Pros And Cons Of Samuel Scott

Marriage on the plantations of Samuel Scott was a business decision. Ultimately, slave owner’s business interests were that the slave population increase. Large slave families create a large workforce and of course a larger profit margin for the slaveholder. Slaveholders determined which couple might produce more offspring. However, should a woman not produce within a timely manner, determined by the slaveholder, she would be either traded or sold away from her spouse. Forced marriages of very young men and women (as young as 12 or 13) did occur on the Poplar Hill Plantation. As an example: Scott determined that Philip Ceeny and Letty Holland should marry at the ages of 14 and 12. The union of Philip and Letty was an arranged marriage.

Samuel Scott might have been thought of as a benevolent slaveholder for sure an oxymoronic statement. Slavery was never benevolent! Slaveholder’s benevolence was 99% based on their financial outcomes, not out of concern for their slave population. However, invoices for both doctor and dental visits found in the probate of Samuel Scott show concern for his property. Doctor and dental visits were only as needed not as a preventive care measure. Compassion? No, not compassion one must maintain a healthy workforce for the forced labor necessary to run a plantation. Initially after reviewing the probate, there was the feeling, because the listings of slaves were in family groupings, Scott had compassion toward his slaves…this was not a compassionate consideration. Owning several plantations Scott had to have a system of tracking his slave population and by listing them in family units these listings were simple and

Some of these stories tell of how the slaveholders managed and operated their plantations, how slaveholders separated families one from another, and what types of relationships that fit within the moral parameters of the slaveholder (a moral compass was not a part of the reality of a slaveholder), and what types of relationships were unbeknown to the slave master. Family separation was a fact of life during the enslavement period. Pension files again show many a story of these separations of families one from the other. Heartbreaking stories of family members being moved to another plantation sometimes locally, but then there were the slaves being traded away too far off places. Poplar Hill slaves gave details of life on the plantation in their pension files, explained marital relationships, and the kinds of treatment doled out by the