Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!There were many different kinds of jobs that slaves did in South before the Civil War. Slaves were not present only on the fields of the plantations but also in the household and in factories. Most of the jobs that were done, were done by the women but there were more men on most places of work because of their ability to carry much heavier loads than women. No matter what the job was, slaves were work to exhaustion from sunrise until dark fell.
One of the most infamous jobs that was done by slaves was plantation work which included the picking and planting of the crop. This work was done by both men and women and was the most backbreaking of all the jobs on the plantation. Some of their owners threatened them with horrible punishments if they did not do their jobs correctly or if they did not do it quickly enough. Others worked the slaves to death knowing that they could just buy more later.
Some of the jobs that were done by other slaves that were closer to the owner’s household were the gardener, house servant, wet nurse, and laundress. These were jobs that were done mostly by the women in the slave community. They were made to clean the house of the owner as well as care for their children and cook them all their meals. Other jobs that the men in the slave community did that were not on the field were shoemaker, overseer, carpenter, and blacksmith. Though all these services were offered at local towns, it was cheaper to have them made by skilled slaves making a plantation self sufficient.
Although there are many different jobs that could have been held by an African slave there was a common theme to all the jobs. Work hard for a long time and do not anger the owner and you will live to see the next day. While not all slave owners were brutal to their slaves, many felt that fear was the best way to rule over them. Even with such brutality, slaves did try to find ways to slow down production in small ways as a form of revolt. But in the long run, the work was always done and the slaves were always tired. A sad time in the history of the United States.
Works Cited
Foner, Eric . Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. 2 vols. 352-53.
"The Many Jobs of a Slave". n.d. 25 July 2009 http://www.historypoint.org/education/teaching/history_backyard/many_jobs_slave.asp.
Slavery. n.d. 25 July 2009 http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/slavery.htm.
The History of Slavery In America. YouTube, 2009. 25 July 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc1RbUxQv4E
Image from: http://www.scott.k12.va.us/mvermillion/images/slaves.gif
Hi Christine, I enjoyed reading your blog. I agree that slaves were worked until death and exhaustion and it was the most brutal form of slavery in history. During resistance to slavery when slaves would "[do] poor work, [break] tools, [abuse] animals, and in other ways disrupt the plantation routine," other slaves were too timid and scared to participate (403 Foner). Slaves would also pretend they were sick in order to avoid working. There was also instances of "theft of food, a form of resistance so common that one southern physician diagnosed it as a hereditary disease unique to blacks" (403 Foner). Resistance turned to straight out rebellion. Some of the most famous being Nat Turner's Rebellion, Gabriel's Rebellion, "an uprising on sugar plantations upriver from New Orleans," and the conspiracy "organized in 1822 by Denmark Vesey" (405 Foner).
ReplyDeleteBlack women also suffered great hardships during this time. Not only did they watch their husbands and children sold off to slavery, they were not treated as women. In a popular case where a black woman, Celia, "killed her master while resisting a sexual assault," she was sentenced to death because in eyes of the court she "was not a 'woman,' [but] a slave whose master had complete power over her person" (391 Foner). Slave women "regularly worked in the fields" and could not be protected by their husbands if masters decided to rape them.
Hello Chritine - Nice job on the blog.
ReplyDeleteI think your final statement is concise and to the point when you state, " A sad time in the history of the United States." this could not be more true. Especially considering how young our country was and how we people of america came to this land in the hopes of escaping inequality and persecution.
The point you make, "many felt that fear was the best way to rule over them. Even with such brutality, slaves did try to find ways to slow down production in small ways as a form of revolt." is very true. In reading a peoples history I came across this statement, "The system was psychological and physical at the same time. The slaves were taught discipline, were impressed again and again with the idea of there own inferiority to "know there place," to see blackness as a sign of subordination." (Zinn 29) I believe that staement supports some of the points you made and seems to sum up the master slave relationship.
Nice job - good luck!
Hello Christine,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your blog, that slaves had very hard jobs and it became the whole existence of their life. There was an enormous amount of rules and restrictions put on slaves. While many African women worked in the house as slaves, they were given the trust to take care of the Master’s White baby. This arguably contradicts the justification slave owners have that black slaves are inferior. If slaves were trusted enough to be protecting and caretaking of the most precious and important human being in the house; it would require an intelligent caretaker. No master or mistress in their right mind would trust a mentally limited human being to care for their own future generations.
Slaves were not always treated equitably, in most cases not. They were not given privileges that would inspire hope or a future. Their futures were built only on hope and not from family support. A slave lived more in fear than in trust. It was not only their jobs that were hard on a daily basis, but surviving in a world that did not seem them as equals was just as fearful.