1stvermont
Corporal
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- Oct 22, 2016
Life as a Southern Slave
This thread is on various aspects of life as a southern slave that are usually untold. With the intention of giving us a fuller more historical view of the life of a southern slave.
-For the master/slave relationship see see posts #18
- To see many slaves preferred slavery over freedom, see #197 [page 10]
- For Laws Designed to Protect Slaves, Slave Rights, Slave Punishment, and Corporal Punishment see #723 [page 37]
- For Slaves were treated better than free blacks in the north, northern factory workers, and poor Europeans. They worked less, were fed better, treated better, better medical care see #720 [page 36]
The Slave's Diet and living Quarters
-Alec Bostwick Georgia Slave Narratives
"Dey had to feed us an plenty of it, cause us couldnt wuk if dey dident feed us good."
-Robert William Fogel The Rise and Fall of American Slavery
"There is no question that the slave diet was sufficient to maintain the slave body wight and general health"
To purchase an expensive slave and not feed them, would not give the purchaser a return on their purchase. As owners knew, slaves need energy to work. If you underfed them, then you would lose out on their potential production. Slave's food consumption passed the free man's consumption of 1879 by 10%[2,3,5]. They averaged 6oz of meat a day (1 oz below free whites) and ate a variety of fruits/vegetables/grains [1,2,3,5]. The slave's diet exceeds the modern [1964] recommended daily intake. Two separate studies concluded slaves eat 4,200 calories a day not including game and fishing[ 3]. Poor whites use to come to large plantations and beg for food from the slaves[4].
The federal census of 1860 determined that the ordinary plantation was well quartered with 5.2 slaves per house compared to 5.3 for whites [2,4,5,7]. Since the family unit was often encourages by owners, slave's families often got or would get, if they married and started a family, a house of their own on the plantation[2,5]. The slave's material condition was greater than the northern industrial worker of the time[1,5,7]. Scientist, Sir Charles Lyell, said of the slave quarters "Neat as the greater part of the cottages in Scotland"[5,7].
-Northern Frederick Law Olmsted
"The slaves were well provided for"
Medical treatment
-Abmstead Barrett Texas Slave narratives
"Old massa have doctor for us when us sick. We's too val'ble
-Henry Cheatam Alabama Slave Narratives
"De owners always tuk care of us, and when us got sick dey would git a doctor"
-T.J Stiles "Jesse James last Rebel of the Civil War"
"Studies of probate record suggest that most slaves received as much medical care as their owners"
Laws were in place to ensure that the owner's must care for and meet the needs of the slaves[5,6,7]. Plantation owners spent more money on slaves than freemen did on their children decades after the civil war[2]. Often on larger plantations they would have their own mini-hospital, with an on-site doctor[2,4,5]. Smaller plantations would often have an on-site nurse. In the decades following the war, when the slaves were freed, African American's life expectancy dropped by 10% and sickness rose by 20%[2,5]. They received better medical care while in slavery under the care of an invested master.
-Rachael Adams Georgia Slave Narratives
"White folks jus had to be good to sick slaves, cause slaves was property. For old master to lose a slave was losin money"
Life of a Southern Slave- Work all day, no Play?
"De young folks don't know nothing about good times and good living, dey don't understand how come I wish I wuz still in slavery."
-Adam Smith, Mississippi Slave Narratives
"Wen I sit and think of all the good things we had to eat an all the fun we had, 'course we had to work, but you knows, when a crowd all works togather and sings and laughs, first thing you know--the works all done."
-Ellen King, Alabama Slave Narratives
"To say that they are under worked and overfed and are far happier than the labors of great Britan would hardly convey a sufficiently clear notion of their actual condition. They put me much more in mind of a community of grown children, spoiled by to much kindness, than a body of dependents. Much less a community of slaves"
-Louis F Tasistro of Great Britain
"The slaves do not go around looking unhappy, and are with difficulty, I fancy, persuaded to feel so. Whips and chains oaths and brutality are as common, for all that one sees, in the free as the slave states. We have come thus far, and might have gone ten times as far, I dare say, without seeing the first sign of negro misery or white tyranny"
- Bostonian Charles Elliot Norton, while in South Carolina
Many in the south thought that slavery was beneficial to the negro, especially the removal from Africa. By leaving Africa, their quality of life and standard of living increased in every way [1,2,5,6,7]. Southern slaves worked 10% less than northern farmers on average, because crop production took less time than animal and dairy farming common in the north[2]. In the 1840's Scottish observer William Thompson said slaves don't work "One fourth so much as a scotch."[5] Some plantations had 5 hour work days and others were always done by 2-3 in the afternoon[1,2,3,5]. Because of sick slaves old and young, usually around 1/3 of slaves on a given plantation were not working or doing very light work[1,2,3]. Multiple studies found slaves worked on average only 281 days a year, due to the Sabbath off, holidays, weather and sickness[1,2,3,5]. Even on the large cotton plantations work was divided between 38% time on cotton, 31% livestock and growing corn and 31% repairs, domestic duties etc.[1,2,3]
"Slaves received on average better and more certain compensation [for work] than any laboring people"
-R.L Dabney, A Defense of Virginia and the South
Slaves' income varied, and with good effort would be rewarded with higher level jobs, such as running the plantation[1,2.3,5,7]. 7% of slaves were in some managerial job[2]. Slaves had down time as well as their own money to spend [1,2,4,5,7]. Often they had their own business on the side to make extra cash to spend[1,2,3,5,6,7]. Slave "renting" was common, this is where a skilled slave [carpentry, blacksmith etc] would advertise their services, negotiate their own contracts, and own their own place of business[1,2,3,4,5,7]. Slaves in America learned more skills than anywhere in Africa[5]. Slaves started dominating certain trades in cities. This caused some southern whites to get upset at the slave owners because the slaves were taking all the carpentry, blacksmith, and cabin making jobs[5].
Slaves often owned property of their own on the plantation, 60% of those interviewed by the federal Writers project said they owned their own land[1,2,5]. In typical slave owning Germantown, LA, slaves maintained their own accounts at stores and freely made purchases at the stores. During free time Slaves worked at local stores, earning the same wages as whites according to store records. Slaves sold goods to the store that they made or grew in their downtime and from their own property. At the store, slaves purchased "luxury" and "snack" items, as basic needs were cared for by their owner. The slaves also bought gun powder, knives, and writing utensils[5]. In the book, Time on the Cross, they estimated slaves received as much as 90% of the wages they earned (with modern tax rates, few earn that much today)[2].
"One might almost imagine one's self to be in Hayti [Haiti] and think that colored people had got possession of the town and held sway, while the whites were living among them as sufferance"
-Englishmen James Silk Buckingham, visited Virginia in 1840's
Many would purchase their own freedom, other slaves, and land[1,2,4,5,7]. Some would become prosperous slave owners themselves, or tradesmen and business owners[5,7]. Often slaves and free blacks worked a plantation owned by a white that was residing in other part of country; the owner would only be their seasonally[1,2,5].
"Lawsey man, dem were de days!We usta have some good times. We could have all the fun we wanted on Sa'dday nights, and we sho had it, cuttin monkey shines, and dancing all night long. Sometimes our mistis would come down early to watch us."
-Sidney Bonner, Alabama Slave Narratives
"Miss, us nigg##s on de Bennett place [Plantation] wuz free as soon as we wuz bawn. I always been free"
-Hannah Irwin, Alabama Slave Narratives
"Cotton pickin was big fun too, and when dey got through pickin de cotton dey et and drank and danced till dey could dance no more"
-Rachael Adams Georgia Slave Narratives
"Slavery times wuz sho good times. We wuz fed an' clothed an' had nothin to worry about"
-Sarah and Tom Douglas, Arkansas Slave Narratives
"In slavery days the negroes had quilt tings, dances, picnics and everybody had a good time"
-Arrie Binns Georgia slave narratives
"Dem days fore de war was good old days, speically for de colored folks..oh missy dem was good old days us would be lucky to have em back. You could hear nigg##s singin in de fields cause dey diden't have no worries lak dey got now...dat cornshukin wuz easy wid everyone sigin and havin a good time together...old times when folkes loved one another den dey does now."
-Jasper Battle Georgia Slave Narratives
"How they sang; how they laughed and grinned...heard amongst the black folks endless singing, shouting and laughter; and saw on holidays black gentlemen and ladies arrayed in such splendor and comfort as freeborn workmen in our english towns seldom exhibit"
-English novelist, William M. Thackeray
"I think slavery was a good thing. I never suffered for nothin'."
-Perry Sheppard, Slave Narratives
"My white people dey good tuh me....why, ah was jes lak dey's chullun [Children] ah played wid em, et wid em an' eb' n slep wid 'em.....Dem was good ol times, ah tel yuh, honey...."
-Mrs. Candis Goodwin, Virginia Slave Narratives
"I think slavery was a mighty good thing for Mother, Father, me and the other members of the family, and I cannot say anything but good for my old marster and missus, but I can only speak for those whose conditions I have known during slavery and since. For myself and them, I will say again, slavery was a mighty good thing."
-Slave Mary Anderson, North Carolina Slave Narratives
The Slave Family
-Harriett Barrett Texas Slave narrative
"Dey didn't know bout marryin in Africy [africa]"
The importation of new slaves through the Atlantic slave trade, or any trade outside the CSA, was outlawed. [Article I Section 9(1) Confederate Constitution] But slavery from state to state and county to county was legal. There is no question that slave owners and traders did break up the family unit; and to me this may be the worst part of slavery. However, it was very uncommon and generally looked down upon by southern whites [2,3,5,6,7]. One study found Only 13% of slave trade sales resulted in the breakup of a family[2]; usually the families were bought as a whole unit. The best production, as owners understood, was to keep the family unit together and encourage it. To buy a slave and break up his family would not be a good starting point for a productive slave.
Keeping a family together would increase the slave's happiness, increase work ethic, and reduced runaways or "lazy" slaves[1,2]. Many slave dealers, went long distances and paid extra to reunite slave families[5,7]. Scottish observer, William Thomson, said that slave families were more intact than the people of Scotland[4]. The black family was more together in slavery than in modern times [2,5]. The further you move away from slavery, the greater the breakup of the African American family[5]. The African family was close to not even existing in Africa; it was usually a man with multiple wives who were pretty much "slaves." Slavery created a strong family presence among African Americans.
-President Woodrow Wilson
"Slave dealers were universally detested, and even ostracized"
References
1] Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/mesnbibVolumes1.html
2] Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert William Fogel and Stanley Engermann 1974 W.W Norton and company NY,NY.
3] Without Consent or Contract The Rise and Fall of American Slavery Robert William Fogel W.W Norton NY London 1989
4] Myths and Realitites of American Slavery John C Perry Burd Street Press Shipensburg Penn 2002
5] Myths of American slavery Walter D Kennedy 2003 Pelican publishing company
6] A Defense Of Virginia And The South R.L Dabney 1867 Sprinkle publications
7] Everything You Were Taught About American Slavery Is Wrong Ask A Southerner Lochlainn Seabrook Sea raven press 2014
This thread is on various aspects of life as a southern slave that are usually untold. With the intention of giving us a fuller more historical view of the life of a southern slave.
-For the master/slave relationship see see posts #18
- To see many slaves preferred slavery over freedom, see #197 [page 10]
- For Laws Designed to Protect Slaves, Slave Rights, Slave Punishment, and Corporal Punishment see #723 [page 37]
- For Slaves were treated better than free blacks in the north, northern factory workers, and poor Europeans. They worked less, were fed better, treated better, better medical care see #720 [page 36]
The Slave's Diet and living Quarters
-Alec Bostwick Georgia Slave Narratives
"Dey had to feed us an plenty of it, cause us couldnt wuk if dey dident feed us good."
-Robert William Fogel The Rise and Fall of American Slavery
"There is no question that the slave diet was sufficient to maintain the slave body wight and general health"
To purchase an expensive slave and not feed them, would not give the purchaser a return on their purchase. As owners knew, slaves need energy to work. If you underfed them, then you would lose out on their potential production. Slave's food consumption passed the free man's consumption of 1879 by 10%[2,3,5]. They averaged 6oz of meat a day (1 oz below free whites) and ate a variety of fruits/vegetables/grains [1,2,3,5]. The slave's diet exceeds the modern [1964] recommended daily intake. Two separate studies concluded slaves eat 4,200 calories a day not including game and fishing[ 3]. Poor whites use to come to large plantations and beg for food from the slaves[4].
The federal census of 1860 determined that the ordinary plantation was well quartered with 5.2 slaves per house compared to 5.3 for whites [2,4,5,7]. Since the family unit was often encourages by owners, slave's families often got or would get, if they married and started a family, a house of their own on the plantation[2,5]. The slave's material condition was greater than the northern industrial worker of the time[1,5,7]. Scientist, Sir Charles Lyell, said of the slave quarters "Neat as the greater part of the cottages in Scotland"[5,7].
-Northern Frederick Law Olmsted
"The slaves were well provided for"
Medical treatment
-Abmstead Barrett Texas Slave narratives
"Old massa have doctor for us when us sick. We's too val'ble
-Henry Cheatam Alabama Slave Narratives
"De owners always tuk care of us, and when us got sick dey would git a doctor"
-T.J Stiles "Jesse James last Rebel of the Civil War"
"Studies of probate record suggest that most slaves received as much medical care as their owners"
Laws were in place to ensure that the owner's must care for and meet the needs of the slaves[5,6,7]. Plantation owners spent more money on slaves than freemen did on their children decades after the civil war[2]. Often on larger plantations they would have their own mini-hospital, with an on-site doctor[2,4,5]. Smaller plantations would often have an on-site nurse. In the decades following the war, when the slaves were freed, African American's life expectancy dropped by 10% and sickness rose by 20%[2,5]. They received better medical care while in slavery under the care of an invested master.
-Rachael Adams Georgia Slave Narratives
"White folks jus had to be good to sick slaves, cause slaves was property. For old master to lose a slave was losin money"
Life of a Southern Slave- Work all day, no Play?
"De young folks don't know nothing about good times and good living, dey don't understand how come I wish I wuz still in slavery."
-Adam Smith, Mississippi Slave Narratives
"Wen I sit and think of all the good things we had to eat an all the fun we had, 'course we had to work, but you knows, when a crowd all works togather and sings and laughs, first thing you know--the works all done."
-Ellen King, Alabama Slave Narratives
"To say that they are under worked and overfed and are far happier than the labors of great Britan would hardly convey a sufficiently clear notion of their actual condition. They put me much more in mind of a community of grown children, spoiled by to much kindness, than a body of dependents. Much less a community of slaves"
-Louis F Tasistro of Great Britain
"The slaves do not go around looking unhappy, and are with difficulty, I fancy, persuaded to feel so. Whips and chains oaths and brutality are as common, for all that one sees, in the free as the slave states. We have come thus far, and might have gone ten times as far, I dare say, without seeing the first sign of negro misery or white tyranny"
- Bostonian Charles Elliot Norton, while in South Carolina
Many in the south thought that slavery was beneficial to the negro, especially the removal from Africa. By leaving Africa, their quality of life and standard of living increased in every way [1,2,5,6,7]. Southern slaves worked 10% less than northern farmers on average, because crop production took less time than animal and dairy farming common in the north[2]. In the 1840's Scottish observer William Thompson said slaves don't work "One fourth so much as a scotch."[5] Some plantations had 5 hour work days and others were always done by 2-3 in the afternoon[1,2,3,5]. Because of sick slaves old and young, usually around 1/3 of slaves on a given plantation were not working or doing very light work[1,2,3]. Multiple studies found slaves worked on average only 281 days a year, due to the Sabbath off, holidays, weather and sickness[1,2,3,5]. Even on the large cotton plantations work was divided between 38% time on cotton, 31% livestock and growing corn and 31% repairs, domestic duties etc.[1,2,3]
"Slaves received on average better and more certain compensation [for work] than any laboring people"
-R.L Dabney, A Defense of Virginia and the South
Slaves' income varied, and with good effort would be rewarded with higher level jobs, such as running the plantation[1,2.3,5,7]. 7% of slaves were in some managerial job[2]. Slaves had down time as well as their own money to spend [1,2,4,5,7]. Often they had their own business on the side to make extra cash to spend[1,2,3,5,6,7]. Slave "renting" was common, this is where a skilled slave [carpentry, blacksmith etc] would advertise their services, negotiate their own contracts, and own their own place of business[1,2,3,4,5,7]. Slaves in America learned more skills than anywhere in Africa[5]. Slaves started dominating certain trades in cities. This caused some southern whites to get upset at the slave owners because the slaves were taking all the carpentry, blacksmith, and cabin making jobs[5].
Slaves often owned property of their own on the plantation, 60% of those interviewed by the federal Writers project said they owned their own land[1,2,5]. In typical slave owning Germantown, LA, slaves maintained their own accounts at stores and freely made purchases at the stores. During free time Slaves worked at local stores, earning the same wages as whites according to store records. Slaves sold goods to the store that they made or grew in their downtime and from their own property. At the store, slaves purchased "luxury" and "snack" items, as basic needs were cared for by their owner. The slaves also bought gun powder, knives, and writing utensils[5]. In the book, Time on the Cross, they estimated slaves received as much as 90% of the wages they earned (with modern tax rates, few earn that much today)[2].
"One might almost imagine one's self to be in Hayti [Haiti] and think that colored people had got possession of the town and held sway, while the whites were living among them as sufferance"
-Englishmen James Silk Buckingham, visited Virginia in 1840's
Many would purchase their own freedom, other slaves, and land[1,2,4,5,7]. Some would become prosperous slave owners themselves, or tradesmen and business owners[5,7]. Often slaves and free blacks worked a plantation owned by a white that was residing in other part of country; the owner would only be their seasonally[1,2,5].
"Lawsey man, dem were de days!We usta have some good times. We could have all the fun we wanted on Sa'dday nights, and we sho had it, cuttin monkey shines, and dancing all night long. Sometimes our mistis would come down early to watch us."
-Sidney Bonner, Alabama Slave Narratives
"Miss, us nigg##s on de Bennett place [Plantation] wuz free as soon as we wuz bawn. I always been free"
-Hannah Irwin, Alabama Slave Narratives
"Cotton pickin was big fun too, and when dey got through pickin de cotton dey et and drank and danced till dey could dance no more"
-Rachael Adams Georgia Slave Narratives
"Slavery times wuz sho good times. We wuz fed an' clothed an' had nothin to worry about"
-Sarah and Tom Douglas, Arkansas Slave Narratives
"In slavery days the negroes had quilt tings, dances, picnics and everybody had a good time"
-Arrie Binns Georgia slave narratives
"Dem days fore de war was good old days, speically for de colored folks..oh missy dem was good old days us would be lucky to have em back. You could hear nigg##s singin in de fields cause dey diden't have no worries lak dey got now...dat cornshukin wuz easy wid everyone sigin and havin a good time together...old times when folkes loved one another den dey does now."
-Jasper Battle Georgia Slave Narratives
"How they sang; how they laughed and grinned...heard amongst the black folks endless singing, shouting and laughter; and saw on holidays black gentlemen and ladies arrayed in such splendor and comfort as freeborn workmen in our english towns seldom exhibit"
-English novelist, William M. Thackeray
"I think slavery was a good thing. I never suffered for nothin'."
-Perry Sheppard, Slave Narratives
"My white people dey good tuh me....why, ah was jes lak dey's chullun [Children] ah played wid em, et wid em an' eb' n slep wid 'em.....Dem was good ol times, ah tel yuh, honey...."
-Mrs. Candis Goodwin, Virginia Slave Narratives
"I think slavery was a mighty good thing for Mother, Father, me and the other members of the family, and I cannot say anything but good for my old marster and missus, but I can only speak for those whose conditions I have known during slavery and since. For myself and them, I will say again, slavery was a mighty good thing."
-Slave Mary Anderson, North Carolina Slave Narratives
The Slave Family
-Harriett Barrett Texas Slave narrative
"Dey didn't know bout marryin in Africy [africa]"
The importation of new slaves through the Atlantic slave trade, or any trade outside the CSA, was outlawed. [Article I Section 9(1) Confederate Constitution] But slavery from state to state and county to county was legal. There is no question that slave owners and traders did break up the family unit; and to me this may be the worst part of slavery. However, it was very uncommon and generally looked down upon by southern whites [2,3,5,6,7]. One study found Only 13% of slave trade sales resulted in the breakup of a family[2]; usually the families were bought as a whole unit. The best production, as owners understood, was to keep the family unit together and encourage it. To buy a slave and break up his family would not be a good starting point for a productive slave.
Keeping a family together would increase the slave's happiness, increase work ethic, and reduced runaways or "lazy" slaves[1,2]. Many slave dealers, went long distances and paid extra to reunite slave families[5,7]. Scottish observer, William Thomson, said that slave families were more intact than the people of Scotland[4]. The black family was more together in slavery than in modern times [2,5]. The further you move away from slavery, the greater the breakup of the African American family[5]. The African family was close to not even existing in Africa; it was usually a man with multiple wives who were pretty much "slaves." Slavery created a strong family presence among African Americans.
-President Woodrow Wilson
"Slave dealers were universally detested, and even ostracized"
References
1] Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/mesnbibVolumes1.html
2] Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert William Fogel and Stanley Engermann 1974 W.W Norton and company NY,NY.
3] Without Consent or Contract The Rise and Fall of American Slavery Robert William Fogel W.W Norton NY London 1989
4] Myths and Realitites of American Slavery John C Perry Burd Street Press Shipensburg Penn 2002
5] Myths of American slavery Walter D Kennedy 2003 Pelican publishing company
6] A Defense Of Virginia And The South R.L Dabney 1867 Sprinkle publications
7] Everything You Were Taught About American Slavery Is Wrong Ask A Southerner Lochlainn Seabrook Sea raven press 2014
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