"...Only two meals a day are allowed the house slaves- the first at twelve o'clock.... They are often kept from their meals by way of punishment. No table is provided for them to eat from...Each takes his plate or tin pan and iron spoon and holds it in the hand or on the lap. I never saw slaves seated rounded a table to partake of any meal. As the general rule, no lights of any kind, no firewood- no towels, basins, or soap, no tables, chairs or their furniture, are provided....I have repeatedly known slave children kept the whole winter's evening, sitting on the stair-case in a cold entry, just to be at hand to snuff candles or hand a tumbler of water from the side-board, or go on errands from one room to another. It may be asked why they were not permited to stay in the parlor, when they would be still more at hand. I answer, because waiters are not allowed to sit in the presence of their owners, and as children who were kept running all day, would of course get very tired of standing for two or three hours, they were allowed to go into the entry and sit on on the staircase until rung for. Another reason is, that even slaveholders at times fond the presence of slaves very annoying; they cannot exercise entire freedom of speech before them on all subjects.... House slaves suffer a great deal also from not being allowed to leave the house without permission. If they wish to go even for a draught of water, they must ask leave, and if they stay longer than the mistress thinks necessary, they are liable to be punished... Chambermaids and seamstresses often sleep in their mistresses' apartments, but with no bedding at all. I know of an instance of a woman who has been married eleven years, and yet has never been allowed to sleep out of her mistresses' chamber.-This is a great hardship to slaves."

Testimony of Angelina Grimke Weld. American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. (American Anti-Slavery Society: 1839)

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