Housing for slaves.

[major bill]

I am just starting to read, or perhaps scan and only read parts of Back of the Big House The Architecture of Plantation Slavery by John Michael Vlach. Before I do, were slave quarters all that different from the houses of free men? I do understand many large cities in the north, and even the south, had housing in run down city areas and I am not sure if we can compare slave cabins to this kind of housing. Certainly the housing for some poor people in major cities would be miserable.

But did the average slave cabin differ much from the average small farm house? From the images in the book I can see that slave cabins were smaller than most farm houses in my state, in some cases much smaller. However, my family came from New York to Michigan in 1835 and moved to an unsettled rural area. Thier first cabin would not have been much larger than many slave cabins. That said, within a couple of years they would have had a much bigger and much nicer house. Still, in 1861, Michigan may have still have had very poor farmers who continued to live in fairly small homes.

I know a bit about architecture in Michigan in 1861 but not much about architecture of the homes of small farmers in other states. So, in your oppion, were the slave quarters much worse than what poor farmers lived in?

 

[uaskme]

Data on slave housing are much more sparse than on slave diets. The most systematic housing information comes from the census of 1860, which included a count of slave houses. These census data show that on average there were 5.2 slaves per house on large plantations. The number of persons per fee household in 1860 was 5.3. Thus, like free men, most slaves lived in dingle-family households. The sharing of houses by several families of slaves was uncommon. Occasionally, on very large plantations, there were dormitories for unmarried men and women. But these were exceptional. The single-family household was the rule.
Unfortunately, the census did not collect information on the size or the quality of slave houses. Descriptions in plantation records and in travelers' accounts are fragmentary. They suggest a considerable range in the quality of housing. The best were three or four room cottages, of wood frame, brick, or stone construction, with up to eight hundred square feet of space on the inside, and large porches on the outside. Such cottages had brick or stone chimneys and glazed windows. At the other pole were single-room log cabins without windows. Chimneys were constructed of twigs and clay, floors were either earthen or made of planks resting directly on the earth.
Comments of observers suggest that the most typical slave houses of the late antebellum period were cabins about eighteen by twenty feet. They usually had one or two rooms. Lofts, on which the children slept, wee also quite common. Windows were not glazed, but closed by wooden shutters. Some houses also had rear doors. Chimneys were usually constructed of brick or stone. The building material was usually logs or wood. Seams in the log cabins were sealed by wooden splints and mud. Floors were usually planked and raised off the ground.
While such housing is quite mean by modern standards, the houses of slaves compared will with the housing of free workers in the antebellum era. It must be remembered that much of rural America still lived in log cabins in the 1850s, And urban workers lived in crowded, filthy tenements. As late as 1893, a survey of the housing of workers in New York City revealed that the median number of square feet of sleeping space per person was just thirty-five. I other words, the typical slave cabin of the late antebellum era probably contained more sleeping space per person than was available to most of New York City's workers half a century later.pp115-116 Time on the Cross by Fogel and Engerman.

 

[matthew mckeon]

Slavery, it weren't so bad Better than free people!

Excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth a little.

 

[uaskme]

Slavery, it weren't so bad Better than free people!

Excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Got a Source for that?

 

[major bill]

Did most rural farmers in say New York still live in log cabins? I am really not sure if this is true or not. In most rural Michigan areas, board houses soon replaced log cabins. That said. Michigan had an abundance of lumber and saw mills were putting out huge amounts of boards by the time of the Civil War.

I can not say in any certainty bout Ohio, Pennsylvania, or other states. Again I am not well informed how poor farmers in most southern states lived.

 

[uaskme]

Says, Much Of Rural America, lived in log cabins. True around here.

Update on Irish in NYC
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/...rk-life-in-the-irish-slums-1.1335816?mode=amp

 

[unionblue]

Got a Source for that?

Yeah, the inability to pick the house I want to live in.

 

[lelliott19]

@matthew mckeon I dont think anyone is arguing that life as an enslaved person was better or even remotely similar to life as a free person of any social position. @major bill and @uaskme are discussing the quality of housing of regular farmers (not wealthy plantation owners) in the south vs. the housing provided for enslaved workers.

I have recently uncovered original documents related to housing of enslaved on one plantation in Alabama. While the housing provided the enslaved of this particular plantation may not be representative of all plantation housing, at least it is specific and the number of cabins and the number of enslaved are known quantities. If it is of interest to the discussion of housing, Ill be happy to provide it.

 

[major bill]

Most Michigan Civil War photos seem to show board buildings. Do we have anyone from Pennsylvania that can verify that most rural Pennsylvanians lived in log cabins. How many of the home near the Gettysburg battlefield were log cabins? The truth is I am not sure of most rural areas and rural farmers in South Carolina for example my not be simular to those in Michigan.

 

[lelliott19]

Most Michigan Civil War photos seem to show board buildings. Do we have anyone from Pennsylvania that can verify that most rural Pennsylvanians lived in log cabins. How many of the home near the Gettysburg battlefield were log cabins? The truth is I am not sure of most rural areas and rural farmers in South Carolina for example my not be simular to those in Michigan.

I'm not sure it matters much if the houses were log or if they had been clad over with lap board siding. I think people tend to draw conclusions about southern housing from the pictures they see. It's important to keep in mind that the pictures you see of houses in the vicinity of southern battlefields were the ones selected by the armies to establish headquarters or hospitals. When available, both armies selected the largest and finest houses in which to establish headquarters and hospitals - for obvious reasons. The homes of poor farmers were used only when fine homes were not available nearby.

A good example would be around Shiloh - Grant chose the Cherry Mansion in nearby Savannah TN as his headquarters. It was the finest home in the area. He wouldn't have selected the log cabin or clad over home of a poor farmer when the Cherry Mansion was there.

On the CS side of the lines, there were no fancy plantation homes near Pittsburgh Landing to use as headquarters or hospitals. My 2x g grandfather was brigade surgeon for SAM Wood's CS brigade. He established his hospital at the "Mickey House" - a small two room log structure with an overhanging porch on the back. It was the home of the Michie family - free white farmers who owned no slaves. In the south, the majority of white southern farmers still lived in log or clad over log houses. Planters were the minority of the white population in the south, not the majority.

The pictures you see of fine homes like the Cherry Mansion exist not because that style of house was the norm, but because those homes were significant as headquarters or hospitals and/or because they were preserved. And they were preserved because of their historical significance; their architecture/construction allowed them to survive; and/or because the families who owned them had the resources to preserve them. Saying that the majority of southern farmers lived in fine homes like the Cherry Mansion, would be like saying that everyone in Scotland must have lived in a castle. Just because there were a few castles, doesn't mean they were the norm.

 

[major bill]

Not every slave quarters was a log cabin, some were board, stone, or brick. The better built slave quarters may have survived until the modern times, while the cruder structures probably did not last this long. The same might be said of the homes of poor free farmers.

Being from Michigan I am more familiar with farm architecture here. With the cold winters here it is possible that better homes were built quickly due to the difficulties of living in a log cabin in the winter.

 

[CSA Today]

Says, Much Of Rural America, lived in log cabins. True around here.

Update on Irish in NYC
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/...rk-life-in-the-irish-slums-1.1335816?mode=amp

Tenement life seemed a miserable disease ridden existence.

 

[uaskme]

Not every slave quarters was a log cabin, some were board, stone, or brick. The better built slave quarters may have survived until the modern times, while the cruder structures probably did not last this long. The same might be said of the homes of poor free farmers.

Being from Michigan I am more familiar with farm architecture here. With the cold winters here it is possible that better homes were built quickly due to the difficulties of living in a log cabin in the winter.

Time on the Cross clearly states that some Slave quarters were stone or brick. It doesn't say all were log or even wood. It says many Rural Homes were log. Much of the western part of the South wasn't 30 or 40 years old. Cherokee Removal here was in 1838. Large sections of it was pretty much frontier in 1860 including Chattanooga.

 

[uaskme]

Tenement life seemed a miserable disease ridden existence.

That was White Life in the big City. Negros would of been lucky to have that. Better grab my mouth wash.

 

[CSA Today]

That was White Life in the big City. Negros would of been lucky to have that. Better grab my mouth wash.

Almost sounds like the American dream.

 

[GS]

While most slaves lived in clapboard cabins, Boone Hall Plantation slaves had brick cottages. At this time, many Southern yeoman (middle class) lived in clapboard cottages or log cabins.

 

[matthew mckeon]

That was White Life in the big City. Negros would of been lucky to have that. Better grab my mouth wash.

That was White Life in the big City. Negros would of been lucky to have that. Better grab my mouth wash.

Slavery, it weren't so bad!

You can find a group of folks in terrible circumstances, even in a great country like the United States. They stand in for all the free people. And then you can mumble about how great the shacks are in the quarters, and you could get seconds on the cornpone every Christmas. And that stands in for all the slaves.

Were the best treated slaves better off than the most prosperous free people? Were the worse treated slaves better off than the less prosperous free people?

 

[matthew mckeon]

View attachment 258936
While most slaves lived in clapboard cabins, Boone Hall Plantation slaves had brick cottages. At this time, many Southern yeoman (middle class) lived in clapboard cottages or log cabins.

So the slaves had it better than free whites in the South?

 

[major bill]

So the slaves had it better than free whites in the South?

WellI was only asking about housing. Better off is a much larger discussion.

 

[matthew mckeon]

Tenement life seemed a miserable disease ridden existence.

Tenement life seemed a miserable disease ridden existence.

This is a trope so old its growing hair. How being a slave with all those kindly white masters was a comfortable existence compared to the ghastly horrors of free life. Slavery, its great for black people!