Rice and Slaves: Two Staples of Georgia
It is easy to forget that within the last century and a half slavery thrived in the South. With the modern tools used in farming today, it is difficult to appreciate the backbreaking work done by so many laborers for so many years. To understand that many of these workers did so against their will makes the matter even more difficult to grasp. Whether the idea of slavery seems comprehensible today or not, foreign as it is to the ideals of liberty, due process, and equal rights that developed after the Civil War, the fact remains that from 1750 to 1865, slavery was the backbone of the Georgian economy. In Julia Floyd Smith’s book, Slavery and Rice Culture In Low Country Georgia, the author discusses the slave driven way of life in coastal Georgia. Consisting of two primary foci, namely the production of rice and the life of the slave, Smith allows readers to understand the daily processes of slave life and the impact slavery had on Southern life in the antebellum era. In so doing, she brings back to life a vital part of the Southern heritage, with reminders of a past that should not be forgotten.
Smith begins by setting the stage in Georgia at the time before the introduction of slavery. Citing a general desire and need for slave labor, the inevitability of slavery in Georgia becomes only a matter of time. By 1753, time apparently had run out on the utopian ideals of James Oglethorpe and the Trustees. Slaves legally began pouring in, officially opening the slavery era in the state. Thus began the push toward a plantation society, as wealthier men began to acquire more land, expanding their production with the availability of labor. By the early nineteenth century, Smith writes, rice production had become large scale. With the concentration of wealth more heavily in the hands of fewer planters, coastal Georgia was well on its way to the elite driven aristocracy stereotypical of the antebellum South. However, Smith reminds the reader that the social and economic gains of the planters were entirely dependant upon the hard work of their slaves. The primary purpose of the early chapters is to develop the setting in which slaves had to live, so that the reader can see the inherent difficulty of the slave position and the benefits of which the slaves were being robbed, namely, the wealth slaves were generating for their owners. With the stage thus set, Smith proceeds to explain the rigors of slave life in earnest.
To relate the amount of work slaves did, Smith enumerates the process as it evolved on a rice plantation. First, slaves had to clear swampland. Then, slaves had to build a levee and a system of ditches for irrigation. After initial preparation, fields had to be readied for planting, which consisted of plowing, preparing the seed, and planting the seed. Each of these tasks had to be done by hand, as slaves did not have the benefit of modern machinery to facilitate the tasks. After planting, the fields had to be maintained intensively, constantly working the slave at his or her task. In conditions such as Smith relates, such as working barefooted in high summer temperatures, knee-deep in water, the slave’s daily routine was certainly dismal. To work such conditions day in and out, with no reasonable hope of benefit or escape, the slave must have regretted his or her lot in life. The idea of such misery is incomprehensible today, in an era of comparative luxury and ease, yet slaves bore their fate, as they had no choice. Smith’s disapprobation of this evil is obvious throughout the book, as will be seen.
Smith goes on to explain in more detail the physical mechanisms of plantation life, such as how overseers and drivers managed the daily labor routine and the overall affairs of the plantation. Smith notes that these managers were particularly useful to the plantation owners because many owners were frequently absent for long periods of time. Also, she explains the factorage system upon which the plantation economy was predicated. The factorage system entailed the provision of credit to the planter from a local merchant in exchange for the merchant’s handling of the plantation’s produce to the North for market. Smith points out, though, that this system further indebted the South to the North, as the system contributed to a drain in capital from the South. Smith’s discussion of the physical processes involved in the generation of wealth which resulted serves to exacerbate the fact that slaves were the indispensable source of a financial windfall from which they were, of course, excluded. The more profitable, then, slaves became, the more untenable their position became, as they were increasingly subject to the cruel irony that the longer they toiled, the more their owners would gain, and, consequently, the more the slaves would themselves lose. They were losing the benefits of their own labor.
On a more pointed level, slaves suffered far more than just deprivation of due profits. The actual forfeiture of life was an abysmal consequence of the slave trade that was all too frequent. Smith gives some harrowing statistics to prove the inhumane treatment to which slaves were subject in transit from their homelands on the African coast to North America. The flippant treatment of slaves had many manifestations, among which are several pointed out by Smith. Included are episodes of illegally smuggled slaves thrown overboard to drown, rather than the slavers being caught by the patrol, as well as chaining new slaves for extended periods to make them “manageable.”
Despite the frequently indecent actions of slavers and slave owners, as well as the inherent indecency of the entire slave system, slaves managed to hold on to their dignity and culture. Not all owners were ill in intent or treatment, as the case was generally that owners were only interested in making a profit, not degrading the individual slave. Nevertheless, degradation was a net result of slavery, and one that Smith readily explores throughout her book.
In this vein, as with some others, such as the realistic portrayal of daily life or the development of plantation society, Smith is on target with her conclusions. However, her delivery is not always easy to follow, as she chokes the narrative with statistics upon statistics, sometimes without much connection. The statistics serve a use, but she frequently fails to integrate them in a readable way. The result is that much of the book appears to be as if the paragraphs are written directly from Smith’s research notes and, as a result, the text often lacks a sense of continuity of purpose. Smith’s reliance on anecdotes to progress her discussion exceeds the limits one would find useful, as the infinitesimal anecdotes bog down the overall progression of her dialogue. Rather than accelerating an overall picture, Smith succeeds in giving the reader snapshots of individual cases throughout the book that, by the end, the reader has had difficulty connecting to the main of the work. This being said, though, it would be unfair to portray Smith’s work as being entirely amiss, as this is certainly not the case. Her research is thorough and her information is good, making her book a useful addition to the scant body of text regarding her subject. Essentially, then, what Smith lacks in delivery, she makes up in content.