"...nothing but hard work
and cruel treatment."
Easter Jones, ex-slave,
remembers her life before freedom
The system where a person was bought and sold by another person for the purpose of forced labor was the system of slavery. Slavery was a system that dominated the Southern states in the 1800's. In the beginning, slaves were brought to the United States to do some work, and were then supposed to be freed. It was triangular trade, plantation agricultural growth, and the industrial revolution that prevented the slaves from gaining their freedom. Word about this new business of slavery was spreading in the South and as more and more people became interested, the harder it was to put a stop to it. With cash crops such as cotton, rice, corn, hemp, sugar, tobacco, and more, a very large work force was needed. The slaves were the ones chosen because they could work long hours, and withstand new diseases.
In
the late 1700's to early 1800's, 400,000 people were brought to the United
States to be sold as slaves. By 1860, that number had jumped to 4,000,000
people. A trip to the United States consisted of a journey that was
usually 6-10 weeks long. After a breaking-in period, slaves were
often put up for sale on an auction block. Slaves were considered
property just like livestock and cattle, and could be bought and sold at
any time the owner chose to. After a slave was bought, the owner
would brand the slave with "estate marks" to identify the plantation
that slave belonged to, and to identify the slave if the slave tried to
run away. Used primarily by the South, slaves were forced to do jobs
on plantations that no one else would do such as pick cotton. Since
a master owned the slaves, they were not paid. They were often treated
with a great deal of abuse, but many were able to keep a high level of
spirit just the same. At the bottom of this page is a list of additional
resources that will help you in your additional research on slavery.
Well may I say my life has been
One scene of sorrow and pain;
From early days I grief's have known,
And as I grew my grief's have grown.
Dangers were always in my path,
And fear of wrath and sometimes death;
While pale dejection in me reign'd
I often wept, my grief constrain'd.
When taken from my native land,
By an unjust and cruel band,
How did uncommon dread prevail!
My sighs no more I could conceal.
- Olaudah Equiano
Unfortunately there is not a great deal known about the operations of a plantation because very few records, or no records at all were kept. The plantation was the only home a slave ever knew. Plantations were large enough that the slave quarters, blacksmith shop, farm, cotton storage facility, and the owner's house were all on the same property. The slaves worked the fields of the plantation, and came right back to their quarters at the end of the day. Some slaves were fortunate to work in the owner's house where there was easier work, but at the end of the day, they too, had to go back to their quarters. The quarters for slaves were quite simple since the slaves didn't have any money. They were made out of wood, and had one or two bedrooms. Each house would house up to 12-15 people. Instead of a bed, there was straw on the floor. The slaves cooked outside and their diet consisted of corn mean, salt pork, and home grown vegetables if their masters allowed it. The household tools doubled as the cooking utensils, and the eating utensils were usually wooden bowls and spoons.
Slaves
were put into one of two forms of labor. They were either forced
to do gang labor, or work under the task system. Gang labor was a
system where slaves would leave together for work every morning, work together,
and return back to their houses at night together. The work day was
from sunrise to sunset. 80% of slaves worked under this system. The
task system was made up of specialized tasks such as cooking, child care,
and house cleaning. Slaves who worked under the task system typically
had better food, clothes, and quarters. The down side to the task
system is that those slaves were on call seven days a week. Lack
of economic means made the slaves completely dependent upon their masters,
which gave the masters all the power and control in the world, including
the power of fear over the slaves.
To make life even harder on the slaves, authorities in the South passed a set of laws known as the Slave Codes. The Slave codes sometimes varied from state to state, but always had the same principle driving them; that slaves were property, not people, and were to be treated in such a fashion. The Slave Codes put restrictions on the slaves that prevented them from testifying in court against a white person, making contracts, leaving the plantation without permission, striking a white (even in self-defense), buy and sell goods, own firearms, gather without a white present, possess any anti-slavery literature, or visit the homes of whites or free blacks. If a slave broke any of the specified Slave Codes, the slave was to be disciplined. Discipline on the plantation was handled by the drivers, overseers, and the owners. Things a slave could be punished for included not working fast enough, being late getting to the fields, for defying authority, for running away, or other various reasons. Discipline was not restricted to one form of punishment. Discipline took on the form of many kinds of punishment such as whippings, torture, imprisonment, and being sold away from the plantation and family.
Slavery was a system based on fear. Many plantation owners, and their over-seers, were very brutal people and used fear to keep the slaves in order. Such brutal treatment often tempted slaves to consider running away. Rebellions also broke out as a result of the brutal treatment. Many slaves did not run away out of fear for their owners. Many slaves, however, did decide to take the incredible journey to the North. The journey required bravery and an incredible amount of trust. Harriet Tubman, better known as "Moses," is one of the most well known names in the fight against slavery. A former slave herself, she led many people to freedom in the North. Here is a map of possible routes slaves took to get to freedom. Would you have had the bravery and trust to make the trip to the North? Click the photo of Harriet Tubman and see if you can make the journey to freedom.
Not
every plantation owner was a brutal person. There were some masters
who genuinely cared for his slaves and had formed some sort of relationship
with them. The relationship was limited, however, due to the power
the owner had over the slaves. There were caring owners and there
were brutal owners, but the people who owned slaves at all made up a very
small population of the south. In fact, 3/4 of Southern whites did
not own slaves at all, and out of the people who did own them, 88% owned
twenty slaves or fewer. Owning slaves was seen as a symbol of wealth
and power. Many people in the South wanted to own slaves just to
achieve that high symbol of status. It was also a way to simply build
themselves up. Some maintained the attitude that they may have been
poor, but they were not slaves, and they were not black. It gave
them a sense of power simply by being white.
Additional Resources
The African American: A Journey from Slavery to Freedom
Enter search for slavery,
then select the second option listed slavery, look for following topics
History of slavery
Underground railroad
Plantation Life
Cotton
Resources used to create this page:
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America’s Library. (2003). “Portrait of Harriet Tubman.” Courtesy of the Moorland-Springam Research Center, Howard University. Retrieved on April 3 from the World Wide Web: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/tubman
Bayless, Charles N. (1977). Slave Chapel at Mansfield Plantation, Georgetown County, South Carolina. Retrieved on April 3 from the World Wide Web: http://www.gwu.edu/~folklife/bighouse/panel22.html
Foner, Eric, and Garraty, John A. (1991). The Reader’s Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Company. Retrieved March 9 from the World Wide Web: http://www.histroychannel.com/classroom
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Gerber, Amy, Mohamed, Abeer, and Papa, Maggie. (2003). African American Culture through Oral Tradition. George Washington University. Retrieved March 14 from the World Wide Web: http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ee73afram/ag-am-mp.html
Library of Congress. (2003). The Illustrated London News (September 27, 1856.) “Slave Auction at Richmond Virginia.” Wood engraving. Prints ad Photographs Division. Retrieved March 12, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/reform/jb_reform_slaveauc_1.html
Library of Congress. (2003). The Largest Slave Auction March 3, 1859. Retrieved March 12, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/reform/jb_reform_slaveauc_1.html
MacMillan, Aaron. Reconstruction: An Interactive Outline. Retrieved on April 7 from the World Wide Web: http://www.grant.k12.ca.us/schools/rljr/students/reconstruction.htm
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National Geographic. (1996-2003). The Underground Railroad. Retrieved March 9 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad
No Author Given. (2003). Possible Escape Routes. Microsoft Maps. Retrieved March 14, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/tubman/map.htm
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No Author Given. Aboard the Underground Railroad: A National Register Travel Itenerary. Retrieved on April 7 from the World Wide Web: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/
No Author Given. Conditions of antebellum slavery. Retrieved on April 7 from the World Wide Web: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2956.html
No Author Given. Slavery. Retrieved on April 7 from the World Wide Web: http://www.richland2.k12.sc.us/rce/slavery.htm
No Author Given. Slavery. Retrieved on April 7 from the World Wide Web: http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/%7Edcc5527/slavery.html
Sylvester, Melvin. (2003). The African American: A Journey from Slavery to Freedom. Long Island University. B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library. Retrieved from March 9 from the World Wide Web: http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/aaslavry.htm