Housing for slaves.

I suspect slave cabins, like the master's house, reflected the growing wealth of the owner. This would mean that slave cabins, like the free farmer's, would improve from a hut to a reasonably nice place with time and success.
Agreed. The example I provided demonstrates the improvement in, and expansion of, housing provided to the enslaved workers over time - from 1840-1862. I am guessing the 4 single room log cabins were the first cabins built. The plantation owner came to AL in 1839/41 and brought with him, 8 enslaved individuals inherited from his parents. At first, I'm guessing all 8 lived in one cabin until more housing could be built. He inherited more enslaved individuals from his father-in-law's estate; his financial situation improved; and the enslaved families expanded so that additional cabins and houses were built. I wish I could find documentation showing what order they were built in, but haven't found anything like that yet.

As a child I visited my great grandparents in rural PA, this was in the early 1960s. They had a house, and it was larger and the rooms were bigger. But they didn't have a toilet, which I noticed immediately. There was no heat on the top floor. I think that in the top floor, where we slept, only two of sereval rooms had electric lights. Another nearby house that was owned by the family had no running water;
Interesting....my comments are not relevant to the discussion of cabin architecture of the 19th century but I had to reply. I thought only rural GA, AL, MS, WV, etc. were that slow to develop? I would have never thought that people in rural PA didnt have those things.

My husband recalls visiting his grandparents in rural NE GA in the 1960's and 1970's and seeing the chickens peck around under the house through the floor boards; one lightbulb hanging from a cord in the rooms; no indoor plumbing; an outdoor well with a hand pump; and only a woodstove to heat the ""entire" place - which was a small single story converted dogtrot. It had 2 rooms with beds, a kitchen with a table in it, and another central room (enclosed dogtrot) that doubled as a bedroom when they came to visit. His grandmother cooked on a woodstove until 1971 when they finally got an electric one and they still had an outhouse until 1974. My husband recalls fondly visiting in the winter in the 1960's and 70's when he was a kid - nights spent in the rope bed with his sisters, quilts piled on, and constantly rolling to the middle; being able to see your breath indoors; and having to trek to the outhouse in the cold (and when I say fondly, he means it. :D Looking back he says he wouldnt trade it for anything. Course he got to go home to his modern house in AL, but his grandparents lived that way all the time.)
 
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Perhaps the best way to look at it would be what kind of house did the average Southern farmer live in? I would suspect they ran from good to very poor. I am sure a few of the poorest farmer's houses would look a great deal like a single family slave cabin. You do see some slave dwelling that housed two or more families. The poorest built slave cabins probably did not last until the modern era so we would have to rely on archeology to provide us information about them.

Again I am not trying to defend slavery, I am just wonder about the architecture. Southern barns and milking houses are interesting as well. To milk cows in some southern states a simple roof and clapboard siding would be all a milking house might need. Try milking cows in the winter at 5 to 15 degrees below zero in such a simple milking house.
 
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