The death of John “Red Shirt” Davis, an African American from Georgia, , seemed to be a very routine shooting for the Coolemee police. Though the death of Davis was not something the police were happy about, it seemed to be necessary because Davis had resisted arrest, according to the Raleigh Observer. The police officer who shot him was Special Officer Jess Saunders. According to Officer Saunders, “the man was shot when he reached for a hip pocket in what the officer thought was an attempt to draw a weapon.” Because the officers had discovered a quart of whiskey in Davis’s house, they felt he was going to draw a weapon on them. Early on in the case, “a coroner’s jury headed by coroner W.E. Kennen exonerated the officer, but when the body was being prepared for burial a second bullet hole was found in the Negro’s back.” With the discovery of this new evidence it would lead one to think that the coroner’s jury ruling would have been changed or overturned. Though Mr. Davis was killed under the assumption he had a concealed weapon, the Davie County police released that “this was the first man killed by Davie county Officers in more than 40 years.”

The death of a black man by a police officer was nothing new to black folks in 1933. However sad, this was an accepted fact of life for many black people in the United States, and especially those who lived in the South. While life in the United States for a black person was hard, it was nowhere harder than in the South, especially after the rebirth of the Klan in the 1920s and new sense of white supremacy. Whites wanted to keep a social order with them on top and blacks below and they were willing to do anything, however deadly, to maintain this. In many Southern states “physical assault against blacks was also a feature of the social order” says Herbert Shapiro. The violence against blacks sometimes went farther than just assault.

With the rebirth of the Klan also came the rebirth of fear among blacks for their safety and their lives. Once the Klan came back one of their main goals as Richard Schaeffer says was “to deal with a host of changes in the ‘American Way,’ including immigration of aliens to the United States and migration from rural South to the Northern cities of Negroes.” The way the Klan dealt with these changes were they began to lynch and once again instill fear. This resulted in many needless deaths of blacks, with stories of men being stolen from prisons with the assistance of police officers. While it was not uncommon for police to provide the suspect to the Klan, it was very common for those very Klan’s men to be police officers.

In the late 18^th to early 19^th century, women began to explore their intellectual talents outside of the education field. The Washington Post (1877-1954) published an article titled Women in Business, expressing the purpose of the exhibit mounted by the League of Business and Professional Women. The goal was to help others, specifically women, appreciate their business skills and embark in professional careers. Though many women were reluctant of this new initiative to help motivate women into entering the business world, for many, the exhibit worked as a reminder that they can succeed. During this time there was major controversy surrounding the issue of women taking on professional roles outside of the home. On the other hand, many exhibitors believed that this was only the beginning to a great balance between the social and domestic power of women.  By entering the business sphere, women were becoming more thrifty housekeepers, enhancing their role as mother’s and wives. The idea that women can fulfill her duties within the home, while still maintaining her experiences in business, proved to society that women could actually “do it all.”

In the book, Learning to Stand and Speak, by Mary Kelley, she focuses on the “big picture” between the relationship of women and education. The piece reflects on womens entrance into education and their external influences in achieving teaching careers. Though this might have been seen as a positive shift towards gender equality, in reality, women were still given many limitations; their futures were pre-destined even upon entering college. The women seminaries considered that education would be for the women’s own good, preparing them as intellectuals. While this was a step forward in women’s rights, this was only useful for the intellectual advancement of white women during that era. African American women were not participating in the usage of such educational resources. Rather, they were excluded for reasons of not “belonging” to a certain class or race. The seminaries were structured from the curriculum males followed, though it did not serve justice for the women. The all women seminaries began to take shape during the early 1980’s, when more classes were being offered within the science and language field (specifically Latin).

When thinking about the role of female educational institutions during these times, women were asking questions such as, what subjects will the seminaries cover? What are the career objectives for the women who attend such institutions? Rather than expanding the career opportunities for women, these seminaries, though preparing women for civil society, created barriers between women and the professional world. As the first reading suggested, exhibits such as the one created by the League of Business and Professional Women, encouraged women to follow the business path. Meanwhile, the seminaries were not providing such opportunities for all women. The real question lies whether all women, regardless of race or class-status, were receiving a fair education. Whether these seminaries actually prepared women for the “real world”, having the intellectual and skillful organization to compete with other men. While education was key for success, a more valuable education prepared individuals for all aspects of real-world situations. The home is where the women’s heart lies, but not for the purpose of secluding them from other vocational goals.

Slavery in today’s world has been deemed an injustice, no matter the circumstance.  Due to this, most people would disagree with the notion of a benevolent overseer in the deep American South in the first half of the nineteenth century.  To suggest otherwise would be a major untruth, with today’s logic.  I am however, suggesting that there were a wide range of systems and methods practiced when it comes to plantations.  Charles Lewellyn, the overseer of the Cameron family plantation in Greene County, Alabama, would be an example of an alternative style of treatment than we would normally think of concerning the enslaved population.  Reading through the letters concerning the Cameron plantation, he seems to be a fairly benign overseer.  He sees the slaves as livestock, but his compassion can be seen in his attention and care he gives to the sick.

It is obvious that Lewellyn cares for the welfare of his charges, but it is important to remember the dichotomy of his relationship with the slaves.  He is the “master,” and they are his farming instruments.  Just the same as a farmer would hope his livestock would remain healthy, Lewellyn seems to have the same concern.  He might hope they recover from an illness, but they are still just livestock in his eyes.  The best example of this, is when he mentions the death of a slave’s child, and a mule within the same sentence.  “Molly’s child died on Wednesday last it was only sick about four hours after it was taken, and one mule died since I wrote to you last”.  He might mention them by name, but the deaths still only require a minor contribution to his letters.

In terms of slave treatment, the Cameron family slaves received above average care when compared to the Manigault family’s slaves in Georgia, who took profit margins into greater consideration than slave care.  Lewellyn seems to have taken more care and consideration for the slaves under his charge, even providing them with extra attention if the need arose.  The owner of the property himself, Paul Cameron, also seemed to take notice of Lewellyn’s attention to slave care.  Lewellyn might have been too sympathetic for the owner’s preferences, when it came to the doctors’ care of the slaves, making Cameron worry that his doctor bill might end up being too expensive.  Further evidence of Lewellyn’s concern for slave health and welfare, can be seen in the overall reading of the letters we have of his.  Forty-four out of the Fifty-one letters written from Lewellyn to Cameron reference slave health or sickness.

Characterizing overseers as cold and heartless is forgetting individual differences across humans, and plantations.  The Cameron family estate is a prime example of this, with Lewellyn as its overseer.  He might have seen the slaves as if they were livestock, but he still treated them humanely, and with great care, when it concerned their health.

“In many places there are plenty of industrious and accomplished women who are skillful with the needle, or in the kitchen, and who could make many a nice things the public would like to have if there was only some way in which they could be got before the public.” The Augusta Women’s Exchange, noted the Atlanta Constitution, provided women with the means. “For the fee of one dollar per year any woman could send her work to the exchange to be sold without the need to reveal herself to the purchaser.”

The exchange was so successful that many women were able to work off their debts and have consistent enough business to support themselves and their families. Also, the paper suggested, some women who did not need to support their families found a way to earn their own money for such things as: “pin money for church, for summer trips, or to indulge in some of the fads women love.” The author went on to describe additional benefits the exchange offered.  For example, the woman in charge of running the exchange received a good salary something that at the time was very rare. Also, it allowed the women the ability to use their skills to their advantage while staying inside the bounds of their domestic sphere.

Women of the late nineteenth century had very few avenues available to them for earning a substantial amount of money. However, the Augusta Women’s Exchange allowed the women of the city to use their skills to produce profit. During the nineteenth century, women were confined to a specific social sphere, one that dealt with domestic affairs. This provided very little means for women to take care of themselves and or their families other than just keeping house.

Contrary to the article’s author, the idea of the women’s sphere was becoming increasingly less attainable because of the changing times. In the post-Civil War era there were numerous factors that helped bring about this shift of spheres. For instance, historian Anne Scott explained that the readjustment of the economy, the fact that poverty was everywhere, and the war itself all greatly influenced the need for women to earn money. More specifically, Scott proposed, that the war “had created a generation of women without men.” According to historian, Jacqueline Jones, however, these hardships have always been the case for black women.  This concept of the woman’s domestic sphere was not the reality for most women. Many women, like the ones mentioned in the article, did not have the luxury to earn money purely for the pleasure of purchasing trinkets. Most women had to earn money in order to help their families survive.

     Funeral proceedings were held on October 1, 1864 to lay to rest noted Confederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow. Greenhow worked in an elaborate spy network that encompassed Washington D.C. and the surrounding areas. Greenhow became one of the standouts in the spy-ring, supplying vital information to the Rebel forces at critical points during the start of the Civil War. Her greatest achievement came when she supplied Confederate General Pierre G.T. Beauregard with information concerning Union movements before the first major encounter of the Civil War. Her information helped secure the Confederate victory at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. Confederate President Jefferson Davis later acknowledged Greenhow for her loyal service.

     Union authorities apprehended Greenhow during the first year of the war. Allan Pickerton, a Union detective and spy, suspected Greenhow of participating in espionage as early as July 1861. Pinkerton imprisoned Greenhow in Old Capitol Prison in 1862, along with Greenhow's eight-year old daughter, Rose. Five months later, Greenhow was released with the stipulation that she be exiled to the South. Once released, Greenhow boarded a blockade runner to Europe, where she continually tried to raise support for the Confederacy in both London and Paris. In 1864, Greenhow left her daughter in a convent and decided to return to America. Her ship, the Condor, sailed for North Carolina but ran aground trying to escape a Union gunboat patrolling the blockade. On September 30, Greenhow boarded a lifeboat, hoping to reach shore. However, the boat capsized, and Greenhow drowned off the coast, dragged down by a large amount of gold in her pocket.

     Hundreds of Wilmington women lined the wharf awaiting Greenhow's remains. The funeral for Greenhow was organized by the Soldier's Aid Society and held in the chapel of Hospital Number 4. The body was surrounded by wax candles, garlands, and flower bouquets. Located on the bier, a Confederate flag paid tribute to the fallen woman who helped her country at any possible opportunity. Thousands of Confederate mourners paid their last respects. On Sunday, the body and coffin were moved to the Catholic Church of St. Thomas. After the funeral service, the coffin was carried to Oakdale Cemetery, draped once again with the Confederate flag. Greenhow was finally laid to rest, two days after her untimely death on October 1, 1864. Greenhow was raised as an orphan, grew to become one of the greatest Confederate spies, and died the heroine of a nation.

When we learn about slavery and the slaves’ masters we often get a picture of an evil cold hearted man, who would whip and torment slaves, while they worked in weather conditions that made it impossible to get any work done. We also often assume that their (the slaves) masters would force them to work whether they were sick or even near death. Using the plantation letters from the Cameron Family we can create a different interpretation. Through these letters we can use the weather as an indicator to determine how well slaves were being treated and cared for on the plantation. This is not to downplay the immoral act of slavery or to say that there were not slave masters who treated slaves poorly because they did exist. Rather, the theme of weather and its patterns, across the letters, can give us a better understanding of how slaves were cared for and treated.

Between the years of 1845 and 1847, there are several instances where Lewellyn (the overseer of the plantation) shares his account of the weather conditions and his inability to get work done on the field. “The Negroes will make an effort to get out the crop by the 25^th if the weather will permit it being done- but I fear they will not do so.” Even with good weather and the opportunity to get things done, illness has stopped their progress. “The weather here is very warm today, more like July than November, and yet we have a great deal of disease in our Negro family.” Regardless of the weather, if it was too hot or too cold, and without consideration for the slaves’ health, Lewellyn could have easily demanded that the slaves “weather the storm” and worked under any condition. Mr. Cameron, as well, could have ordered Lewellyn to put the slaves to work under any circumstance to ensure the production of his crops. The fact that they did not resort to those measures suggests that the overall health and wellness of their slaves were important. Productive, healthy slaves seems to be Mr. Cameron’s priority when he requested “the overseer to keep the [unintelligible] in the house as I [unintelligible] suffer more cold.” We can assume that Mr. Cameron’s request pertains to keeping the slaves inside to protect them from getting sick and to keep them healthy.

One may think that the Lewellyn’s or Paul Cameron’s intentions were for the good of the plantation and the production of the crop and not so much about the health and well-being of the slaves. Wilkins and Wilson suggest, with regards to the treatment of slaves, that most slave masters were not as brutal or sadistic as one is lead to believe. “The Slave Narratives are overwhelmingly favorable in the judgment of slave masters as ‘good men.’” They found out of 331 narratives that had a reference to a master, 86% suggested that their masters were “good” or “kind.” Some of those references also suggested that the master did not allow whippings and a number of them only allowed whippings while they were present.  Wilkins and Wilson also suggest that slave masters did not want slaves who were defiant and lazy. They wanted hardworking and responsible slaves.  “Such attitudes cannot be beaten into slaves. They had to be elicited.”

            It is easy to believe that slave masters and overseers treated slaves as less than human or measured their importance to the amount of labor they contributed to. We can use the weather as an indication of how slaves were treated. From what we learn about, we would believe that slaves were constantly placed in situations that jeopardized their health and well-being, in order to produce and gather crops. These letters help paint a different picture. Slaves were relieved from working in the fields when weather conditions prohibited them from doing so. With numerous amounts of “rain days” many would assume that an overseer or a plantation owner would over work their slaves to make up for the loss production of their crops. At least in this case, by analyzing weather patterns and conditions we can determine the treatment of slaves and the relationship between slave master and slave.

In 1847 inhabitants of the Mississippi River basin  had to deal with an outbreak of Yellow Fever.  Transmitted by mosquitoes, Yellow Fever caused symptoms including fevers, chills, headaches and nausea.  In the later months of 1847 the letters that overseer Charles Lewellyn sent to Paul Cameron about the condition of his plantation were fraught with the names of slave that were ill, recovering or had passes from work.  Many of the symptoms that Lewellyn described to Paul Cameron are commonly associated with Yellow Fever.  The illness that was affecting many of the people on the plantation came during the harvesting season a devastating time in Antebellum South for an illness to plague the plantations. 

In the letter sent to Paul Cameron on October 20, 1847, Lewellyn writes that somewhere between 15-40 slaves are sick with fever and chills.  In that same letter Lewellyn mentions that the neighboring plantations seem to fairing worse than they are when it comes to the illness among their slaves.  Though there is no specific mention of Yellow Fever as the illness that was affecting the slaves in Charles Lewellyn’s letters one can infer that this is what was affecting many of the plantation in the areas.  With widespread illness in the same area and symptoms that are commonly associated with Yellow Fever it seems likely that the 1847 epidemic was the cause of the illness that Charles Lewellyn had to deal with in the later months of 1847.

This threat of Yellow Fever could have been enhanced by the increase of rain fall in 1846.  In a letter dated April 30, 1846, Lewellyn discusses the impact of the increased rain on harvesting the cotton.  In this letter he mentions how the rain was so heavy he was going to need to replant some of the fields that had already been planted because the rain washed away what had been there.  Both the corn and cotton crops were affected by the rain.  Excessive rain would lead to increased areas of stagnant water, the preferred breeding ground for Mosquitoes. This increase in the Mosquito population  helped fuel the 1847 Yellow Fever epidemic only a few months later. 

According to the World Health Organization only approximately 15% of current cases of Yellow Fever reach the second more deadly stage of the virus that is deadly.  Though there is no concrete data that suggests what the mortality rate of Yellow Fever was in 1847, limited medical knowledge about the treatment of the virus probably led to more deaths then is witnessed today.  The Yellow Fever epidemic likely affected many of the plantations around Paul Cameron’s in Alabama.  Slaves spent countless hours outside during the harvest seasons increasing their exposure to the virus.  Charles Lewellyn would have been fighting a losing battle against Yellow Fever during the harvest months because of this.  Though even a Yellow Fever epidemic would not stop the harvesting on plantation of countless amounts of money in crops. 

There is numerous life situations featured in the letters of the Cameron Plantation. The focus of interest here is the life of the enslaved people as seen through the eyes of the Cameron family. Of course because of this we must interpret based on what we see in the letters. There are real human issues. These include affection, sickness, disease, travel, and home life just to name a few. The goal of this essay is to interpret a focused episode from the letters of the Cameron plantation. Specifically in this essay is the issue of disease and sickness, as well as the primitive medical care at the time, especially in regards to the enslaved families.

Medical care for anyone slave or free at the time of the Cameron letters was substandard and very primitive as compared to the innovations in medicine that we have in the 21^st century. There was no such thing as antibiotics. Most of the treatments that were used were just opiates to alleviate pain. If there was an infection in an arm or leg of a person, the limb was usually amputated. For an enslaved person, poor medical treatments were given. Often these were in the form of Ipecac, which was used to rid the body of poisons. Ipecac is not soothing. It causes the afflicted to vomit. It is important to remember that the enslaved persons were not in 21^st century office conditions. They were working outside. In the case of the Cameron letters this was in North Carolina and Alabama. The enslaved persons were harvesting cotton but also tobacco. Harvesting tobacco can make an individual nauseated when picking the plant with bare hands.

Imagine the scenario. An enslaved person who has been through a very physical ordeal all day with sometimes extreme temperatures gets a fever and perhaps a bad cough. Perhaps the individual is suffering from tobacco poisoning. Since the individual appears obviously ill, the overseer or owner of the plantation gives them Ipecac to make them vomit and dehydrate.

Another type of primitive medical treatment referred specifically in the Cameron letters was the use of Galvanism. This is a very macabre type of medical treatment. Modern 21^st century people will certainly recognize this from the famous story or Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. During the time and just prior to the Cameron letters this was a popular growing trend of medical science or really pseudoscience. It was often used on animals. This gives another perspective to the Cameron letters. The obvious here is using a technique usually reserved for animals also being used on the enslaved human individuals.

Galvanism is the use of electric current attached to living or nonliving tissue. Galvanism gets its name from Luigi Galvani (1737-1798). Galvani observed that the legs of dead frogs would twitch when in contact with metals or alloys that were magnetic and electrically connected with an electrolyte. Galvani misinterpreted that the source of the electricity was produced from the animal’s muscular and nervous systems. In reality it was the electric current.

The next development for Galvanism continued with Alesandro Volta who did come to the correct conclusion that the electricity originated from the metals. Since there were limited metals to work with he used copper and zinc. The word “volt” is taken from this man’s name. Volta was able to create the anode and the cathode with the copper and zinc to create a battery cell. However, Volta did not understand that it was the chemical reaction in the cell and not just the metals themselves. This concept of electric current stimulating a chemical reaction was discovered by Humphrey Davy (1778-1829). Davy hired a scientist, Michael Faraday who is credited with the rule of proportionality between the mass dissolved and the current flowing in the cell. This law is still recognized today as Faraday’s Law of electrolysis. It is used to convert corrosion densities to mass loss.

In the situation of the Cameron letters we have a passage describing this:

….On Monday last we had the pleasure of receiving yours and Margaret’s letters…..15 by Virgil who came up from Raleigh with them. It is with much regret and pain I learn from your letters that our Mildred’s condition remains so little improved since I parted from her. We can only trust I hope that Dr. Jackson with divine assistance will be able to find some remedy which will relieve her from her severe sufferings. I am most anxious to hear what affect the application of [Galvanism] has produced…..Letter to Duncan Cameron from Thomas B. Bennehan Oct. 22, 1846

It was thought by the medical knowledge of the time that if an individual’s condition, especially that of fatigue did not improve, then the individual was connected to an electric current usually to their legs or throat (allegedly the vocal chord). An electric charge was sent through the individual. Of course we know today that this can have further devastating effects.  The use of this practice was not limited to the enslaved people but was also used on people in general. In such a situation ignorance can breed ignorance.

         In late September 1846 several slaves from the Fairntosh plantation in Durham, North Carolina fell sick with malaria. Their owner, planter Paul Cameron, tells his father Duncan how he provided medicine for his sick slaves as well as the traditional herbs and teas.

“Since that time we have a great deal of chill and fever at the mill quarter in [unintelligible] I have made the best arrangements possible that I could for administration of medicine by cutting it up into portions one g[rain] for the elder ones and five grains for the younger [unintelligible] with a little oil with instructions for the use of our usual teas and no doubt I will get about as good accounts from them as from the other.”

Paul Cameron, like many slave owners, was carefully attuned to the health of his work force. Neither his concern over the health of his slaves however, nor his quickness to use newer medical treatments, necessarily indicate that Paul Cameron was a more humane owner of slaves, or that he possessed more egalitarian views. Rather, Paul’s use of medicines was part of a larger debate over medical treatment for slaves. The development and application of medical science was part of the ideological environment of the Antebellum South and an important argument for the justification of Slavery.

         The US South in the 19^th century was an unhealthy place. Epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, and typhoid ravaged the population, killing many of those infected. Malaria, though not as lethal as other common diseases, was a great concern for slave owners as it could severely weaken their work force. Spread through the Anopheles mosquito, the parasite causing malaria damages the blood cells and the liver and causes fever, vomiting, chills and headaches. Though it infrequently causes death, the initial infection can last several weeks, and relapses of symptoms can occur months, even years, after the initial infection. 19^th century physicians did not understand the origins of the disease, nor that it was spread through mosquitoes, but that did not stop them from prescribing a multitude of treatments for what they referred to as “fever and chills” or the “autumnal fever”. In the early 19^th century a debate arouse over the proper treatment of slaves who contracted malaria. 

         Physicians were not taught specific treatments for slave diseases, despite calls for such training, and owners and doctors alike were left guessing over the proper course of medical treatment. (Savit 1981) Treatments such as bleeding and blistering had fallen out of use on whites, but were still prescribed for blacks suffering from the same diseases. Prevailing medical thought considered slaves to be resistant to malaria and other tropical diseases, and “those few blacks who fell victim to the fever were treated in a simple manner. Hot bricks were applied to the feet, hot brandy or water given in large quantities, as well as hot snake-root tea containing forty or fifty drops of spirit of ammonia.”(Haller 1973) This spirit of ammonia is likely the medicine Paul gave to his sick slaves.

         Paul was confident that this minimal treatment would suffice because the leading physicians of his day believed blacks to be resistant to malaria and other tropical diseases. This belief served as a justification for the institution of slavery, as such resistance was seen as evidence of Africans’ natural suitability and inclination for fieldwork. Paul’s treatment of his slaves was modern in comparison to his Alabama overseer Charles Lewellyn, who generally took a less active approach to his sick slaves. Yet, this attention should not be considered to be an indication of a kinder type of slave owner or a rejection of the harshness of the plantation system. The modern medical science practiced in the Antebellum South created new justifications for the institution of slavery. Paul Cameron may have been modern in his application of medical science, but his motives were grounded in an ideology of racial inferiority that served to legitimize slavery. 

One of the more striking aspects of the Cameron plantation letters is the account they offer of the exportation of slave life from the areas of initial settlement on the Atlantic seaboard beyond the Appalachian mountains into the old Southwest and the Mississippi. Ira Berlin's Many Thousands Gone and Generations Of Captivity trace this development to the period of the American Revolution, when British promises of freedom to runaway slaves in Virginia and the Carolinas led to the evacuation of many slaves to the west, with predictable disruption to slave families and communities (Berlin, Many Thousands Gone, 264-265). With freedom for white Americans from British colonial authority came more opportunities to extend unfreedom for black Americans across the continent. After the war, natural increase in the slave population created a surfeit of unfree labor (first in Virginia and Maryland, but later on in the states further south), which augmented this flow of slaves to places like Greene County, Alabama, where the Camerons established a second plantation in 1845, toward the tail end of this period of westward transportation of the slave system. Paul Cameron’s correspondence illustrates the careful, methodical measures he took to undertake this endeavor, while the attempt by the slave Milton hints at the effect this forced migration had upon the enslaved population.

Throughout the autumn of 1844, Paul Cameron steadily made plans to establish a new presence for his family business in Alabama. In a pair of letters to his father, he describes contracting to purchase shoe leather in Petersburg, Virginia (series: 1.3.3, box: 40, folder: 934, date: 1844-9-5) and discusses his plans to acquire tents, buttons, and wagons (series: 1.3.3, box: 40, folder: 935, date: 1844-10-12) in anticipation of setting  his "people" upon the march of from Person County, North Carolina to the planned new plantation to the southwest (series: 1.3.3, box: 40, folder: 936, date: 1844-10-20). By November, Paul has seen the contingent off on its journey to Alabama (series: 1.3.3, box: 40, folder: 937, date: 1844-11-5), where he agrees to purchase plantations at both Candy's Landing and in Greene County (series: 1.3.3, box: 40, folder: 937, date: 1844-11-27, series: 1.3.3, box: 41, folder: 940, date: 1845-1-4). Cameron is quite meticulous about the preparations for the move. He is clearly a businessman of a conscientious nature. However, for all the pains he takes to ensure the smooth running of the westward march, Paul makes sure to travel to Alabama the following year in as luxurious a manner as one could in the 1840s. His attention to detail seems directed much more toward the furtherance of his financial interests in the expansion of his enterprise. While the slave Edmund becomes seriously ill during the journey (series: 1.3.3, box: 40, folder: 939, date: 1844-12-7), Cameron's main objection to his journey is the presence of blacks in his stage-coach (series: 1.3.3, box: 41, folder: 970, date: 1845-11-18). The attitude of the planter class is clearly illustrated: black people exist only as laborers and only merit consideration as agents of white economic designs. The damage to black people as people is of little concern.

This disregard for the wishes of real people is exemplified by the attempt of a slave named Milton to return to North Carolina in 1847 (series: 1.3.3, box: 43, folder: 1002, date: 1847-2-9). He is captured before even making it out of Alabama and returned to the Greene County plantation (series: 1.3.3, box: 43, folder: 1002, date: 1847-2-5, series: 1.3.3, box: 43, folder: 1006, date: 1847-4-8). While it seems counterintuitive that a slave would flee a plantation to return to another plantation, Berlin argued that most runaway slaves did not seek freedom, but rather absconded in order to visit family or otherwise maintain the bonds of community which the caprice of slave masters sometimes severed. To slave-holders like Paul Cameron, the move to the west as a simple business decision, to be executed with prudence and attention to detail, but with little concern for the human property involved. To slaves like Edmund, taken ill during a very long journey on foot, or Milton, run away back to the world he knew and had been removed from, the journey west was a brutal abruption.