Section X, Absence of Pauperism, "The Southside View of Slavery", by Nehemiah Adams, 1854

"Section X: Absence of Pauperism:

"Pauperism is prevented by slavery. This idea is absurd, no doubt, in the apprehension of many at the north, who think that slaves are, as a matter of course paupers. Nothing can be more untrue.

Every slave has an inalienable claim in law upon his owner for support for the whole of life. He cannot be thrust into an almshouse, he cannot become a vagrant. he cannot beg his living, he cannot be wholly neglected when he is old and decrepit.

I saw a white-headed negro at the door of his cabin on a gentleman's estate, who had done no work for ten years. He enjoys all the privileges of the plantation garden, and orchard; is clothed and fed as carefully as though he were useful. On asking him his age, he said he thought he " must be nigh a hundred; " that he was a servant to a gentleman in the army " when Washington fit Cornwallis and took him at Little York' "

At a place called Harris's Neck, Georgia, there is a servant who has been confined to his bed with rheumatism thirty years, and no invalid has more reason to be grateful for attention and kindness."