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 Contents vii

Using SPSS 450 The “Best-Fitting” Line 552

Practice Problems 453 Slope and Intercept 553
Notes 461 Calculating the Slope and Intercept 556
Goodness-of-Fit Measures 557
CHAPTER 12 Testing the Statistical R-Squared (r2) 557
Significance of Relationships in Standard Error of the Estimate 558
Cross-Tabulations 463 Dichotomous (“Dummy”) Independent
Variables 559
The Logic of Hypothesis Testing with
Multiple Regression 563
Chi-Square 466
Statistical Inference for Regression 565
The Steps of a Chi-Square Test 469
The F-Statistic 566
Size and Direction of Effects: Analysis of
Standard Error of the Slope 568
Residuals 475
Assumptions of Regression 571
Example: Gender and Perceptions of
Health 477 Chapter Summary 573
Assumptions of Chi-Square 481 Using Stata 575
Statistical Significance and Sample Size 481 Using SPSS 581
Chapter Summary 486 Practice Problems 588
Using Stata 487 Notes 598
Using SPSS 489
SOLUTIONS TO ODD-NUMBERED
Practice Problems 492
PRACTICE PROBLEMS 599
Notes 500
GLOSSARY 649
APPENDIX A Normal Table 656
CHAPTER 13 Ruling Out Competing
APPENDIX B Table of t-Values 658
Explanations for Relationships
between Variables 501 APPENDIX C F-Table, for Alpha = .05 660
APPENDIX D Chi-Square Table 662
Criteria for Causal Relationships 506
APPENDIX E Selected List of Formulas 664
Modeling Spurious Relationships 508
Modeling Non-Spurious Relationships 513 APPENDIX F Choosing Tests for Bivariate
Relationships 666
Chapter Summary 520
INDEX 667
Using Stata 521
Using SPSS 526
Practice Problems 532
Notes 541

CHAPTER 14 Describing Linear

Relationships between
Variables 542
Correlation Coefficients 544
Calculating Correlation Coefficients 545
Scatterplots: Visualizing Correlations 546
Regression: Fitting a Line to a
Scatterplot 550
 Preface
The idea for Statistics for Social Understand-
ing: With Stata and SPSS began with our
desire to offer a different kind of book to
our statistics students. We wanted a book
that would introduce students to the way
statistics are actually used in the social
­sciences: as a tool for advancing under-
standing of the social world. We wanted
thorough coverage of statistical topics,
with a balanced approach to calculation
and the use of statistical software, and
we wanted the textbook to cover the use
of software as a way to explore data and
­answer exciting questions. We also wanted
a textbook that incorporated Stata, which
is widely used in graduate programs and
is increasingly used in undergraduate
classes, as well as SPSS, which remains
widespread. We wanted a book designed
for introductory students in the social sci-
ences, including those with little quantita-
tive background, but one that did not talk
down to students and that covered the
conceptual aspects of statistics in detail
even when the mathematical ­details were
minimized. We wanted a clearly written,
engaging book, with plenty of practice
problems of every type and easily avail-
able data sets for classroom use.
We are excited to introduce this book
to students and instructors. We are three
­experienced instructors of statistics, two
sociologists and a political scientist, with
viii
more than sixty combined years of teach-
ing experience in this area. We drew on
our teaching experience and research on
the teaching and learning of statistics
to write what we think will be a more
effective textbook for fostering student
­
learning.
In addition, we are excited to share
our experiences teaching statistics to
­social ­science students by authoring the
book’s ancillary materials, which include
not only practice problems, test banks,
and data sets but also suggested class ex-
ercises, P­ owerPoint slides, assignments,
lecture notes, and class exercises.
Statistics for Social Understanding is dis-
tinguished by several features: (1) It is the
only major introductory statistics book to
integrate Stata and SPSS, giving instruc-
tors a choice of which software package
to use. (2) It teaches statistics the way
they are used in the social sciences. This
includes beginning every chapter with
examples from real research and taking
students through research questions as
we cover statistical techniques or software
applications. It also includes extensive
discussion of relationships between vari-
ables, through the earlier placement of the
chapter on cross-tabulation, the addition
of a dedicated chapter on causality, and
comparative examples throughout every
chapter of the book. (3) It is informed by

research on the teaching and learning of
quantitative material and uses principles
of universal design to optimize its con-
tents for a variety of learning styles.
Distinguishing
Features
1) Integrates Stata and SPSS
While most existing textbooks use only
SPSS or assume that students will pur-
chase an additional, costly, supplemen-
tal text for Stata, this book can be used
with either Stata or SPSS. We include
parallel sections for both SPSS and Stata
at the end of every chapter. These sec-
tions are written to ensure that students
understand that software is a tool to be
used to improve their own statistical
reasoning, not a replacement for it.1 The
book walks students through how to use
Stata and SPSS to analyze interesting
and relevant research questions. We not
only provide students with the syntax
or menu selections that they will use to
carry out these commands but also care-
fully explain the statistical procedures
that the commands are telling Stata or
SPSS to perform. In this way, we encour-
age students to engage in statistical rea-
soning as they use software, not to think
of Stata or SPSS as doing the statistical
reasoning for them. For Stata, we teach
students the basic underlying structure
of Stata syntax. This approach facilitates
a more intuitive understanding of how
the program works, promoting greater
confidence and competence among stu-
dents. For SPSS, we teach students to
navigate the menus fluently.
Preface ix
2) Draws on teaching
and learning research
Our approach is informed by research on
teaching and learning in math and statis-
tics and takes a universal design approach
to accommodate multiple learning styles.
We take the following research-based
approaches:
• Research on teaching math shows that
students learn better when teachers use
multiple examples and explanations
of topics.2 The book explains topics in
multiple ways, using both alternative
verbal explanations and visual repre-
sentations. As e­ xperienced instructors,
we know the topics that students fre-
quently stumble over and give special
attention to ­explaining these areas in
multiple ways. This ­approach also ac-
commodates differences in learning
styles across students.
• Some chapter examples and practice
problems lead students through the
process of addressing a problem by
acknowledging commonly held mis-
­
conceptions before presenting the
proper solution. This approach is based
on research that shows that simply
presenting students with information
that corrects their statistical miscon-
ceptions is not enough to change these
“strong and resilient” misconceptions.3
Students need to be able to examine
the differences in the reasoning under-
lying incorrect and correct strategies
of statistical work.
• Each chapter provides numerous, care-
fully proofread, practice problems, with
additional practice problems on the
text’s website. Students learn best by
x Preface
doing, and the book provides numer-
ous opportunities for problem-solving.
• The book avoids the “busy” layout
used by some textbooks, which can
distract students’ attention from the
content, particularly those with learn-
ing differences. Drawing on the prin-
ciples of universal design, our book
utilizes a clean, streamlined layout
that will allow all students to focus on
the content without unnecessary dis-
tractions.4 Boxes are clearly labeled
as either “In Depth,” which provide
more detailed discussion or coverage
of more complex topics, or “Applica-
tion,” which provide additional exam-
ples. We avoid sidebars; terms defined
in the glossary are bolded and defined
in the text, not in a sidebar.
• In keeping with principles of universal
design, we use both text and images to
explain material (with more figures
and illustrations than in many books).
3) Incorporates real-world
research and a real-world
approach to the use of
statistics
Each chapter begins with an engaging
real-world social science question and
examples from research. Chapters inte-
grate examples and applications through-
out. Chapters raise real-world questions
that can be addressed using a given tech-
nique, explain the technique, provide an
example using the same question, and
show how related questions can also be
addressed using Stata or SPSS. We use
data sets that are widely used in the social
sciences, including the General Social Sur-
vey, American National Election Study,
World Values Survey, and School Survey
on Crime and Safety. Applied questions
draw from sociology, political science,
criminology, and related fields. Several
data sets, including all of those used in
the software sections, are available to stu-
dents and instructors (in both Stata and
SPSS formats) through the textbook’s
website. By using and making available
major social science data sets, we engage
students in a problem-focused effort to
make sense of real and engaging data
and enable them to ask and answer their
own questions. Robust ancillary mate-
rials, such as sample class exercises and
assignments, make it easy for instructors
to structure students’ engagement with
these data. The SPSS and Stata sections at
the end of each chapter allow students to
follow along.
Throughout the book, we discuss
­issues and questions that working ­social
scientists routinely confront, such as how
to use missing data, recode variables
­(including conceptual and statistical con-
siderations), combine variables into new
measures, think about outliers or atypi-
cal cases, choose appropriate measures,
weigh considerations of causation, and
interpret results.
The focus in every chapter on relation-
ships between variables or comparisons
across groups also reflects our commit-
ment to showing students the power of
statistics to answer important real-world
questions.
4) Uses accessible, non-
condescending approach
and tone
We have written a text that is student-friendly
but not condescending. We have found that,

in an effort to assuage students’ anxiety
about statistics, some texts strike a tone that
communicates the expectation that students
lack confidence in their abilities. We are
conscious of the possibility that addressing
students with the assumption that they hate
or are intimidated by statistics could acti-
vate stereotype threat—the well-established
fact that, when students feel that they are
expected to perform poorly, their anxiety
over disproving that stereotype makes their
performance worse than it otherwise would
be. In selecting examples, we have remained
alert to the risk of stereotype threat, choos-
ing examples that do not activate (or even
challenge) gender or racial stereotypes
about academic performance.
5) Balances calculation
and concepts
This book is aimed at courses that teach
statistics from the perspective of social
science. Thus, the book frames the point
of learning statistics as the analysis of
important social science questions. While
we include some formulas and hand cal-
culation, we do so in order to help stu-
dents understand where the numbers
come from. We believe students need to
be able to reason statistically, not simply
use software to produce results, but we
recognize that most working research-
ers rely on statistical software, and we
strike a balance among these skills. At the
same time, we spend more time on con-
ceptual understanding, including more
in-depth consideration of topics relating
to causality, and we include topics often
omitted from other texts such as the use
of confidence intervals as a follow-up to
a hypothesis test. A lighter focus on hand
calculation opens up time in the semester
Preface xi
for topics that are most important to
understanding statistical social sciences.
Our aim is to give students the tools
they might use as working ­ researchers
in a variety of professions (from jobs in
small organizations where they might be
reading and writing up external data or
doing program evaluation, to research
or data analysis jobs) and prepare them
for ­higher-level statistics classes if they
choose to take them.
For Instructors
Organization of the Text
The textbook begins with descriptive sta-
tistics in chapters 2 through 5. One key dif-
ference from many introductory statistics
texts is that we introduce cross-tabulations
early, after frequency distributions and
before central tendency and variability.
In our experience as instructors, we have
noticed that students often begin think-
ing about relationships between variables
at the very beginning of the class, asking
questions about how groups differ in their
frequency distributions of some variable,
for example. Cross-tabulations follow nat-
urally at this point in the class and allow
students to engage in real-world data anal-
ysis and investigate questions of causality
relatively early in the course. Chapters
6 and 7 lay the foundation for inferential
statistics, covering probability, the nor-
mal distribution, and sampling distribu-
tions. We cover elementary probability
in the context of the normal distribution,
with a focus on the logic of probability
and probabilistic reasoning in order to lay
the groundwork for an understanding of
inferential statistics. Chapters 8 through
xii Preface
12 cover the basics of inferential statistics,
including confidence intervals, hypothesis
testing, z- and t-tests, analysis of v­ ariance,
and chi-square. C ­hapter 13, unusual
among introductory statistics texts, focuses
on the logic of causality and control vari-
ables. Most existing texts address this topic
more briefly (or not at all), but, in our expe-
rience, it is an important topic that we all
supplement in lecture. Finally, chapter 14
covers correlation and regression. While
that chapter is pitched to an introductory
level, we pay more attention to multiple
regression than do many texts, because it
is so widely used, and we have a box on
logistic regression to introduce students
to the range of models that working social
scientists employ.
Instructors who wish to cover chap-
ters in a different order—for example,
delaying cross-tabulations until later in
the s­emester—can readily do so. Some
courses may not cover probability or
analysis of variance, and those chapters
can be omitted. For instructors who want
to follow the order of this book in their
class, the ancillary materials make it easy
to do so.
For Students
In a course evaluation, one of our students
offered advice to future students:
Use the textbook! it is incredibly specific
and helpful.
We agree, and not just because we wrote
it! We suggest reading the assigned sec-
tion of the chapter before class and work-
ing the example problems, pencil in hand,
as you read. Make a note of anything you
don’t understand and ask questions or
attend especially to that material in class.
After class, look back at the “Chapter
Summary” and work the practice prob-
lems to consolidate your understanding.
If you found a chapter especially difficult
on your first pass through, try to reread
it after you have covered the material in
class. This may seem time-consuming, but
you not only will improve your under-
standing (and your grade) but will save
time when it comes to studying for mid-
term and final exams or completing class
projects. As another student explained:
The textbook format let me go through
the material from class at a slower
pace and I could turn to it for step-by-
step help in doing the assignments.
Similarly, you should look through the
software sections before you conduct
these exercises in class or lab. You do not
need to try to memorize the SPSS or Stata
commands, but familiarize yourself with
the procedures and the reasons for them.
As with the rest of the chapter, hands-on
practice is key here, too.
Remember, you are taking this class
because you want to understand the social
world. As another of our students wrote:
If you are not too familiar with work-
ing with numbers, that is just fine!
This course is designed as an analyt-
ical course which means that you will
be focusing more so on the meaning
behind numbers and statistics rather
than just focusing on finding “correct”
answers.
The companion website contains more
study materials and gives you access to

the data sets used for the software sections
in the textbook. You can use these data sets
and your newfound skill in SPSS or Stata
to investigate questions you are interested
in, beyond those we cover.
Chapter 1 contains more tips on study-
ing and learning as well as overcoming
math anxiety.
Ancillaries
This book is accompanied by a learning
package, written by the authors, that is
designed to enhance the experience of
­ cepts. For each chapter, students will have
both instructors and students.
For Instructors
Instructor’s Manual with Solutions.
This valuable resource includes a sam-
ple course syllabus and links to the pub-
licly available data sets used in the Stata
and SPSS sections of the text. For each
chapter, it includes lecture notes, sug-
gested classroom activities, discussion
questions, and the solutions to the prac-
tice problems. The Instructor’s Manual
with Solutions is available to adopt-
ers for download on the text’s catalog
page at https://rowman.com/ISBN/
9781538109830.
Test Bank. The Test Bank includes both
short answer and multiple choice items
and is available in either Word or Respon-
dus format. In either format, the Test Bank
can be fully edited and customized to best
meet your needs. The Test Bank is avail-
able to adopters for download on the text’s
catalog page at https://rowman.com/
ISBN/9781538109830.
Preface xiii
PowerPoint® Slides. The PowerPoint
presentation provides lecture slides for
every chapter. In addition, multiple choice
review slides for classroom use are avail-
able for each chapter. The presentation is
available to adopters for download on the
text’s catalog page at https://rowman.
com/ISBN/9781538109830.
For Students
Companion Website. Accompanying the
text is an open-access Companion Website
designed to reinforce key topics and con-
access to:
Publicly available data sets used in the
Stata and SPSS sections
Flashcards of key concepts
Discussion questions
Students can access the Companion
Website from their computers or mobile
devices at https://textbooks.rowman.
com/whittier.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to many manuscript
­reviewers, both those who are identified
here and those who chose to remain anon-
ymous, for their in-depth and thoughtful
comments as we developed this text. We
are fortunate to have benefited from their
knowledgeable and helpful input. We
thank the following reviewers:
Jacqueline Bergdahl, Department of
Sociology and Anthropology, Wright
State University
xiv Preface
Christopher F. Biga, Department of Sociol­
ogy, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Andrea R. Burch, Department of Sociol-
ogy, Alfred University
Sarah Croco, Department of Government,
University of Maryland—College Park
Michael Danza, Department of Sociology,
Copper Mountain College
William Douglas, Department of Commu-
nication, University of Houston
Ginny Garcia-Alexander, Department of
Sociology, Portland State University
Donald Gooch, Department of Govern-
ment, Stephen F. Austin State University
J. Patrick Henry, Department of Sociology,
Eckerd College
Dadao Hou, Department of Sociology,
Texas A&M University
Kyungkook Kang, Department of Political
Science, University of Central Florida
Omar Keshk, Department of International
Relations, Ohio State University
Pamela Leong, Department of Sociology,
Salem State University
Kyle C. Longest, Department of Sociology,
Furman University
Jie Lu, Department of Government, Amer-
ican University—Kogod School of
Business
Catherine Moran, Department of Sociol-
ogy, University of New Hampshire
Dawne Mouzon, Department of Pub-
lic Policy, Rutgers University—New
Brunswick—Livingston
Dennis Patterson, Department of Political
Science, Texas Tech University
Michael Restivo, Department of Sociology,
SUNY Geneseo
Jeffrey Stone, Department of Sociology,
California State University—Los Angeles
Jeffrey Timberlake, Department of Sociol-
ogy, University of Cincinnati
We also thank our research assistants at
Smith College. Sarah Feldman helped
with generating clear figures and
­practice problems and gave feedback on
the text early on, Elaona Lemoto assisted
with the final stages, and Sydney Pine
helped with the ancillary materials.
Dan B ­ennet, from the Smith College
­Information Technology Media Produc-
tion department, helped us figure out
how to generate high-quality screen-
shots for the SPSS and Stata sections.
Leslie King offered helpful feedback
on early drafts of some chapters, and
Bobby Innes-Gold read and c­ ommented
on some chapters.
At Rowman & Littlefield, we are grate-
ful to Nancy Roberts and Megan Manzano
for their help as we developed and wrote
the book and Alden Perkins for her coor-
dination of the production process. Aswin
Venkateshwaran, Ramanan Sundararajan,
and Deepika Velumani at Integra expertly
shepherded the copy-editing and produc-
tion process. We are grateful to Bill ­Rising
of Stata's author support program for his
detailed comments on the accuracy of the
text and the Stata code. We also thank
Sarah Perkins for mathematical proof-
reading. Amy Whitaker coordinated and
executed the sales and marketing efforts.
Finally, our greatest thanks go to
our students. Their questions, points of
confusion, and enthusiasm for learning
helped us craft this text and inspire us in
our teaching. This book is dedicated to
them.
 Preface xv

Notes
1
S. Friel. 2007. “The Research Frontier: Where Tech-
nology Interacts with the Teaching and Learning of
Data Analysis.” In M. K. Heid and G. W. Blume (eds.),
­Research on Technology and the Teaching and Learn-
ing of ­Mathematics: Syntheses and Perspectives,
Volume 2 (pp. 279–331). Greenwich: Information Age
Publishing, Inc.
2
J. R. Star. 2016. “Small Steps Forward: Improving Math-
ematics Instruction Incrementally.” Phi Delta Kappan 97:
58–62.
3
J. Garfield and D. Ben-Zvi. 2007. “How Students Learn
Statistics Revisited: A Current Review of Research on
Teaching and Learning Statistics.” International Statisti-
cal Review 75: 372–396.
4
S. E. Burgstahler. 2015. Universal Design in Higher
­Education: From Principles to Practice. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard Education Press.
5
S. J. Spencer, C. Logel, and P. G. Davies. 2016.
­“Stereotype Threat.” Annual Review of Psychology 67:
415–437.
 About the Authors
Nancy Whittier is Sophia Smith Professor of
Sociology at Smith College. She has taught
statistics and research methods for twenty-
five years and also teaches classes on
gender, sexuality, and social movements.
She is the author of Frenemies: Feminists,
Conservatives, and Sexual Violence; The Pol-
itics of Child Sexual Abuse: Emotions, Social
Movements, and the State; Feminist Gen-
erations and numerous articles on social
movements, gender, and sexual violence.
She is co-editor (with David S. Meyer and
Belinda Robnett) of Social Movements: Iden-
tities, Culture, and the State and (with Verta
Taylor and Leila Rupp) Feminist Frontiers.
Tina Wildhagen is Associate Professor
of Sociology and Dean of the Sophomore
Class at Smith College. She has taught sta-
tistics and quantitative research methods
for more than a decade and also teaches
courses on privilege and power in Amer-
ican education and inequality in higher
education. Her research and teaching
xvi
interests focus on social inequality in
the American education system and on
first-generation college students. Her
work appears in various scholarly jour-
nals, including The Sociological Quarterly,
Sociological Perspectives, The Teachers Col-
lege Record, The Journal of Negro Education
and Sociology Compass.
Howard J. Gold is Professor of Govern-
ment at Smith College. He has taught statis-
tics for thirty years and also teaches courses
on American elections, public opinion
and the media, and political behavior. His
research focuses on public opinion, par-
­
tisanship, and voting behavior. He is the
co-author (with Donald Baumer) of Par-
ties, Polarization and Democracy in the United
States and author of Hollow M ­ andates: Amer-
ican Public Opinion and the Conservative Shift.
His work has also ­appeared in American
Politics Quarterly, P ­olitical Research Quar-
terly, Polity, Public Opinion Quarterly, and
the Social Science Journal.
 Introduction
Chapter 1 Using Statistics to Study the
Social World

Why Study Statistics?

We all live in social situations. We observe our surroundings, are socialized into our
cultures, navigate social norms, make political judgments and decisions, and participate
in social institutions. Social sciences assume that what we can see as individuals is not
the whole story of our social world. Political and social institutions and processes exist
on a large scale that is difficult to see without systematic research. For most students
in a social science statistics class, this basic insight is part of what drove your interest
in this field. Maybe you want to understand political processes more thoroughly,
understand how inequalities are produced, or understand the operation of the criminal
justice system.
Many students reading this book are taking a statistics class because it is required
for their major. Some readers are passionate about statistics, but most of you are
­probably mainly interested in sociology, political science, criminology, anthropol-
ogy, education, or whatever your specific major is. Whatever your specific interest,
statistics can deepen your understanding and build your toolkit for communicating
social science insights to diverse audiences. You may think of statistics as a form
of math, but, in fact, statistics are more about thinking with numbers than they are
about ­computation. Although we do cover some simple computation in this book, our
emphasis is on understanding the logic and application of statistics and interpreting
their meaning for concrete topics in the social sciences. There is a good reason that
statistics are required for many social science majors: Statistical methods can tell us
a lot about the most interesting and important questions that social scientists study.
Statistics also can tell you a lot about the questions that motivated your own interest
in social sciences.

1
2 CHAPTER 1  Introduction

Statistics and quantitative data are important tools for understanding large-scale
social and political processes and institutions as well as how these structures shape
individual lives. They help us to comprehend trends and patterns that are too large for
us to see in other ways. Statistics do this in three main ways. First, they help us simply
to describe large-scale patterns. For example, what is the average income of residents in
a given state? Second, statistics help us determine the factors that shape these patterns.
This includes simple comparisons, such as how income varies by gender or by age.
It also includes more complicated mathematical models that can show how multiple
forces shape a given outcome. How do gender, age, race, and education interact to
shape income, for example? Third, statistics help us understand how and whether we
can generalize from data gathered from only some members of a group to draw con-
clusions about all members of that group. This aspect of statistics, called inferential sta-
tistics, uses ideas about probability to determine what kinds of generalizations we can
make. It is what allows researchers to draw meaningful conclusions from data about
relatively small numbers of people.
In this book, we emphasize what we can do with statistics, focusing on real social
science research and analyzing real data. Readers of this book will develop a strong
sense of how quantitative social scientists conduct their research and will get plenty
of practice in analyzing social science data. Not all of this book’s readers will pursue
careers as researchers, but many of you will have careers that include analyzing and
presenting information. And, all of you face the task of making sense of mountains
of information, including social science research findings, communicated by various
­media. This book provides essential tools for doing so.
Recently, some commentators have noted that we have entered a “post-fact,” or
“post-truth,” era. People mean different things by this, but one meaning is that the
sheer volume of people and agencies producing facts has multiplied to the point that
an expert can be found to attest to the accuracy of just about any claim.1 Just think of
the amount of information that you are exposed to on a weekly basis from various
social media platforms, websites, television, and other forms of media. How do you
make sense of it? How do you, for example, decide whether a claim you read online is
true or false? Statistics can powerfully influence opinion because they use numerical
data, which American culture assumes are objective and legitimate. But not all claims
are equally factual, even those that appear to be backed up by statistics. This book will
equip you with an understanding of how statistics work so that you can evaluate the
meaning and credibility of statistical data for yourself.
When quantitative research is carefully conceived and conducted, the results
of statistical analyses can yield valuable information not only about how the social
world works but also about how to effectively address social problems. For example,
in her 2007 book Marked, sociologist Devah Pager examined how having a criminal
record affects men’s employment prospects in blue collar jobs.2 She conducted a study
in which she hired paid research assistants, called testers, to submit fake résumés in
person to potential employers. The résumés were the same, with the only difference
 Research Questions and the Research Process 3

being that some of them listed a parole officer as a reference, indicating that the appli-
cant had spent time in prison, while the others did not have a parole officer as a ref-
erence. Did résumés without the parole officer reference fare better in the job search
process? Yes, they did. On average former offenders were 46% less likely to receive
a callback about the job, and the results of the analysis suggested that this difference
could be generalized to the overall population of men applying for blue collar jobs,
not just the testers in her study.3 Pager also varied the race of the testers applying
for jobs—half were white, and half were black. She found that having the mark of a
criminal record reduced the chances of a callback by 64% for black testers and 50%
for white testers, indicating that the damage of a criminal record is particularly acute
for black men.
By varying only whether the applicant had a criminal record, Pager controlled for
alternative explanations of the negative effect of a criminal record on the likelihood of
receiving a callback for a job. In other words, employers were reacting to the criminal
record itself, not factors that might be associated with a criminal record, such as erratic
work histories.
Pager’s study contains many of the key elements of statistical analysis that we dis-
cuss in this book: assessment of the relationship between two variables (criminal record
and employer callbacks); a careful investigation of whether one of the variables (crimi-
nal record) has a causal impact on the other (employer callback) and, if so, whether that
causal impact varies by another factor (race); and examination of the generalizability of
the results.

Research Questions and the Research Process

Most research starts with a research question, which asks how two or more variables
are related. A variable is any characteristic that has more than one category or value.
In the social sciences, we must be able to answer our research questions using data.
In many cases, these questions may be fairly general. For example, sociologist Kristen
Luker writes about beginning a research project with a question about why women were
having abortions despite the availability of birth control.4 A criminologist may begin
by wanting to know what kinds of rehabilitation programs reduce recidivism. In other
cases, a question may expand on prior research. For example, research has shown that
Internet skills vary by class, race, and age.5 Do these factors affect the way Internet users
blog or contribute to Wikipedia? Or, if we know that children tend to generally share their
parents’ political viewpoints, does this hold true in votes for candidates in primaries?
Some research begins with a hypothesis, a specific prediction about how variables
are related. For example, a researcher studying political protest might hypothesize
that larger protests produce more news media coverage. Other research begins at a
more exploratory level. For example, the same researcher might collect data on several
possible variables about protests, such as the issue they focus on, the organizations
4 CHAPTER 1  Introduction

that sponsor them, whether they include violence, as well as their size, in order to
explore what shapes media coverage. Statistical methods can support both approaches
to research.
This book focuses on quantitative analysis—that is, analyses that use statistical
techniques to analyze numerical data. Many social scientists also use qualitative meth-
ods. Qualitative methods start with data that are not numerical, such as the text of
documents, interviews, or field observations. Qualitative data analysis often focuses on
meanings, processes, and interactions; like quantitative research, it may test hypotheses
or be more exploratory in nature. Qualitative research analysis often uses specialized
software programs. Increasingly, many researchers use mixed methods, which employ
both qualitative and quantitative data and analysis. While this book focuses on quan-
titative analysis, combining both methods can yield a richer and more accurate under-
standing of social phenomena than either approach alone.

Pinning Things Down: Variables and

Measurement
Answering any kind of social science research question entails gathering data.
Gathering useful data requires formulating the research question as precisely as
possible. Quantitative researchers first identify and define the question’s key concepts.
Concepts are the abstract factors or ideas, not always directly observable, that the
researcher wants to study. Many concepts have multiple dimensions. For example,
a researcher interested in how people’s social class affects their sense of well-being
must define what social class and well-being mean before examining whether they are
related. Using existing research and theory, the researcher might define a social class
as a segment of the population with similar levels of financial, social, and cultural
resources. She might decide that well-being is one’s sense of overall health, satisfaction,
and comfort in life. Stating clear definitions of concepts ensures that the researcher
and her audience understand what is meant by those concepts in the particular project
at hand.
Once researchers specify, or define, their concepts, they must decide how to mea-
sure these concepts. Deciding how to measure a concept is also referred to as oper-
ationalizing a concept, or operationalization. Operationalization, the process of
transforming concepts into variables, determines how the researcher will observe con-
cepts using empirical data. Staying with the example of social class and well-being,
how would we place people into different class categories? Using the conceptual defi-
nition described above, the researcher might decide to use people’s income, wealth,
highest level of education, and occupation to measure their social class. All of these
are empirical indicators of financial, social, and cultural resources. To operationalize
well-being, the researcher might decide to measure an array of behaviors (e.g., number
of times per week that one exercises) and attitudes (e.g., overall sense of satisfaction
with one’s life).
 Pinning Things Down: Variables and Measurement 5

Concept

Theorecal
Well-being
Definion:
Sense of overall, health, sasfacon, and
comfort in life

Dimensions

Physical Mental Spiritual

Well-being Well-being Well-being

Variables

Empirical
Frequency Number Rang of Frequency Sense of Sense of
Stress View of
of sick healthy of meaning purpose
of exercise level self
days eang habits depression in life in life

Figure 1.1 Conceptualization and Measurement of a Key Concept

This process of conceptualization and measurement, or operationalization, is how

concepts become variables in quantitative research. Figure 1.1 offers a visual represen-
tation of this process for the concept of well-being.
Figure 1.1 shows how researchers move from defining a key concept to specifying
how that concept will be empirically measured and transformed into variables. Start-
ing from the top of the figure and moving down, we can see how the process works.
First, the concept of well-being is defined. Next, the dimensions of the concept (phys-
ical, mental, and spiritual) are specified. Finally, the researcher establishes empirical
measures for each dimension (e.g., frequency of exercise as an indicator of physical
well-being). These empirical measures are called variables. The arrow on the right side
of Figure 1.1 shows how moving from defining concepts to measuring them shifts from
the theoretical or abstract to the empirical realm, where variables can be measured.
Studying relationships among variables is the central focus of quantitative social sci-
ence research.
A variable, remember, is any single factor that has more than one category or value.
For example, gender is a variable with multiple categories (e.g., man, woman, gender
non-binary, etc.). For some variables, such as body mass index, there is an established
standard for determining the value of the variable for different individuals (e.g., body
mass index is equal to weight divided by height squared). For variables that lack a clear
measurement standard, such as sense of purpose in life, researchers must establish their
categories and methods of measurement, usually guided by existing research.
In quantitative social science research, the survey item is among the most com-
mon tools used to operationalize concepts. Survey items have either closed- or open-
ended response options. Closed-ended survey items provide survey respondents with
6 CHAPTER 1  Introduction

predefined response categories. The number of categories can range from as little as
two (e.g., yes or no) to very many (e.g., a feeling thermometer that asks respondents to
rate their feeling about something on a scale from 0 to 100 degrees). With closed-ended
survey items, the researcher decides on the measurement of the concept before admin-
istering the survey. Open-ended survey items do not provide response categories. For
example, an item might ask respondents to name the issue that is most important to
them in casting a vote for a candidate. Open-ended items give respondents more lee-
way in answering questions. Once the researcher has all responses to an open-ended
item, the researcher often devises response categories informed by the responses them-
selves and then assigns respondents to those categories based on their responses. For
example, with an open-ended question about which issues are important to voters, the
researcher might combine various responses having to do with jobs or the economy
into one category.

Units of Analysis
In the social sciences, researchers are interested in studying the characteristics of
individuals but also the characteristics of groups. Who or what is being studied is
the unit of analysis. A study of people’s voting patterns and political party affiliation
focuses on understanding individuals. But a study of counties that voted for a
Republican vs. Democratic candidate focuses on understanding characteristics of a
group, in this case counties. In the first case, researchers might seek to understand
what explains people’s votes; in the second case, researchers might seek to understand
what characteristics are associated with Republican vs. Democratic counties. When
the unit of measurement is the group, we sometimes also refer to it as aggregate level.
Aggregate-level units that researchers might be interested in include geographic
areas, organizations, religious congregations, families, sports teams, musical groups,
or businesses. One must be careful about making inferences across different levels
of measurement. A county may be Republican, but at the individual level, there are
both Democratic and Republican residents of that county. Drawing conclusions about
individuals based on the groups to which they belong is an error in logic known as the
ecological fallacy.

Measurement Error: Validity and Reliability

Most variables in the social sciences include some amount of error, which means that the
values recorded for a variable are to some degree inaccurate. Even many variables that
one might suspect would be simple to measure accurately, such as income, contain error.
How much money did you receive as income in the last calendar year? Some readers
may know the exact figure. But others would have to offer an estimate, maybe because
they cannot recall or because they worked multiple jobs and have trouble keeping
 Measurement Error: Validity and Reliability 7

track of the income produced by each of them. Still others might purposefully report a
number that is higher or lower than their actual income. Researchers never know for
sure how much error their variables contain, but we can evaluate and minimize error in
measurement by assessing the validity and reliability of our variables.
Validity indicates the extent to which variables actually measure what they claim
to measure. When measures have a high degree of validity, this means that there is a
strong connection between the measurement of a concept and its conceptual definition.
In other words, valid measures are accurate indicators of the underlying concept. Imag-
ine a researcher who claims that he has found that happiness declines as people exercise
more. How is that researcher measuring happiness? It turns out that he has operational-
ized happiness through responses to two survey questions: “How much energy do you
feel you have?” and “How much do you look forward to participating in family activ-
ities?” Do you think answers to these questions are good measures of happiness? They
may get at elements of happiness—happier people may have more energy or look for-
ward to participating in activities more. But they are not direct measures of happiness,
and we could argue that they measure other things instead (such as how busy people
are or their health). What about a researcher who wants to measure the prevalence of
food insecurity, in which people do not have consistent access to sufficient food? This
could be operationalized in a survey question such as, “How often do you have insuf-
ficient food for yourself and your family” or “How often do you go hungry because
of inability to get sufficient food for yourself or your family?” It could also be oper-
ationalized by the number and size of food pantries per capita or food stamp usage.
Which way of operationalizing food insecurity is more accurate? The survey questions
have greater validity because both food pantries and food stamp usage are affected by
forces other than food insecurity (urban areas may have more food pantries per capita
than rural areas, not all people eligible for food stamps use them, and so forth). If the
researcher were interested instead in social services to reduce food insecurity, looking
at food pantries and food stamps would be a valid measure.
Even if a measure is valid, it may not yield consistent answers. This is the ques-
tion of reliability. Reliable measures are those whose values are unaffected by the
measurement process or the measurement instrument itself (e.g., the survey). Imagine
asking the same group of college students to rate how often in a typical week they
spend time with friends, with the following response choices: “often,” “a few times,”
“occasionally,” and “rarely.” These response choices are likely to lead to problems with
reliability, because they are not precise. A student who gets together with friends about
five times a week might choose “often” or “a few times,” and if you asked her the
question again a week later she might choose the other option, even if her underlying
estimate of how often she spent time with friends was unchanged. In other words, the
same students may give quite different, or inconsistent, responses if asked the ques-
tion repeatedly.
Measures also tend not to be reliable when they ask questions that respondents may
not have detailed understanding or information about. For example, a survey might ask
how many minutes a week people spend doing housework, or a survey of Americans
8 CHAPTER 1  Introduction

might ask their opinion of Britain’s foreign policy toward Chile. Because people do not
generally precisely track minutes spent doing housework, and Americans are unlikely
to know much about British foreign policy, their responses to such questions will be
inconsistent.
Reliability and validity do not necessarily coincide. For example, the time shown on
a clock may be reliable without being valid. Some households may deliberately set their
clocks to be a few minutes fast, ensuring that when the alarm goes off at what the clock
says is 6:45, the actual time is 6:30. In this case, the clock consistently—that is, reliably—
tells time, but that time is always wrong (or invalid).
Figure 1.2 uses a feeling thermometer, which asks people to rate their feeling about
something on a scale from 0 to 100 degrees, to illustrate how reliability and validity
can coincide or not. Imagine these are an individual’s responses to the same feeling
thermometer item asked five separate times. The true value of the person’s feeling is
42 degrees. In scenario A, the responses have a high degree of validity, or accuracy,
because they are all near 42 degrees, the accurate value. There is also a high degree of
reliability because the responses are consistent. Researchers strive to attain scenario A
by obtaining accurate and consistent measures. In scenario B, there is still a high degree
of consistency, and therefore reliability, in the measure. However, validity is low because
the responses are far from the true value of 42 degrees. Finally, scenario C reflects both
low reliability and low validity. The responses are inconsistent, or scattered across the

A. High Reliability, High Validity B. High Reliability, Low Validity C. Low Reliability, Low Validity

100 100 100

50 50 50
True value: 42 True value: 42 True value: 42

0 0 0

Figure 1.2 Visualizing Reliability and Validity

Another random document with
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dealt her a blow on the head with a hickory club, which cut a horrible
gash and left her face literally covered with blood. In this condition
the poor young woman came down to implore protection at the
hands of my old master. I expected to see him boil over with rage at
the revolting deed, and to hear him fill the air with curses upon the
brutal Plummer; but I was disappointed. He sternly told her in an
angry tone, “She deserved every bit of it, and if she did not go home
instantly he would himself take the remaining skin from her neck and
back.” Thus the poor girl was compelled to return without redress,
and perhaps to receive an additional flogging for daring to appeal to
authority higher than that of the overseer.
I did not at that time understand the philosophy of this treatment
of my cousin. I think I now understand it. This treatment was a part of
the system, rather than a part of the man. To have encouraged
appeals of this kind would have occasioned much loss of time, and
leave the overseer powerless to enforce obedience. Nevertheless,
when a slave had nerve enough to go straight to his master, with a
well-founded complaint against an overseer, though he might be
repelled and have even that of which he complained at the time
repeated, and though he might be beaten by his master as well as
by the overseer, for his temerity, in the end, the policy of complaining
was generally vindicated by the relaxed rigor of the overseer’s
treatment. The latter became more careful and less disposed to use
the lash upon such slaves thereafter.
The overseer very naturally disliked to have the ear of the
master disturbed by complaints, and either for this reason or
because of advice privately given him by his employer, he generally
modified the rigor of his rule after complaints of this kind had been
made against him. For some cause or other the slaves, no matter
how often they were repulsed by their masters, were ever disposed
to regard them with less abhorrence than the overseer. And yet
these masters would often go beyond their overseers in wanton
cruelty. They wielded the lash without any sense of responsibility.
They could cripple or kill without fear of consequences. I have seen
my old master in a tempest of wrath, full of pride, hatred, jealousy,
and revenge, where he seemed a very fiend.
 The circumstances which I am about to narrate, and which gave
rise to this fearful tempest of passion, were not singular, but very
common in our slaveholding community.
The reader will have noticed that among the names of slaves,
Esther is mentioned. This was a young woman who possessed that
which was ever a curse to the slave girl—namely, personal beauty.
She was tall, light-colored, well formed, and made a fine
appearance. Esther was courted by “Ned Roberts,” the son of a
favorite slave of Col. Lloyd, who was as fine-looking a young man as
Esther was a woman. Some slaveholders would have been glad to
have promoted the marriage of two such persons, but for some
reason, Captain Anthony disapproved of their courtship. He strictly
ordered her to quit the company of young Roberts, telling her that he
would punish her severely if he ever found her again in his company.
But it was impossible to keep this couple apart. Meet they would,
and meet they did. Had Mr. Anthony been himself a man of honor,
his motives in this matter might have appeared more favorably. As it
was, they appeared as abhorrent as they were contemptible. It was
one of the damning characteristics of slavery, that it robbed its
victims of every earthly incentive to a holy life. The fear of God and
the hope of heaven were sufficient to sustain many slave women
amidst the snares and dangers of their strange lot; but they were
ever at the mercy of the power, passion, and caprice of their owners.
Slavery provided no means for the honorable perpetuation of the
race. Yet despite of this destitution there were many men and
women among the slaves who were true and faithful to each other
through life.
But to the case in hand. Abhorred and circumvented as he was,
Captain Anthony, having the power, was determined on revenge. I
happened to see its shocking execution, and shall never forget the
scene. It was early in the morning, when all was still, and before any
of the family in the house or kitchen had risen. I was, in fact,
awakened by the heartrending shrieks and piteous cries of poor
Esther. My sleeping-place was on the dirt floor of a little rough closet
which opened into the kitchen, and through the cracks in its
unplaned boards I could distinctly see and hear what was going on,
without being seen. Esther’s wrists were firmly tied, and the twisted
rope was fastened to a strong iron staple in a heavy wooden beam
above, near the fire-place. Here she stood on a bench, her arms
tightly drawn above her head. Her back and shoulders were perfectly
bare. Behind her stood old master, with cowhide in hand, pursuing
his barbarous work with all manner of harsh, coarse, and tantalizing
epithets. He was cruelly deliberate, and protracted the torture as one
who was delighted with the agony of his victim. Again and again he
drew the hateful scourge through his hand, adjusting it with a view of
dealing the most pain-giving blow his strength and skill could inflict.
Poor Esther had never before been severely whipped. Her shoulders
were plump and tender. Each blow, vigorously laid on, brought
screams from her as well as blood. “Have mercy! Oh, mercy!” she
cried. “I wont do so no more.” But her piercing cries seemed only to
increase his fury. The whole scene, with all its attendants, was
revolting and shocking to the last degree, and when the motives for
the brutal castigation are known, language has no power to convey a
just sense of its dreadful criminality. After laying on I dare not say
how many stripes, old master untied his suffering victim. When let
down she could scarcely stand. From my heart I pitied her, and child
as I was, and new to such scenes, the shock was tremendous. I was
terrified, hushed, stunned, and bewildered. The scene here
described was often repeated, for Edward and Esther continued to
meet, notwithstanding all efforts to prevent their meeting.
 CHAPTER VI.
A CHILD’S REASONING.

The author’s early reflections on Slavery—Aunt Jennie and Uncle Noah—

Presentiment of one day becoming a freeman—Conflict between an
overseer and a slave woman—Advantage of resistance—Death of an
overseer—Col. Lloyd’s plantation home—Monthly distribution of food—
Singing of Slaves—An explanation—The slaves’ food and clothing—
Naked children—Life in the quarter—Sleeping places—not beds—
Deprivation of sleep—Care of nursing babies—Ash cake—Contrast.

THE incidents related in the foregoing chapter led me thus early to

inquire into the origin and nature of slavery. Why am I a slave? Why
are some people slaves and others masters? These were perplexing
questions and very troublesome to my childhood. I was told by some
one very early that “God up in the sky” had made all things, and had
made black people to be slaves and white people to be masters. I
was told too that God was good and that he knew what was best for
everybody. This was, however, less satisfactory than the first
statement. It came point blank against all my notions of goodness.
The case of Aunt Esther was in my mind. Besides, I could not tell
how anybody could know that God made black people to be slaves.
Then I found, too, that there were puzzling exceptions to this theory
of slavery, in the fact that all black people were not slaves, and all
white people were not masters. An incident occurred about this time
that made a deep impression on my mind. One of the men slaves of
Captain Anthony and my Aunt Jennie ran away. A great noise was
made about it. Old master was furious. He said he would follow them
and catch them and bring them back, but he never did it, and
somebody told me that Uncle Noah and Aunt Jennie had gone to the
free states and were free. Besides this occurrence, which brought
much light to my mind on the subject, there were several slaves on
Mr. Lloyd’s place who remembered being brought from Africa. There
were others that told me that their fathers and mothers were stolen
from Africa.
This to me was important knowledge, but not such as to make
me feel very easy in my slave condition. The success of Aunt Jennie
and Uncle Noah in getting away from slavery was, I think, the first
fact that made me seriously think of escape for myself. I could not
have been more than seven or eight years old at the time of this
occurrence, but young as I was I was already a fugitive from slavery
in spirit and purpose.
Up to the time of the brutal treatment of my Aunt Esther, already
narrated, and the shocking plight in which I had seen my cousin from
Tuckahoe, my attention had not been especially directed to the
grosser and more revolting features of slavery. I had, of course,
heard of whippings and savage mutilations of slaves by brutal
overseers, but happily for me I had always been out of the way of
such occurrences. My play time was spent outside of the corn and
tobacco fields, where the overseers and slaves were brought
together and in conflict. But after the case of my Aunt Esther I saw
others of the same disgusting and shocking nature. The one of these
which agitated and distressed me most was the whipping of a
woman, not belonging to my old master, but to Col. Lloyd. The
charge against her was very common and very indefinite, namely,
“impudence.” This crime could be committed by a slave in a hundred
different ways, and depended much upon the temper and caprice of
the overseer as to whether it was committed at all. He could create
the offense whenever it pleased him. A look, a word, a gesture,
accidental or intentional, never failed to be taken as impudence
when he was in the right mood for such an offense. In this case there
were all the necessary conditions for the commission of the crime
charged. The offender was nearly white, to begin with; she was the
wife of a favorite hand on board of Mr. Lloyd’s sloop and was
besides the mother of five sprightly children. Vigorous and spirited
woman that she was, a wife and a mother, with a predominating
share of the blood of the master running in her veins. Nellie (for that
was her name) had all the qualities essential to impudence to a slave
overseer. My attention was called to the scene of the castigation by
the loud screams and curses that proceeded from the direction of it.
When I came near the parties engaged in the struggle, the overseer
had hold of Nelly, endeavoring with his whole strength to drag her to
a tree against her resistance. Both his and her faces were bleeding,
for the woman was doing her best. Three of her children were
present, and though quite small, (from seven to ten years old I
should think,) they gallantly took the side of their mother against the
overseer, and pelted him well with stones and epithets. Amid the
screams of the children “Let my mammy go! Let my mammy go!” the
hoarse voice of the maddened overseer was heard in terrible oaths
that he would teach her how to give a white man “impudence.” The
blood on his face and on hers attested her skill in the use of her
nails, and his dogged determination to conquer. His purpose was to
tie her up to a tree and give her, in slaveholding parlance, a “genteel
flogging,” and he evidently had not expected the stern and protracted
resistance he was meeting, or the strength and skill needed to its
execution. There were times when she seemed likely to get the
better of the brute, but he finally overpowered her, and succeeded in
getting her arms firmly tied to the tree towards which he had been
dragging her. The victim was now at the mercy of his merciless lash.
What followed I need not here describe. The cries of the now
helpless woman, while undergoing the terrible infliction, were
mingled with the hoarse curses of the overseer and the wild cries of
her distracted children. When the poor woman was untied, her back
was covered with blood. She was whipped, terribly whipped, but she
was not subdued, and continued to denounce the overseer, and pour
upon him every vile epithet she could think of. Such floggings are
seldom repeated by overseers on the same persons. They prefer to
whip those who were the most easily whipped. The doctrine that
submission to violence is the best cure for violence did not hold good
as between slaves and overseers. He was whipped oftener who was
whipped easiest. That slave who had the courage to stand up for
himself against the overseer, although he might have many hard
stripes at first, became while legally a slave virtually a freeman. “You
can shoot me,” said a slave to Rigby Hopkins, “but you can’t whip
me,” and the result was he was neither whipped nor shot. I do not
know that Mr. Sevier ever attempted to whip Nelly again. He
probably never did, for not long after he was taken sick and died. It
was commonly said that his death-bed was a wretched one, and
that, the ruling passion being strong in death, he died flourishing the
slave whip and with horrid oaths upon his lips. This death-bed scene
may only be the imagining of the slaves. One thing is certain, that
when he was in health his profanity was enough to chill the blood of
an ordinary man. Nature, or habit, had given to his face an
expression of uncommon savageness. Tobacco and rage had
ground his teeth short, and nearly every sentence that he uttered
was commenced or completed with an oath. Hated for his cruelty,
despised for his cowardice, he went to his grave lamented by
nobody on the place outside of his own house, if, indeed, he was
even lamented there.
In Mr. James Hopkins, the succeeding overseer, we had a
different and a better man, as good perhaps as any man could be in
the position of a slave overseer. Though he sometimes wielded the
lash, it was evident that he took no pleasure in it and did it with much
reluctance. He stayed but a short time here, and his removal from
the position was much regretted by the slaves generally. Of the
successor of Mr. Hopkins I shall have something to say at another
time and in another place.
For the present we will attend to a further description of the
business-like aspect of Col. Lloyd’s “Great House” farm. There was
always much bustle and noise here on the two days at the end of
each month, for then the slaves belonging to the different branches
of this great estate assembled here by their representatives to obtain
their monthly allowances of corn-meal and pork. These were gala
days for the slaves of the outlying farms, and there was much rivalry
among them as to who should be elected to go up to the Great
House farm for the “Allowances” and indeed to attend to any other
business at this great place, to them the capitol of a little nation. Its
beauty and grandeur, its immense wealth, its numerous population,
and the fact that uncles Harry, Peter, and Jake, the sailors on board
the sloop, usually kept on sale trinkets which they bought in
Baltimore to sell to their less fortunate fellow-servants, made a visit
to the Great House farm a high privilege, and eagerly sought. It was
valued, too, as a mark of distinction and confidence; but probably the
chief motive among the competitors for the office was the opportunity
it afforded to shake off the monotony of the field and to get beyond
the overseer’s eye and lash. Once on the road with an ox-team, and
seated on the tongue of the cart, with no overseer to look after him,
he felt himself comparatively free.
Slaves were expected to sing as well as to work. A silent slave
was not liked, either by masters or by overseers. “Make a noise
there! make a noise there!” and “bear a hand,” were words usually
addressed to slaves when they were silent. This, and the natural
disposition of the negro to make a noise in the world, may account
for the almost constant singing among them when at their work.
There was generally more or less singing among the teamsters at all
times. It was a means of telling the overseer, in the distance, where
they were, and what they were about. But on the allowance days
those commissioned to the Great House farm were peculiarly vocal.
While on the way they would make the grand old woods for miles
around reverberate with their wild and plaintive notes. They were
indeed both merry and sad. Child as I was, these wild songs greatly
depressed my spirits. Nowhere outside of dear old Ireland, in the
days of want and famine, have I heard sounds so mournful.
In all these slave songs there was ever some expression of
praise of the Great House farm—something that would please the
pride of the Lloyds.

I am going away to the Great House farm,

O, yea! O, yea! O, yea!
My old master is a good old master,
O, yea! O, yea! O, yea

These words would be sung over and over again, with others,
improvised as they went along—jargon, perhaps, to the reader, but
full of meaning to the singers. I have sometimes thought that the
mere hearing of these songs would have done more to impress the
good people of the north with the soul-crushing character of slavery
than whole volumes exposing the physical cruelties of the slave
system; for the heart has no language like song. Many years ago,
when recollecting my experience in this respect, I wrote of these
slave songs in the following strain:
“I did not, when a slave, fully understand the deep meaning of
those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was, myself, within
the circle, so that I could then neither hear nor see as those without
might see and hear. They breathed the prayer and complaint of souls
overflowing with the bitterest anguish. They depressed my spirits
and filled my heart with ineffable sadness.”
The remark in the olden time was not unfrequently made, that
slaves were the most contented and happy laborers in the world, and
their dancing and singing were referred to in proof of this alleged
fact; but it was a great mistake to suppose them happy because they
sometimes made those joyful noises. The songs of the slaves
represented their sorrows, rather than their joys. Like tears, they
were a relief to aching hearts. It is not inconsistent with the
constitution of the human mind, that avails itself of one and the same
method for expressing opposite emotions. Sorrow and desolation
have their songs, as well as joy and peace.
It was the boast of slaveholders that their slaves enjoyed more of
the physical comforts of life than the peasantry of any country in the
world. My experience contradicts this. The men and the women
slaves on Col. Lloyd’s farm received as their monthly allowance of
food, eight pounds of pickled pork, or its equivalent in fish. The pork
was often tainted, and the fish were of the poorest quality. With their
pork or fish, they had given them one bushel of Indian meal,
unbolted, of which quite fifteen per cent. was more fit for pigs than
for men. With this one pint of salt was given, and this was the entire
monthly allowance of a full-grown slave, working constantly in the
open field from morning till night every day in the month except
Sunday. There is no kind of work which really requires a better
supply of food to prevent physical exhaustion than the field work of a
slave. The yearly allowance of clothing was not more ample than the
supply of food. It consisted of two tow-linen shirts, one pair of
trowsers of the same coarse material, for summer, and a woolen pair
of trowsers and a woolen jacket for winter, with one pair of yarn
stockings and a pair of shoes of the coarsest description. Children
under ten years old had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor
trowsers. They had two coarse tow-linen shirts per year, and when
these were worn out they went naked till the next allowance day—
and this was the condition of the little girls as well as the boys. As to
beds, they had none. One coarse blanket was given them, and this
only to the men and women. The children stuck themselves in holes
and corners about the quarters, often in the corners of huge
chimneys, with their feet in the ashes to keep them warm. The want
of beds, however, was not considered a great privation by the field
hands. Time to sleep was of far greater importance. For when the
day’s work was done most of these had their washing, mending, and
cooking to do, and having few or no facilities for doing such things,
very many of their needed sleeping hours were consumed in
necessary preparations for the labors of the coming day. The
sleeping apartments, if they could have been properly called such,
had little regard to comfort or decency. Old and young, male and
female, married and single, dropped down upon the common clay
floor, each covering up with his or her blanket, their only protection
from cold or exposure. The night, however, was shortened at both
ends. The slaves worked often as long as they could see, and were
late in cooking and mending for the coming day, and at the first gray
streak of the morning they were summoned to the field by the
overseer’s horn. They were whipped for over-sleeping more than for
any other fault. Neither age nor sex found any favor. The overseer
stood at the quarter door, armed with stick and whip, ready to deal
heavy blows upon any who might be a little behind time. When the
horn was blown there was a rush for the door, for the hindermost one
was sure to get a blow from the overseer. Young mothers who
worked in the field were allowed an hour about ten o’clock in the
morning to go home to nurse their children. This was when they
were not required to take them to the field with them, and leave them
upon “turning row,” or in the corner of the fences.
As a general rule the slaves did not come to their quarters to
take their meals, but took their ash-cake (called thus because baked
in the ashes) and piece of pork, or their salt herrings, where they
were at work.
But let us now leave the rough usage of the field, where vulgar
coarseness and brutal cruelty flourished as rank as weeds in the
tropics, where a vile wretch, in the shape of a man, rides, walks, and
struts about, with whip in hand, dealing heavy blows and leaving
deep gashes on the flesh of men and women, and turn our attention
to the less repulsive slave life as it existed in the home of my
childhood. Some idea of the splendor of that place sixty years ago
has already been given. The contrast between the condition of the
slaves and that of their masters was marvelously sharp and striking.
There were pride, pomp, and luxury on the one hand, servility,
dejection, and misery on the other.
 CHAPTER VII.
LUXURIES AT THE GREAT HOUSE.

Contrasts—Great House luxuries—Its hospitality—Entertainments—Fault-

finding—Shameful humiliation of an old and faithful coachman—William
Wilks—Curious incident—Expressed satisfaction not always genuine—
Reasons for suppressing the truth.

THE close-fisted stinginess that fed the poor slave on coarse corn-
meal and tainted meat, that clothed him in crashy tow-linen and
hurried him on to toil through the field in all weathers, with wind and
rain beating through his tattered garments, that scarcely gave even
the young slave-mother time to nurse her infant in the fence-corner,
wholly vanished on approaching the sacred precincts of the “Great
House” itself. There the scriptural phrase descriptive of the wealthy
found exact illustration. The highly-favored inmates of this mansion
were literally arrayed in “purple and fine linen, and fared
sumptuously every day.” The table of this house groaned under the
blood-bought luxuries gathered with painstaking care at home and
abroad. Fields, forests, rivers, and seas were made tributary.
Immense wealth and its lavish expenditures filled the Great House
with all that could please the eye or tempt the taste. Fish, flesh, and
fowl were here in profusion. Chickens of all breeds; ducks of all
kinds, wild and tame, the common and the huge Muscovite; Guinea
fowls, turkeys, geese, and pea-fowls were fat, and fattening for the
destined vortex. Here the graceful swan, the mongrels, the black-
necked wild goose, partridges, quails, pheasants and pigeons,
choice water-fowl, with all their strange varieties, were caught in this
huge net. Beef, veal, mutton, and venison, of the most select kinds
and quality, rolled in bounteous profusion to this grand consumer.
The teeming riches of the Chesapeake Bay, its rock perch, drums,
crocus, trout, oysters, crabs, and terrapin were drawn hither to adorn
the glittering table. The dairy, too, the finest then on the eastern
shore of Maryland, supplied by cattle of the best English stock,
imported for the express purpose, poured its rich donations of
fragrant cheese, golden butter, and delicious cream to heighten the
attractions of the gorgeous, unending round of feasting. Nor were the
fruits of the earth overlooked. The fertile garden, many acres in size,
constituting a separate establishment distinct from the common farm,
with its scientific gardener direct from Scotland, a Mr. McDermott,
and four men under his direction, was not behind, either in the
abundance or in the delicacy of its contributions. The tender
asparagus, the crispy celery, and the delicate cauliflower, egg plants,
beets, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and French beans, early and late,
radishes, cantelopes, melons of all kinds; and the fruits of all climes
and of every description, from the hardy apples of the north to the
lemon and orange of the south, culminated at this point. Here were
gathered figs, raisins, almonds, and grapes from Spain, wines and
brandies from France, teas of various flavor from China, and rich,
aromatic coffee from Java, all conspiring to swell the tide of high life,
where pride and indolence lounged in magnificence and satiety.
Behind the tall-backed and elaborately wrought chairs stood the
servants, fifteen in number, carefully selected, not only with a view to
their capacity and adeptness, but with especial regard to their
personal appearance, their graceful agility, and pleasing address.
Some of these servants, armed with fans, wafted reviving breezes to
the over-heated brows of the alabaster ladies, whilst others watched
with eager eye and fawn-like step, anticipating and supplying wants
before they were sufficiently formed to be announced by word or
sign.
These servants constituted a sort of black aristocracy. They
resembled the field hands in nothing except their color, and in this
they held the advantage of a velvet-like glossiness, rich and
beautiful. The hair, too, showed the same advantage. The delicately-
formed colored maid rustled in the scarcely-worn silk of her young
mistress, while the servant men were equally well attired from the
overflowing wardrobe of their young masters, so that in dress, as
well as in form and feature, in manner and speech, in tastes and
habits, the distance between these favored few and the sorrow and
hunger-smitten multitudes of the quarter and the field was immense.
In the stables and carriage-houses were to be found the same
evidences of pride and luxurious extravagance. Here were three
splendid coaches, soft within and lustrous without. Here, too, were
gigs, phaetons, barouches, sulkeys, and sleighs. Here were saddles
and harnesses, beautifully wrought and richly mounted. Not less
than thirty-five horses of the best approved blood, both for speed
and beauty, were kept only for pleasure. The care of these horses
constituted the entire occupation of two men, one or the other of
them being always in the stable to answer any call which might be
made from the Great House. Over the way from the stable was a
house built expressly for the hounds, a pack of twenty-five or thirty,
the fare for which would have made glad the hearts of a dozen
slaves. Horses and hounds, however, were not the only consumers
of the slave’s toil. The hospitality practiced at the Lloyd’s would have
astonished and charmed many a health-seeking divine or merchant
from the north. Viewed from his table, and not from the field, Colonel
Lloyd was, indeed, a model of generous hospitality. His house was
literally a hotel for weeks, during the summer months. At these
times, especially, the air was freighted with the rich fumes of baking,
boiling, roasting, and broiling. It was something to me that I could
share these odors with the winds, even if the meats themselves were
under a more stringent monopoly. In master Daniel I had a friend at
court, who would sometimes give me a cake, and who kept me well
informed as to their guests and their entertainments. Viewed from
Col. Lloyd’s table, who could have said that his slaves were not well
clad and well cared for? Who would have said they did not glory in
being the slaves of such a master? Who but a fanatic could have
seen any cause for sympathy for either master or slave? Alas, this
immense wealth, this gilded splendor, this profusion of luxury, this
exemption from toil, this life of ease, this sea of plenty were not the
pearly gates they seemed to a world of happiness and sweet
content. The poor slave, on his hard pine plank, scantily covered
with his thin blanket, slept more soundly than the feverish voluptuary
who reclined upon his downy pillow. Food to the indolent is poison,
not sustenance. Lurking beneath the rich and tempting viands were
invisible spirits of evil, which filled the self-deluded gourmandizer
with aches and pains, passions uncontrollable, fierce tempers,
dyspepsia, rheumatism, lumbago, and gout, and of these the Lloyds
had a full share.

Col. Lloyd Whipping Barney.

 I had many opportunities of witnessing the restless discontent
and capricious irritation of the Lloyds. My fondness for horses
attracted me to the stables much of the time. The two men in charge
of this establishment were old and young Barney—father and son.
Old Barney was a fine looking, portly old man of a brownish
complexion, and a respectful and dignified bearing. He was much
devoted to his profession, and held his office as an honorable one.
He was a farrier as well as an ostler, and could bleed, remove
lampers from their mouths, and administer medicine to horses. No
one on the farm knew so well as old Barney what to do with a sick
horse; but his office was not an enviable one, and his gifts and
acquirements were of little advantage to him. In nothing was Col.
Lloyd more unreasonable and exacting than in respect to the
management of his horses. Any supposed inattention to these
animals was sure to be visited with degrading punishment. His
horses and dogs fared better than his men. Their beds were far
softer and cleaner than those of his human cattle. No excuse could
shield old Barney if the Colonel only suspected something wrong
about his horses, and consequently he was often punished when
faultless. It was painful to hear the unreasonable and fretful
scoldings administered by Col. Lloyd, his son Murray, and his sons-
in-law, to this poor man. Three of the daughters of Col. Lloyd were
married, and they with their husbands remained at the great house a
portion of the year, and enjoyed the luxury of whipping the servants
when they pleased. A horse was seldom brought out of the stable to
which no objection could be raised. “There was dust in his hair;”
“there was a twist in his reins;” “his foretop was not combed;” “his
mane did not lie straight;” “his head did not look well;” “his fetlocks
had not been properly trimmed.” Something was always wrong.
However groundless the complaint, Barney must stand, hat in hand,
lips sealed, never answering a word in explanation or excuse. In a
free State, a master thus complaining without cause, might be told
by his ostler: “Sir, I am sorry I cannot please you, but since I have
done the best I can and fail to do so, your remedy is to dismiss me.”
But here the ostler must listen and tremblingly abide his master’s
behest. One of the most heart-saddening and humiliating scenes I
ever witnessed was the whipping of old Barney by Col. Lloyd. These
two men were both advanced in years; there were the silver locks of
the master, and the bald and toil-worn brow of the slave—superior
and inferior here, powerful and weak here, but equals before God.
“Uncover your head,” said the imperious master; he was obeyed.
“Take off your jacket, you old rascal!” and off came Barney’s jacket.
“Down on your knees!” down knelt the old man, his shoulders bare,
his bald head glistening in the sunshine, and his aged knees on the
cold, damp ground. In this humble and debasing attitude, that
master, to whom he had devoted the best years and the best
strength of his life, came forward and laid on thirty lashes with his
horse-whip. The old man made no resistance, but bore it patiently,
answering each blow with only a shrug of the shoulders and a groan.
I do not think that the physical suffering from this infliction was
severe, for the whip was a light riding-whip; but the spectacle of an
aged man—a husband and a father—humbly kneeling before his
fellow-man, shocked me at the time; and since I have grown older,
few of the features of slavery have impressed me with a deeper
sense of its injustice and barbarity than this exciting scene. I owe it
to the truth, however, to say that this was the first and last time I ever
saw a slave compelled to kneel to receive a whipping.
Another incident, illustrating a phase of slavery to which I have
referred in another connection, I may here mention. Besides two
other coachmen, Col. Lloyd owned one named William Wilks, and
his was one of the exceptionable cases where a slave possessed a
surname, and was recognized by it, by both colored and white
people. Wilks was a very fine-looking man. He was about as white
as any one on the plantation, and in form and feature bore a very
striking resemblance to Murray Lloyd. It was whispered and
generally believed that William Wilks was a son of Col. Lloyd, by a
highly favored slave-woman who was still on the plantation. There
were many reasons for believing this whisper, not only from his
personal appearance, but from the undeniable freedom which he
enjoyed over all others, and his apparent consciousness of being
something more than a slave to his master. It was notorious too that
William had a deadly enemy in Murray Lloyd, whom he so much
resembled, and that the latter greatly worried his father with
importunities to sell William. Indeed, he gave his father no rest, until
he did sell him to Austin Woldfolk, the great slave-trader at that time.
Before selling him, however, he tried to make things smooth by
giving William a whipping, but it proved a failure. It was a
compromise, and like most such, defeated itself,—for soon after Col.
Lloyd atoned to William for the abuse by giving him a gold watch and
chain. Another fact somewhat curious was, that though sold to the
remorseless Woldfolk, taken in irons to Baltimore, and cast into
prison, with a view to being sent to the South, William outbid all his
purchasers, paid for himself, and afterwards resided in Baltimore.
How this was accomplished was a great mystery at the time,
explained only on the supposition that the hand which had bestowed
the gold watch and chain had also supplied the purchase-money, but
I have since learned that this was not the true explanation. Wilks had
many friends in Baltimore and Annapolis, and they united to save
him from a fate which was the one of all others most dreaded by the
slaves. Practical amalgamation was however so common at the
South, and so many circumstances pointed in that direction, that
there was little reason to doubt that William Wilks was the son of
Edward Lloyd.
The real feelings and opinions of the slaves were not much
known or respected by their masters. The distance between the two
was too great to admit of such knowledge; and in this respect Col.
Lloyd was no exception to the rule. His slaves were so numerous he
did not know them when he saw them. Nor, indeed, did all his slaves
know him. It is reported of him, that riding along the road one day he
met a colored man, and addressed him in what was the usual way of
speaking to colored people on the public highways of the South:
“Well, boy, who do you belong to?” “To Col. Lloyd,” replied the slave.
“Well, does the Colonel treat you well?” “No, sir,” was the ready
reply. “What, does he work you hard?” “Yes, sir.” “Well, don’t he give
you enough to eat?” “Yes, sir, he gives me enough to eat, such as it
is.” The Colonel rode on; the slave also went on about his business,
not dreaming that he had been conversing with his master. He
thought and said nothing of the matter, until two or three weeks
afterwards, he was informed by his overseer that for having found
fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He
was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus without a
moment’s warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered
from his family and friends by a hand as unrelenting as that of death.
This was the penalty of telling the simple truth, in answer to a series
of plain questions. It was partly in consequence of such facts, that
slaves, when inquired of as to their condition and the character of
their masters, would almost invariably say that they were contented
and their masters kind. Slaveholders are known to have sent spies
among their slaves to ascertain if possible their views and feelings in
regard to their condition; hence the maxim established among them,
that “a still tongue makes a wise head.” They would suppress the
truth rather than take the consequences of telling it, and in so doing
they prove themselves a part of the human family. I was frequently
asked if I had a kind master, and I do not remember ever to have
given a negative reply. I did not consider myself as uttering that
which was strictly untrue, for I always measured the kindness of my
master by the standard of kindness set up by the slaveholders
around us.
 CHAPTER VIII
CHARACTERISTICS OF OVERSEERS.

Austin Gore—Sketch of his character—Overseers as a class—Their peculiar

characteristics—The marked individuality of Austin Gore—His sense of
duty—Murder of poor Denby—Sensation—How Gore made his peace
with Col. Lloyd—Other horrible murders—No laws for the protection of
slaves possible of being enforced.

THE comparatively moderate rule of Mr. Hopkins as overseer on Col.

Lloyd’s plantation was succeeded by that of another whose name
was Austin Gore. I hardly know how to bring this man fitly before the
reader, for under him there was more suffering from violence and
bloodshed than had, according to the older slaves, ever been
experienced before at this place. He was an overseer, and
possessed the peculiar characteristics of his class, yet to call him
merely an overseer would not give one a fair conception of the man.
I speak of overseers as a class, for they were such. They were as
distinct from the slaveholding gentry of the south as are the fish-
women of Paris, and the coal-heavers of London, distinct from other
grades of society. They constituted a separate fraternity at the south.
They were arranged and classified by that great law of attraction
which determines the sphere and affinities of men; which ordains
that men whose malign and brutal propensities preponderate over
their moral and intellectual endowments shall naturally fall into those
employments which promise the largest gratification to those
predominating instincts or propensities. The office of overseer took
this raw material of vulgarity and brutality, and stamped it as a
distinct class in southern life. But in this class, as in all other classes,
there were sometimes persons of marked individuality, yet with a
general resemblance to the mass. Mr. Gore was one of those to