f corn and four pounds of pork per week each' with which to eat and allowed to raise a garden and keep fowl. Although they had these privileges, it is unclear when they had time for these chores since it was mandated that they be in bed asleep by ten each night. (517). This overseer was considered very generous, yet still he had slaves that ran off. The plantation kept dogs just for tracking down the runaways; they were especially trained for this purpose.
             For slave Frederick Douglass, the food ration was strikingly different, being only eight pounds of meat per month and one bushel of cornmeal. (513). Slaves were not given beds and were too tired to even notice. Contrary to Lydia Child, who, although she was an abolitionist, thought that the slave master had to keep his slaves covered (522), Douglass says that the slaves got "two coarse linen shirts, one pair of linen trousers...one jacket, one pair of linen trousers for winter...one pair of stockings and one pair of shoes". When these clothes wore out they went naked until the next allowance day. He goes on to add that "children from seven to ten years old, of both sexes, almost naked, might be seen all seasons of the year" (513)
             A southern slaveholder also argued "the slaves of the South are protected from abuse or wrong by liberal laws...The laws protect the slave as fully as the white man: they go further, and, as the slave is supposed to be completely dependent upon his master, they require that he should be supplied with the nec
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