner at Photo Prestige Photo Tsinga, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 167
Family visa lottery ser­vices, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 171
Billboard, Cape Coast, Ghana, 228
Visa lottery ser­vices, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 237
Shop advertising lottery ser­vices, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 275
This page intentionally left blank
Introduction

On eBay I bought an envelope for $3.99. It had been mailed on October 13,
1995, from Tamale in northern Ghana to an office suite in Los Angeles. It
was likely for sale ­because of the affixed stamps, four of them, each worth
100 cedis. The featured image on the stamps is Cape Coast ­Castle, a former
Eu­ro­pean outpost on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea through which hun-
dreds of thousands of African ­people w ­ ere moved before being shuffled onto
ships, bound for the Amer­i­cas.
The envelope is addressed to a rather official name: “New U.S. Government
Lottery,” a reference to the United States diversity visa, or green card, lottery.
Through this program, the United States makes immigrant visas available to
­people around the world who would like to make lives in Amer­i­ca. A person in
Ghana mailed this envelope, presumably to enter the lottery, spinning for-
tune’s merry wheel and hoping for good luck and a green card. The green card
lottery has come to play a power­ful role as one of very few channels for Afri-
can immigration to the United States in a new era of immigration restriction.
The Cape Coast C ­ astle stamps on the envelope are a visual reminder that
places like Ghana and the United States have long been linked together
through a history made by trade, exchange, and migration—­most promi-
nently the forced migration of enslaved p ­ eople. The fading images of the
­castle remind us of the roots of ­today’s global in­equality, of pro­cesses that
shape the directions of migrations even now. A symbol of conquest, theft,
and oppression, made into a national attraction and stamp, was casually af-
fixed to a dispatch that would trace a new route across the Atlantic.
The thin paper of the envelope is an artifact of the tremendous flurry of
global lottery-­related activity that began in the summer of 1994. Unlike
most other immigration policies, the lottery offered a chance of immigra-
tion to p
­ eople without ties to the United States. T ­ hese immigrants would
not be selected ­because of ­family connections, particularly valued skills, or
special humanitarian need. Rather, the lottery was run to enable p ­ eople
from “underrepresented” countries to gain the opportunity to migrate le-
gally, a prospect other­wise all but denied them. The early advocates for
this kind of program hoped it would benefit Eu­ro­pe­ans, whose experiences
Envelope from Ghana to Los Angeles, postmarked October 13, 1995.
Photo­graph by author.

of immigration restriction showed white policymakers how harmful such

restrictions could be. Offering immigrant visas by lottery would then al-
low for a flow of white immigrants to the United States in an age of largely
Asian and Latin American immigration.
The diversity visa lottery did that. But it also opened doors, long blocked,
to Black immigrants from Africa. When the lottery was introduced to Afri-
can countries, it arrived in a context of austerity, with many other emigra-
tion possibilities hindered, and it therefore fueled a cottage industry of
migration-­related ser­vices and a festive annual tradition. Banners, posters,
flyers, and signs announced the lottery’s annual start, and with it, a signal of
American openness and welcome. The lottery painted Amer­i­ca as a dream-
land. It was a gesture that p ­ eople understood as targeting African p ­ eople
specifically. It went against the restrictionist grain, allowing Africans a rare
alternative to a long-­standing sense of global marginalization.
In the 1995 lottery, 6.5 million entries from around the world vied for just
55,000 available visas. ­After having their names drawn as winners, lottery
registrants could then apply for an immigrant visa. ­Running an immigration
admissions program as a lottery traded ordinary bureaucratic sobriety for
a sense of whimsy. Rather than a set of criteria written by power­ful gate-
keepers, the lottery placed luck front and center, as if to acknowledge the
randomness that shapes our lives: where we are born, what rights we are af-
forded, ­whether we have the power to come and go as we please. T ­ hese de-

2 Introduction
pend on happenstance and contingency, rather than something earned—­why
pretend other­wise? More than 20,000 diversity visas would be issued to
­people from Africa in that first year, including more than 2,000 to Ghanaians.
The envelope I found on eBay ­wasn’t sent to a government agency—­even
if the address line suggested other­wise. I recognized the recipient’s address
as the private offices of an American attorney at a suite on Wilshire Boule-
vard in Los Angeles. I had seen the address printed with photos of the ­lawyer
David L. Amkraut’s face, on advertisements in Ghanaian newspapers from
the 1990s. Amkraut, I learned a ­ fter googling him, was sanctioned by the
Federal Trade Commission in 1997 for deceptive practices around the green
card lottery. He was accused of inflating his success rec­ord, sending mul-
tiple entries for his clients (which disqualified them), and then withhold-
ing from clients their identifying case numbers to coerce them to retain his
­legal ser­vices for the next step of the pro­cess.1 Intermediaries like Amkraut,
along with an array of local actors in Africa, sought to make a profit, or a
living, in an era that tended to elevate entrepreneurial daring. Such prac-
tices reflected the rising value of migration ser­vices in this era of global-
ization, especially t­ hose that tapped into and alleviated p ­ eople’s anx­i­eties
about approaching increasingly fortified U.S. borders. Amkraut denied the
charges but agreed to certain steps of redress, including offering ­free lot-
tery ser­vices to past clients for the next upcoming lottery.2
We ­don’t know if the envelope’s sender got lucky and won, or if they
availed themself of the opportunity to work with Amkraut again for ­free.
Maybe they received a visa, flew to the United States, landed a job, and
found an apartment. Went back to school, met a spouse, started a f­amily.
Wrote themselves into the American story. Over more than a quarter c­ entury
of the lottery’s operation, half a million p ­ eople from Africa have received
diversity visas to the United States. Altogether 1.2 million p ­ eople have been
issued t­ hese visas, adding to the diversity of American society, and bring-
ing their talents and aspirations to ­these shores.
In the 2020s, this object is a relic. This paper envelope contains a story of
duplicity and profit seeking. It is adorned with a historical symbol of the
slavery, plunder, and anti-­Blackness that patterned the modern world. And it
nevertheless testifies to the sender’s hope for the promise of the American
dream. ­Today, the lottery is conducted online. Indeed, its history is intertwined
with the internet’s history and the internet has ­shaped its spread through Afri-
can countries. And the lottery has continued to bring p ­ eople in, even as the
United States has moved away from the immigration generosity that the lot-
tery signaled, to embrace more punitive and harsh policies of restriction.

Introduction 3
Poster showing President Barack Obama holding a green card, advertising the
American lottery, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 2015. Photo­graph by author.
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regular field-work; until then no labour is required of them, except,
perhaps, occasionally they are charged with some light kind of duty,
such as frightening birds from corn. When first sent to the field, one
quarter of an able-bodied hand’s days work is ordinarily allotted to
them, as their task.
From the settlement, we drove to the “mill”—not a flouring mill,
though I believe there is a run of stones in it—but a monster barn,
with more extensive and better machinery for threshing and storing
rice, driven by a steam-engine, than I have ever seen used for grain
before. Adjoining the mill-house were shops and sheds, in which
blacksmiths, carpenters, and other mechanics—all slaves, belonging
to Mr. X.—were at work. He called my attention to the excellence of
their workmanship, and said that they exercised as much ingenuity
and skill as the ordinary mechanics that he was used to employ in
New England. He pointed out to me some carpenter’s work, a part of
which had been executed by a New England mechanic, and a part
by one of his own hands, which indicated that the latter was much
the better workman.
I was gratified by this, for I had been so often told, in Virginia, by
gentlemen anxious to convince me that the negro was incapable of
being educated or improved to a condition in which it would be safe
to trust him with himself—that no negro-mechanic could ever be
taught, or induced to work carefully or nicely—that I had begun to
believe it might be so.
We were attended through the mill-house by a respectable-looking,
orderly, and quiet-mannered mulatto, who was called, by his master,
“the watchman.” His duties, however, as they were described to me,
were those of a steward, or intendant. He carried, by a strap at his
waist, a very large number of keys, and had charge of all the stores
of provisions, tools, and materials of the plantations, as well as of all
their produce, before it was shipped to market. He weighed and
measured out all the rations of the slaves and the cattle;
superintended the mechanics, and made and repaired, as was
necessary, all the machinery, including the steam-engine.
In all these departments, his authority was superior to that of the
overseer. The overseer received his private allowance of family
provisions from him, as did also the head-servant at the mansion,
who was his brother. His responsibility was much greater than that of
the overseer; and Mr. X. said he would trust him with much more
than he would any overseer he had ever known.
Anxious to learn how this trustworthiness and intelligence, so
unusual in a slave, had been developed or ascertained, I inquired of
his history, which was briefly as follows.
Being the son of a favourite house-servant, he had been, as a child,
associated with the white family, and received by chance something
of the early education of the white children. When old enough, he
had been employed, for some years, as a waiter; but, at his own
request, was eventually allowed to learn the blacksmith’s trade, in
the plantation shop. Showing ingenuity and talent, he was afterwards
employed to make and repair the plantation cotton-gins. Finally, his
owner took him to a steam-engine builder, and paid $500 to have
him instructed as a machinist. After he had become a skilful
workman, he obtained employment as an engineer; and for some
years continued in this occupation, and was allowed to spend his
wages for himself. Finding, however, that he was acquiring
dissipated habits, and wasting his earnings, Mr. X. eventually
brought him, much against his inclinations, back to the plantations.
Being allowed peculiar privileges, and given duties wholly flattering
to his self-respect, he soon became contented; and, of course, was
able to be extremely valuable to his owner.
I have seen another slave-engineer. The gentleman who employed
him told me that he was a man of talent, and of great worth of
character. He had desired to make him free, but his owner, who was
a member of the Board of Brokers, and of Dr. ——’s Church, in New
York, believed that Providence designed the negro race for slavery,
and refused to sell him for that purpose. He thought it better that he
(his owner) should continue to receive two hundred dollars a year for
his services, while he continued able to work, because then, as he
said, he should feel responsible that he did not starve, or come upon
the public for a support, in his old age. The man himself, having light
and agreeable duties, well provided for, furnished with plenty of
spending money by his employer, patronized and flattered by the
white people, honoured and looked up to by those of his own colour,
was rather indifferent in the matter; or even, perhaps, preferred to
remain a slave, to being transported for life to Africa.
The watchman was a fine-looking fellow: as we were returning from
church, on Sunday, he had passed us, well dressed and well
mounted, and as he raised his hat, to salute us, there was nothing in
his manner or appearance, except his colour, to distinguish him from
a gentleman of good breeding and fortune.
When we were leaving the house, to go to church, on Sunday, after
all the white family had entered their carriages, or mounted their
horses, the head house-servant also mounted a horse—as he did
so, slipping a coin into the hands of the boy who had been holding
him. Afterwards, we passed a family of negroes, in a light waggon,
the oldest among them driving the horse. On my inquiring if the
slaves were allowed to take horses to drive to church, I was informed
that in each of these three cases, the horses belonged to the
negroes who were driving or riding them. The old man was infirm,
and Mr. X. had given him a horse, to enable him to move about. He
was probably employed to look after the cattle at pasture, or at
something in which it was necessary, for his usefulness, that he
should have a horse: I say this, because I afterwards found, in
similar cases on other plantations, that it was so. But the watchman
and the house servant had bought their horses with money. The
watchman was believed to own three horses; and, to account for his
wealth, Mr. X.’s son told me that his father considered him a very
valuable servant, and frequently encouraged his good behaviour with
handsome gratuities. He receives, probably, considerably higher
wages, in fact (in the form of presents), than the white overseer. He
knew his father gave him two hundred dollars at once, a short time
ago. The watchman has a private house, and, no doubt, lives in
considerable luxury.
Will it be said, “therefore, Slavery is neither necessarily degrading
nor inhumane?” On the other hand, so far as it is not, there is no
apology for it. It is possible, though not probable, that this fine fellow,
if he had been born a free man, would be no better employed than
he is here; but, in that case, where is the advantage? Certainly not in
the economy of the arrangement. And if he were self-dependent, if,
especially, he had to provide for the present and future of those he
loved, and was able to do so, would he not necessarily live a
happier, stronger, better, and more respectable man?
After passing through tool-rooms, corn-rooms, mule-stables, store-
rooms, and a large garden, in which vegetables to be distributed
among the negroes, as well as for the family, are grown, we walked
to the rice-land. It is divided by embankments into fields of about
twenty acres each, but varying somewhat in size, according to the
course of the river. The arrangements are such that each field may
be flooded independently of the rest, and they are subdivided by
open ditches into rectangular plats of a quarter acre each. We first
proceeded to where twenty or thirty women and girls were engaged
in raking together, in heaps and winrows, the stubble and rubbish left
on the field after the last crop, and burning it. The main object of this
operation is to kill all the seeds of weeds, or of rice, on the ground.
Ordinarily it is done by tasks—a certain number of the small divisions
of the field being given to each hand to burn in a day; but owing to a
more than usual amount of rain having fallen lately, and some other
causes, making the work harder in some places than others, the
women were now working by the day, under the direction of a
“driver,” a negro man, who walked about among them, taking care
that they left nothing unburned. Mr. X. inspected the ground they had
gone over, to see whether the driver had done his duty. It had been
sufficiently well burned, but not more than a quarter as much ground
had been gone over, he said, as was usually burned in task-work,—
and he thought they had been very lazy, and reprimanded them. The
driver made some little apology, but the women offered no reply,
keeping steadily and, it seemed, sullenly, on at their work.
In the next field, twenty men, or boys, for none of them looked as if
they were full-grown, were ploughing, each with a single mule, and a
light, New-York-made plough. The soil was friable, the ploughing
easy, and the mules proceeded at a smart pace; the furrows were
straight, regular, and well turned. Their task was nominally an acre
and a quarter a day; somewhat less actually, as the measure
includes the space occupied by the ditches, which are two to three
feet wide, running around each quarter of an acre. The ploughing
gang was superintended by a driver, who was provided with a watch;
and while we were looking at them he called out that it was twelve
o’clock. The mules were immediately taken from the ploughs, and
the plough-boys mounting them, leapt the ditches, and cantered off
to the stables, to feed them. One or two were ordered to take their
ploughs to the blacksmith, for repairs.
The ploughmen got their dinner at this time: those not using horses
do not usually dine till they have finished their tasks; but this, I
believe, is optional with them. They commence work, I was told, at
sunrise, and at about eight o’clock have breakfast brought to them in
the field, each hand having left a bucket with the cook for that
purpose. All who are working in connection, leave their work
together, and gather about a fire, where they generally spend about
half an hour. The provisions furnished, consist mainly of meal, rice,
and vegetables, with salt and molasses, and occasionally bacon,
fish, and coffee. The allowance is a peck of meal, or an equivalent
quantity of rice per week, to each working hand, old or young,
besides small stores. Mr. X. says that he has lately given a less
amount of meat than is now usual on plantations, having observed
that the general health of the negroes is not as good as formerly,
when no meat at all was customarily given them. (The general
impression among planters is, that the negroes work much better for
being supplied with three or four pounds of bacon a week.)
Leaving the rice-land, we went next to some of the upland fields,
where we found several other gangs of negroes at work; one entirely
of men engaged in ditching; another of women, and another of boys
and girls, “listing” an old corn-field with hoes. All of them were
working by tasks, and were overlooked by negro drivers. They all
laboured with greater rapidity and cheerfulness than any slaves I
have before seen; and the women struck their hoes as if they were
strong, and well able to engage in muscular labour. The expression
of then faces was generally repulsive, and their ensemble anything
but agreeable. The dress of most was uncouth and cumbrous, dirty
and ragged; reefed up, as I have once before described, at the hips,
so as to show their heavy legs, wrapped round with a piece of old
blanket, in lieu of leggings or stockings. Most of them worked with
bare arms, but wore strong shoes on their feet, and handkerchiefs
on their heads; some of them were smoking, and each gang had a
fire burning on the ground, near where they were at work, by which
to light their pipes and warm their breakfast. Mr. X. said this was
always their custom, even in summer. To each gang a boy or girl was
also attached, whose business it was to bring water for them to
drink, and to go for anything required by the driver. The drivers would
frequently call back a hand to go over again some piece of his or her
task that had not been worked to his satisfaction, and were
constantly calling to one or another, with a harsh and peremptory
voice, to strike harder, or hoe deeper, and otherwise taking care that
the work was well done. Mr. X. asked if Little Sam (“Tom’s Sue’s
Sam”) worked yet with the “three-quarter” hands, and learning that
he did, ordered him to be put with the full hands, observing that
though rather short, he was strong and stout, and, being twenty
years old, well able to do a man’s work.
The field-hands are all divided into four classes, according to their
physical capacities. The children beginning as “quarter hands,”
advancing to “half-hands,” and then to “three-quarter hands;” and,
finally, when mature, and able-bodied, healthy, and strong, to “full
hands.” As they decline in strength, from age, sickness, or other
cause, they retrograde in the scale, and proportionately less labour
is required of them. Many, of naturally weak frame, never are put
among the full hands. Finally, the aged are left out at the annual
classification, and no more regular field-work is required of them,
although they are generally provided with some light, sedentary
occupation. I saw one old woman picking “tailings” of rice out of a
heap of chaff, an occupation at which she was probably not earning
her salt. Mr. X. told me she was a native African, having been
brought when a girl from the Guinea coast. She spoke almost
unintelligibly; but after some other conversation, in which I had not
been able to understand a word she said, he jokingly proposed to
send her back to Africa. She expressed her preference to remain
where she was, very emphatically. “Why?” She did not answer
readily, but being pressed, threw up her palsied hands, and said
furiously, “I lubs ’ou, mas’r, oh, I lubs ’ou. I don’t want go ’way from
’ou.”
The field-hands are nearly always worked in gangs, the strength of a
gang varying according to the work that engages it; usually it
numbers twenty or more, and is directed by a driver. As on most
large plantations, whether of rice or cotton, in Eastern Georgia and
South Carolina, nearly all ordinary and regular work is performed by
tasks: that is to say, each hand has his labour for the day marked out
before him, and can take his own time to do it in. For instance, in
making drains in light, clean meadow land, each man or woman of
the full hands is required to dig one thousand cubic feet; in swamp-
land that is being prepared for rice culture, where there are not many
stumps, the task for a ditcher is five hundred feet: while in a very
strong cypress swamp, only two hundred feet is required; in hoeing
rice, a certain number of rows, equal to one-half or two-thirds of an
acre, according to the condition of the land; in sowing rice (strewing
in drills), two acres; in reaping rice (if it stands well), three-quarters of
an acre; or, sometimes a gang will be required to reap, tie in
sheaves, and carry to the stack-yard the produce of a certain area,
commonly equal to one fourth the number of acres that there are
hands working together. Hoeing cotton, corn, or potatoes; one half to
one acre. Threshing; five to six hundred sheaves. In ploughing rice-
land (light, clean, mellow soil) with a yoke of oxen, one acre a day,
including the ground lost in and near the drains—the oxen being
changed at noon. A cooper, also, for instance, is required to make
barrels at the rate of eighteen a week. Drawing staves, 500 a day.
Hoop poles, 120. Squaring timber, 100 ft. Laying worm-fence, 50
panels per hand. Post and rail do., posts set 2½ to 3 ft. deep, 9 ft.
apart, nine or ten panels per hand. In getting fuel from the woods,
(pine, to be cut and split,) one cord is the task for a day. In “mauling
rails,” the taskman selecting the trees (pine) that he judges will split
easiest, one hundred a day, ends not sharpened.
These are the tasks for first-class able-bodied men; they are
lessened by one quarter for three quarter hands, and proportionately
for the lighter classes. In allotting the tasks, the drivers are expected
to put the weaker hands where (if there is any choice in the
appearance of the ground, as where certain rows in hoeing corn
would be less weedy than others,) they will be favoured.
These tasks certainly would not be considered excessively hard, by
a Northern labourer; and, in point of fact, the more industrious and
active hands finish them often by two o’clock. I saw one or two
leaving the field soon after one o’clock, several about two; and
between three and four, I met a dozen women and several men
coming home to their cabins, having finished their day’s work.
Under this “Organization of Labour,” most of the slaves work rapidly
and well. In nearly all ordinary work, custom has settled the extent of
the task, and it is difficult to increase it. The driver who marks it out,
has to remain on the ground until it is finished, and has no interest in
over-measuring it; and if it should be systematically increased very
much, there is danger of a general stampede to the “swamp”—a
danger the slave can always hold before his master’s cupidity. In
fact, it is looked upon in this region as a proscriptive right of the
negroes to have this incitement to diligence offered them; and the
man who denied it, or who attempted to lessen it, would, it is said,
suffer in his reputation, as well as experience much annoyance from
the obstinate “rascality” of his negroes. Notwithstanding this, I have
heard a man assert, boastingly, that he made his negroes habitually
perform double the customary tasks. Thus we get a glimpse again of
the black side. If he is allowed the power to do this, what may not a
man do?
It is the driver’s duty to make the tasked hands do their work well. If,
in their haste to finish it, they neglect to do it properly, he “sets them
back,” so that carelessness will hinder more than it will hasten the
completion of their tasks.
In the selection of drivers, regard seems to be had to size and
strength—at least, nearly all the drivers I have seen are tall and
strong men—but a great deal of judgment, requiring greater capacity
of mind than the ordinary slave is often supposed to be possessed
of, is certainly needed in them. A good driver is very valuable and
usually holds office for life. His authority is not limited to the direction
of labour in the field, but extends to the general deportment of the
negroes. He is made to do the duties of policeman, and even of
police magistrate. It is his duty, for instance, on Mr. X.’s estate, to
keep order in the settlement; and, if two persons, men or women, are
fighting, it is his duty to immediately separate them, and then to
“whip them both.”
Before any field of work is entered upon by a gang, the driver who is
to superintend them has to measure and stake off the tasks. To do
this at all accurately, in irregular-shaped fields, must require
considerable powers of calculation. A driver, with a boy to set the
stakes, I was told, would accurately lay out forty acres a day, in half-
acre tasks. The only instrument used is a five-foot measuring rod.
When the gang comes to the field, he points out to each person his
or her duty for the day, and then walks about among them, looking
out that each proceeds properly. If, after a hard day’s labour, he sees
that the gang has been overtasked, owing to a miscalculation of the
difficulty of the work, he may excuse the completion of the tasks; but
he is not allowed to extend them. In the case of uncompleted tasks,
the body of the gang begin new tasks the next day, and only a
sufficient number are detailed from it to complete, during the day, the
unfinished tasks of the day before. The relation of the driver to the
working hands seems to be similar to that of the boatswain to the
seamen in the navy, or of the sergeant to the privates in the army.
Having generally had long experience on the plantation, the advice
of the drivers is commonly taken in nearly all the administration, and
frequently they are, de facto, the managers. Orders on important
points of the plantation economy, I have heard given by the
proprietor directly to them, without the overseer’s being consulted or
informed of them; and it is often left with them to decide when and
how long to flow the rice-grounds—the proprietor and overseer
deferring to their more experienced judgment. Where the drivers are
discreet, experienced, and trusty, the overseer is frequently
employed merely as a matter of form, to comply with the laws
requiring the superintendence or presence of a white man among
every body of slaves; and his duty is rather to inspect and report
than to govern. Mr. X. considers his overseer an uncommonly
efficient and faithful one, but he would not employ him, even during
the summer, when he is absent for several months, if the law did not
require it. He has sometimes left his plantation in care of one of the
drivers for a considerable length of time, after having discharged an
overseer; and he thinks it has then been quite as well conducted as
ever. His overseer consults the drivers on all important points, and is
governed by their advice.
Mr. X. said, that though overseers sometimes punished the negroes
severely, and otherwise ill-treated them, it is their more common fault
to indulge them foolishly in their disposition to idleness, or in other
ways to curry favour with them, so they may not inform the proprietor
of their own misconduct or neglect. He has his overseer bound to
certain rules, by written contract; and it is stipulated that he can
discharge him at any moment, without remuneration for his loss of
time and inconvenience, if he should at any time be dissatisfied with
him. One of the rules is, that he shall never punish a negro with his
own hands, and that corporeal punishment, when necessary, shall
be inflicted by the drivers. The advantage of this is, that it secures
time for deliberation, and prevents punishment being made in
sudden passion. His drivers are not allowed to carry their whips with
them in the field; so that if the overseer wishes a hand punished, it is
necessary to call a driver; and the driver has then to go to his cabin,
which is, perhaps, a mile or two distant, to get his whip, before it can
be applied.
I asked how often the necessity of punishment occurred?
“Sometimes, perhaps, not once for two or three weeks; then it will
seem as if the devil had got into them all, and there is a good deal of
it.”
As the negroes finish the labour required of them by Mr. X., at three
or four o’clock in the afternoon, they can employ the remainder of the
day in labouring for themselves, if they choose. Each family has a
half-acre of land allotted to it, for a garden; besides which, there is a
large vegetable garden, cultivated by a gardener for the plantation,
from which they are supplied, to a greater or less extent. They are at
liberty to sell whatever they choose from the products of their own
garden, and to make what they can by keeping swine and fowls. Mr.
X.’s family have no other supply of poultry and eggs than what is
obtained by purchase from his own negroes; they frequently, also,
purchase game from them. The only restriction upon their traffic is a
“liquor law.” They are not allowed to buy or sell ardent spirits. This
prohibition, like liquor laws elsewhere, unfortunately, cannot be
enforced; and, of late years, grog shops, at which stolen goods are
bought from the slaves, and poisonous liquors—chiefly the worst
whisky, much watered and made stupefying by an infusion of
tobacco—are clandestinely sold to them, have become an
established evil, and the planters find themselves almost powerless
to cope with it. They have, here, lately organized an association for
this purpose, and have brought several offenders to trial; but, as it is
a penitentiary offence, the culprit spares no pains or expense to
avoid conviction—and it is almost impossible, in a community of
which so large a proportion is poor and degraded, to have a jury
sufficiently honest and intelligent to permit the law to be executed.
A remarkable illustration of this evil has lately occurred. A planter,
discovering that a considerable quantity of cotton had been stolen
from him, informed the patrol of the neighbouring planters of it. A
stratagem was made use of, to detect the thief, and, what was of
much more importance—there being no question but that this was a
slave—to discover for whom the thief worked. A lot of cotton was
prepared, by mixing hair with it, and put in a tempting place. A negro
was seen to take it, and was followed by scouts to a grog-shop,
several miles distant, where he sold it—its real value being nearly
ten dollars—for ten cents, taking his pay in liquor. The man was
arrested, and, the theft being made to appear, by the hair, before a
justice, obtained bail in $2,000, to answer at the higher court. Some
of the best legal counsel of the State has been engaged, to obtain, if
possible, his conviction.
This difficulty in the management of slaves is a great and very
rapidly increasing one. Everywhere that I have been, I have found
the planters provoked and angry about it. A swarm of Jews, within
the last ten years, has settled in nearly every Southern town, many
of them men of no character, opening cheap clothing and trinket
shops; ruining, or driving out of business, many of the old retailers,
and engaging in an unlawful trade with the simple negroes, which is
found very profitable.[30]
The law which prevents the reception of the evidence of a negro in
courts, here strikes back, with a most annoying force, upon the
dominant power itself. In the mischief thus arising, we see a striking
illustration of the danger which stands before the South, whenever
its prosperity shall invite extensive immigration, and lead what would
otherwise be a healthy competition to flow through its channels of
industry.
This injury to slave property, from grog-shops, furnishes the grand
argument for the Maine Law at the South.[31]
Mr. X. remarks that his arrangements allow his servants no excuse
for dealing with these fellows. He has a rule to purchase everything
they desire to sell, and to give them a high price for it himself. Eggs
constitute a circulating medium on the plantation. Their par value is
considered to be twelve for a dime, at which they may always be
exchanged for cash, or left on deposit, without interest, at his
kitchen.
Whatever he takes of them that he cannot use in his own family, or
has not occasion to give to others of his servants, is sent to town to
be resold. The negroes do not commonly take money for the articles
he has of them, but the value of them is put to their credit, and a
regular account kept with them. He has a store, usually well supplied
with articles that they most want, which are purchased in large
quantities, and sold to them at wholesale prices; thus giving them a
great advantage in dealing with him rather than with the grog-shops.
His slaves are sometimes his creditors to large amounts; at the
present time he says he owes them about five hundred dollars. A
woman has charge of the store, and when there is anything called
for that she cannot supply, it is usually ordered, by the next
conveyance, of his factors in town.
The ascertained practicability of thus dealing with slaves, together
with the obvious advantages of the method of working them by
tasks, which I have described, seem to me to indicate that it is not so
impracticable as is generally supposed, if only it was desired by
those having the power, to rapidly extinguish Slavery, and while
doing so, to educate the negro for taking care of himself, in freedom.
Let, for instance, any slave be provided with all things he will
demand, as far as practicable, and charge him for them at certain
prices—honest, market prices for his necessities, higher prices for
harmless luxuries, and excessive, but not absolutely prohibitory,
prices for everything likely to do him harm. Credit him, at a fixed
price, for every day’s work he does, and for all above a certain easily
accomplished task in a day, at an increased price, so that his reward
will be in an increasing ratio to his perseverance. Let the prices of
provisions be so proportioned to the price of task-work, that it will be
about as easy as it is now for him to obtain a bare subsistence.
When he has no food and shelter due to him, let him be confined in
solitude, or otherwise punished, until he asks for opportunity to earn
exemption from punishment by labour.
When he desires to marry, and can persuade any woman to marry
him, let the two be dealt with as in partnership. Thus, a young man
or young woman will be attractive somewhat in proportion to his or
her reputation for industry and providence. Thus industry and
providence will become fashionable. Oblige them to purchase food
for their children, and let them have the benefit of their children’s
labour, and they will be careful to teach their children to avoid waste,
and to honour labour. Let those who have not gained credit while
hale and young, sufficient to support themselves in comfort when
prevented by age or infirmity from further labour, be supported by a
tax upon all the negroes of the plantation, or of a community.
Improvidence, and pretence of inability to labour, will then be
disgraceful.
When any man has a balance to his credit equal to his value as a
slave, let that constitute him a free man. It will be optional with him
and his employer whether he shall continue longer in the relation of
servant. If desirable for both that he should, it is probable that he will;
for unless he is honest, prudent, industrious, and discreet, he will not
have acquired the means of purchasing his freedom.
If he is so, he will remain where he is, unless he is more wanted
elsewhere; a fact that will be established by his being called away by
higher wages, or the prospect of greater ease and comfort
elsewhere. If he is so drawn off, it is better for all parties concerned
that he should go. Better for his old master; for he would not refuse
him sufficient wages to induce him to stay, unless he could get the
work he wanted him to do done cheaper than he would justly do it.
Poor wages would certainly, in the long run, buy but poor work; fair
wages, fair work.
Of course there will be exceptional cases, but they will always
operate as cautions for the future, not only to the parties suffering,
but to all who observe them. And be sure they will not be suffered,
among ignorant people, to be lost. This is the beneficent function of
gossip, with which wise and broad-working minds have nothing to
do, such not being benefitted by the iteration of the lessons of life.
Married persons, of course, can only become free together. In the
appraisement of their value, let that of their young children be
included, so that they cannot be parted from them; but with regard to
children old enough to earn something more than their living, let it be
optional what they do for them.
Such a system would simply combine the commendable elements of
the emancipation law of Cuba,[32] and those of the reformatory
punishment system, now in successful operation in some of the
British penal colonies, with a few practical modifications. Further
modifications would, doubtless, be needed, which any man who has
had much practical experience in dealing with slaves might readily
suggest. Much might be learned from the experience of the system
pursued in the penal colonies, some account of which may be seen
in the report of the Prisoners’ Aid Society of New York, for 1854, or in
a previous little work of my own. I have here only desired to suggest,
apropos to my friend’s experience, the practicability of providing the
negroes an education in essential social morality, while they are
drawing towards personal freedom; a desideratum with those who do
not consider Slavery a purely and eternally desirable thing for both
slave and slave-master, which the present system is calculated, as
far as possible, in every direction to oppose.
Education in theology and letters could be easily combined with such
a plan as I have hinted at; or, if a State should wish to encourage the
improvement of its negro constituent—as, in the progress of
enlightenment and Christianity, may be hoped to eventually occur—a
simple provision of the law, making a certain standard of proficiency
the condition of political freedom, would probably create a natural
demand for education, which commerce, under its inexorable higher-
laws, would be obliged to satisfy.
I do not think, after all I have heard to favour it, that there is any good
reason to consider the negro, naturally and essentially, the moral
inferior of the white; or, that if he is so, it is in those elements of
character which should for ever prevent us from trusting him with
equal social munities with ourselves.
So far as I have observed, slaves show themselves worthy of trust
most, where their masters are most considerate and liberal towards
them. Far more so, for instance, on the small farms of North Carolina
than on the plantations of Virginia and South Carolina. Mr. X.’s
slaves are permitted to purchase fire-arms and ammunition, and to
keep them in their cabins; and his wife and daughters reside with
him, among them, the doors of the house never locked, or windows
closed, perfectly defenceless, and miles distant from any other white
family.
Another evidence that negroes, even in slavery, when trusted, may
prove wonderfully reliable, I will subjoin, in a letter written by Mr.
Alexander Smets, of Savannah, to a friend in New York, in 1853. It is
hardly necessary to say, that the “servants” spoken of were negroes,
and the “suspicious characters,” providentially removed, were
whites. The letter was not written for publication:—
“The epidemic which spread destruction and desolation
through our city, and many other places in most of the
Southern States, was, with the exception of that of 1820,
the most deadly that was ever known here. Its appearance
being sudden, the inhabitants were seized with a panic,
which caused an immediate sauve qui peut seldom
witnessed before. I left, or rather fled, for the sake of my
 daughters, to Sparta, Hancock county. They were
dreadfully frightened.
“Of a population of fifteen thousand, six thousand, who
could not get away, remained, nearly all of whom were
more or less seized with the prevailing disease. The
negroes, with very few exceptions, escaped.
“Amidst the desolation and gloom pervading the deserted
streets, there was a feature that showed our slaves in a
favourable light. There were entire blocks of houses,
which were either entirely deserted—the owners in many
instances having, in their flight, forgotten to lock them up
—or left in charge of the servants. A finer opportunity for
plunder could not be desired by thieves; and yet the city
was remarkable, during the time, for order and quietness.
There were scarcely any robberies committed, and as
regards fires, so common in the winter, none! Every
householder, whose premises had escaped the fury of the
late terrific storm, found them in the same condition he
had left them. Had not the yellow fever scared away or
killed those suspicious characters, whose existence is a
problem, and who prowl about every city, I fear that our
city might have been laid waste. Of the whole board of
directors of five banks, three or four remained, and these
at one time were sick. Several of the clerks were left, each
in the possession of a single one. For several weeks it
was difficult to get anything to eat; the bakers were either
sick or dead. The markets closed, no countryman dared
venture himself into the city with the usual supplies for the
table, and the packets had discontinued their trips. I shall
stop, otherwise I could fill a volume with the occurrences
and incidents of the dismal period of the epidemic.”
On most of the large rice plantations which I have seen in this
vicinity, there is a small chapel, which the negroes call their prayer-
house. The owner of one of these told me that, having furnished the
prayer-house with seats having a back-rail, his negroes petitioned
him to remove it, because it did not leave them room enough to pray.
It was explained to me that it is their custom, in social worship, to
work themselves up to a great pitch of excitement, in which they yell
and cry aloud, and finally, shriek and leap up, clapping their hands
and dancing, as it is done at heathen festivals. The back-rail they
found to seriously impede this exercise.
Mr. X. told me that he had endeavoured, with but little success, to
prevent this shouting and jumping of the negroes at their meetings
on his plantation, from a conviction that there was not the slightest
element of religious sentiment in it. He considered it to be engaged
in more as an exciting amusement than from any really religious
impulse. In the town churches, except, perhaps, those managed and
conducted almost exclusively by negroes, the slaves are said to
commonly engage in religious exercises in a sober and decorous
manner; yet, a member of a Presbyterian church in a Southern city
told me, that he had seen the negroes in his own house of worship,
during “a season of revival,” leap from their seats, throw then arms
wildly in the air, shout vehemently and unintelligibly, cry, groan, rend
their clothes, and fall into cataleptic trances.
On almost every large plantation, and in every neighbourhood of
small ones, there is one man who has come to be considered the
head or pastor of the local church. The office among the negroes, as
among all other people, confers a certain importance and power. A
part of the reverence attaching to the duties is given to the person;
vanity and self-confidence are cultivated, and a higher ambition
aroused than can usually enter the mind of a slave. The self-respect
of the preacher is also often increased by the consideration in which
he is held by his master, as well as by his fellows; thus, the
preachers generally have an air of superiority to other negroes; they
acquire a remarkable memory of words, phrases, and forms; a
curious sort of poetic talent is developed, and a habit is obtained of
rhapsodizing and exciting furious emotions, to a great degree
spurious and temporary, in themselves and others, through the
imagination. I was introduced, the other day, to a preacher, who was
represented to be quite distinguished among them. I took his hand,
respectfully, and said I was happy to meet him. He seemed to take
this for a joke, and laughed heartily. He was a “driver,” and my friend
said—
“He drives the negroes at the cotton all the week, and Sundays he
drives them at the Gospel—don’t you, Ned?”
He commenced to reply in some scriptural phrase, soberly; but
before he could say three words, began to laugh again, and reeled
off like a drunken man—entirely overcome with merriment. He
recovered himself in a moment, and returned to us.
“They say he preaches very powerfully, too.”
“Yes, massa! ’kordin’ to der grace—yah! yah!”
And he staggered off again, with the peculiar hearty negro guffaw.
My friend’s tone was, I suppose, slightly humorous, but I was grave,
and really meant to treat him respectfully, wishing to draw him into
conversation; but he had got the impression that it was intended to
make fun of him, and generously assuming a merry humour, I found
it impossible to get a serious reply.
A majority of the public houses of worship at the South are small,
rude structures of logs, or rough boards, built by the united labour or
contributions of the people of a large neighbourhood or district of
country, and are used as places of assembly for all public purposes.
Few of them have any regular clergymen, but preachers of different
denominations go from one to another, sometimes in a defined
rotation, or “circuit,” so that they may be expected at each of their
stations at regular intervals. A late report of the Southern Aid Society
states that hardly one-fifth of the preachers are regularly educated
for their business, and that “you would starve a host of them if you
debarred them from seeking additional support for their families by
worldly occupation.” In one presbytery of the Presbyterian Church,
which is, perhaps, the richest, and includes the most educated body
of people of all the Southern Churches, there are twenty-one
ministers whose wages are not over two hundred and fifty dollars
each. The proportion of ministers, of all sorts, to people, is estimated
at one to thirteen hundred. (In the Free States it is estimated at one
to nine hundred.) The report of this Society also states, that “within
the limits of the United States religious destitution lies comparatively
at the South and South-west; and that from the first settlement of the
country the North has preserved a decided religious superiority over
the South, especially in three important particulars: in ample supply
of Christian institutions; extensive supply of Christian truth; and
thorough Christian regimen, both in the Church and in the
community.” It is added that, “while the South-western States have
always needed a stronger arm of the Christian ministry to raise them
up toward a Christian equality with their Northern brethren, their
supply in this respect has always been decidedly inferior.” The
reason of this is the same with that which explains the general
ignorance of the people of the South: The effect of Slavery in
preventing social association of the whites, and in encouraging
vagabond and improvident habits of life among the poor.
The two largest denominations of Christians at the South are the
Methodists and Baptists—the last having a numerical superiority.
There are some subdivisions of each, and of the Baptists especially,
the nature of which I do not understand. Two grand divisions of the
Baptists are known as the Hard Shells and the Soft Shells. There is
an intense rivalry and jealousy among these various sects and sub-
sects, and the controversy between them is carried on with a
bitterness and persistence exceeding anything which I have known
at the North, and in a manner which curiously indicates how the
terms Christianity, piety, etc., are misapplied to partisanship and
conditions of the imagination.
A general want of essential reverence of character seems to be
evidenced in the frequent familiar and public use of expressions of
rare reverence, and in high-coloured descriptions of personal
feelings and sentiments, which, if actual, can only be among a man’s
dearest, most interior and secret, stillest, and most uncommunicable
experiences. Men talk in public places, in the churches, and in bar-
rooms, in the stage-coach, and at the fireside, of their personal
communions with the Deity, and of the mutations of their harmony
with His Spirit, just as they do about their family and business
matters. The familiar use of Scripture expressions by the negroes, I
have already indicated. This is not confined to them. A dram-seller
advertises thus:—
“‘FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD.’
IN order to engage in a more ‘honorable’ business, I offer
for sale, cheap for cash, my stock of
LIQUORS, BAR-FIXTURES, BILLIARD TABLE, &c., &c.
If not sold privately, by the 20th day of May, I will sell the
same at public auction. ‘Shew me thy faith without thy
works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.’
E. KEYSER.”
At a Sunday dinner-table, at a village inn in Virginia, two or three
men had taken seats with me, who had, as they said, “been to the
preachin’.” A child had been baptized, and the discourse had been a
defence of infant baptism.
“I’m damned,” said one, “ef he teched on the primary significance of
baptism, at all—buryin’ with Jesus.”
“They wus the weakest arguments for sprinklin’ that ever I heerd,”
said another—a hot, red-faced, corpulent man—“and his sermon
was two hours long, for when he stopped I looked at my watch. I
thought it should be a lesson to me, for I couldn’t help going to sleep.
Says I to Uncle John, says I—he sot next to me, and I whispered to
him—says I, ‘When he gits to Bunker Hill, you wake me up,’ for I see
he was bound to go clean back to the beginnin’ of things.”
“Uncle John is an Episcopalian, aint he?”
“Yes.”
“Well, there aint no religion in that, no how.”
“No, there aint.”
“Well now, you wouldn’t think it, but I’ve studied into religion a heap
in my life.”
“Don’t seem to have done you much good.”