Working Conditions of Slaves
Directions: Read the following passage then complete the questions from section 20.4
Slaves worked on farms of various sizes. On small farms, owners and slaves worked side by side in the fields. On large plantations, planters hired overseers to supervise their slaves. Overseers were paid to “care for nothing but to make a large crop.” To do this, they tried to get the most work possible out of the slaves who worked in the fields.
About three-quarters of rural slaves were field hands who toiled from dawn to dark tending crops. An English visitor described a field hand’s day:
He is called up in the morning at day break, and is seldom allowed time enough to swallow three mouthfuls of hominy [boiled corn], or hoecake [cornbread], but is driven out immediately to the field to hard labor . . . About noon . . . he eats his dinner, and he is seldom allowed an hour for that purpose . . . Then they return to severe labor, which continues
until dusk.
Even then, a slave’s workday was not finished. After dark, there was still water to carry, wood to split, pigs to feed, corn to shuck, cotton to clean, and other chores to be done.One slave recalled,
I never know what it was to rest. I just work all the time from
morning till late at night. I had to do everything there was to do
on the outside. Work in the field, chop wood, hoe corn, till
sometime I feels like my back surely break.
Not all slaves worked in the fields. Some were skilled seamstresses, carpenters, or blacksmiths. Others worked in the master’s house as cooks or servants. When asked about her work, a house slave replied,
What kind of work I did? . . . I cooked, [then] I was house maid,
an’ I raised I don’t know how many [children] . . . I was always
good when it come to [the] sick, so [that] was mostly my job.
No matter how hard they worked, slaves could never look forward to an easier life. Most began work at the age of six and continued until they died. As one man put it, “Slave young, slave long.”
Directions: Click on the link and read the excerpt from the article, "Slavery A System of Inherent Cruety". Answer the questions below when you are finished.
Who cares? Flogging A Slave
What does the word Flogging mean?
What does the author ask his audience to do?
Based on what you read from the article, what is the authors stance on slavery?
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