Life as a Slave

Living the life of a slave was no walk in the park, it was very difficult some of the things they got and went threw are:

• For clothing every year they would get two linen shirts, two pairs of pants, one jacket, one pair of socks, one pair of shoes, a overcoat, and a wool hat.  Today that would be like torcher to us but it was heaven to them.
• Slaves normally lived in wooden shacks with dirt floors, but sometimes the houses were made of boards nailed up with cacks stuffed with rags.  The beds were collected pieces of straw or grass, and old rags, and only one blanket for a cover. One room could have up to twelve people in it. In todays time we would call them homeless basically.
• As a slave when your 12 months old the mother could be sold and you would be left 2 grow and work on that plantation.  when a slave child turns 4 they would sometimes work as babysitters, at the age of 5 they would run errands and carry water tothe field slaves.  Around the age of 8 children would be expected to work on the planation.
• over 32% of marriages between slaves were canceled by masters as a result of slaves being sold away from thier family home.  a slave husband could be separated from his wife, and children would also be separated from their mothers.



http://www.elcivics.com/slave_beat_1863_peter_baton.jpg

• In order to keep the slaves from trying to rebel their punishment for murder, burglary, arson, and assault on a white person was murder.  The plantation owners believed this severe discipline would make the slaves too scared to try anything. In South Caroline one slave owner would put nails on a barrel sticking out on the inside of the barrel, then put the slave in and roll him or her down a very long steep hill.  another punishment for slaves was to whip them.  owners in Virgina smoked their slaves which means whipping them and putting theim in a tabacco smokehouse. some other punishments included getting beaten with a chear, broom, tongs, shovel, shears, knife handles, the heavy end of a woman's shoe, and an oak club.
• Slave owners prevented their slaves from learning how to read and becoming Christians because they didnt want them to read the Bible. In the South black people were not usually allowed to attend church sevices, in the North black people were more likely to attend church though. Drums which were used in traditional religious ceremonies where banned because overseers worried that they would be used to send messages.

Slave life was no joke they could never slack off or lose their cool or else they could get punished or even worse be killed.

http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00394/lifeslavelinks.htm

Slavery: North vs. South

http://www.oncoursesystems.com/images/user/8677/14424/Slaves.jpg

Slavery in the North.

In the 17th century slavery in the North wasn't absolute bondage, it was a nebulous condition similar to that of indentured servants.  Some slaves bought to America from Africa were bought to be servants who were eligible freedom a certain number of years.  The first official legal recognition  of chattel slavery as a legal institution in British North America was in Massachusetts, in 1641, with the “Body of Liberties.” Slavery was legalized in New Plymouth and Connecticut when it was incorporated into the Articles of the New England Confederation in 1643. New England was the center of the slave trade in the colonies, supplyin captive slave to the South and the Carribean islands.  Colonies in the North preferred to get their slaves from the new world colonies instead of directly from Africa because that seemed to difficult and dangerous.  Since they already survived climate changethey also adjusted better to Northern winters, which incapacitated or killed those direct from Africa.  By the late colonial period, the average slave-owning household in New England and Mid-Atlantic had about 2 slaves.

http://www.slavenorth.com/slavenorth.htm

Slavery in the South

http://americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/civwar/slaves4.jpg

Close to 2 million slaves were brought from Africa to South America and the West Indies during the centuries of the Atlantic slave trade. Approximately 20% of the population of the American South over the years has been African American, and as late as 1900, 9 out of every 10 African Americans lived in the South.  There was a large number of black people mainting manual labor before slavery was legalized but the South wasnt permitted to threaten the region's character as a white man's country.  When slavery became legal white racism became the driving force of southern race relations. In the antebellum South, slavery provided the economic foundation that supported the dominant planter ruling class. Children during this period were often malnourished because they didnt know how to balance out nutrition properly and the slaves werent begin fed equally. The clothing and housing for slaves were bad but managable and they were forced to live in small wooden cabins, one per family. some wealthy slaveholders would call for physicians if their slaves became ill, but the treatments were mostly various concoctions that most of the time did as much harm as good.
   In conclusion slavery in the North wasn't as bad as slavery in the South.
 http://americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/civwar/slavery.html