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Letter, 1834
L.G. Cabell of Franklin County to Bowker Preston of Bedford

Cabell believed that slaves were ignorant and careless about their health and needed constant oversight.

"One thing I would suggest to you that I think of consequence. The entire ignorance and carelessness of negroes. They will never do right, left to themselves—You lost a little negro boy that might have been saved with the utmost ease. He had a bowel complaint & had been sick for nearly three weeks. Altho about that time I was frequently at the quarters not one word was ever said to me on the subject. Till one morning as I was coming away Old Ned accidentally hinted it to me. I immediately visited the poor little boy & found him dying from a common bowel complaint that the simplest remedy timely given would have effectually cured."

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