RedSkyAtNight
Cadet
- Joined
- May 26, 2010
- Location
- Richmond, Virginia
(first time poster, please go easy on me 
)
When I think of slavery, I think of aristocrats lording over enormous plantations. So I was taken off guard when researching my ancestors and discovering they were slave owners. These were not wealthy people. They were small time farmers and middle class German craftsmen who appeared to have a few slaves to help in the fields and around the house.
Was it a common thing for the middle class to own a couple slaves? Would there have been, in general, a different dynamic between slave and master in those cases? On the whole, would their conditions have been better than those on the plantations and what kinds of work would these slaves have had? Has anyone else come across this type of thing in their family?
Finding info like this helps me understand why so many fought for the Confederacy when it would seem at first glance they had nothing in common with the Robert E. Lee's and Jeff Davis' of the world...
)When I think of slavery, I think of aristocrats lording over enormous plantations. So I was taken off guard when researching my ancestors and discovering they were slave owners. These were not wealthy people. They were small time farmers and middle class German craftsmen who appeared to have a few slaves to help in the fields and around the house.
Was it a common thing for the middle class to own a couple slaves? Would there have been, in general, a different dynamic between slave and master in those cases? On the whole, would their conditions have been better than those on the plantations and what kinds of work would these slaves have had? Has anyone else come across this type of thing in their family?
Finding info like this helps me understand why so many fought for the Confederacy when it would seem at first glance they had nothing in common with the Robert E. Lee's and Jeff Davis' of the world...
Bringing the