The Private Lives of Slaves

Back in the early days of America, there were plantations all over the southern states. Plantations for cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar and other crops. These plantations were ran by enslaved people, that were forced to leave their lives and loved ones against their wills to come to America to work in these plantations, and lost all the freedoms that they may have had.

If you were to visit a large southern plantation back in the 1800’s you would most likely have fixed your first impression on the “master’s home”. This was usually a beautiful house of enormous size. It was usually very extravagant and out in the open for everyone to see. From this house the master’s and their mistresses would watch over the plantation in an effort to make sure that everything was running smoothly and work was getting done. As you examined the grounds more closely you would then find a variety of smaller barns and buildings where special tasks such as weaving, sewing, blacksmithing, carpentry, and cooking would be done. Then off in the distance, you would see acres and acres of fields where the goods were grown. And somewhere in between that you would see groups of small cabins that housed the slaves, called the “quarters”. The slaves living in the quarters had, despite the threat of separation and the need of submitting to slave owners and their families. Slaves tried to make their lives as normal as they could.

Slave families supported by the larger slave community, made strategies that enhanced the lives of the slaves and helped then endure bondage. They would live in family units, one or two room cabins in the “quarters” that normally one family would occupy, although two families occasionally would be housed together. It was in the “quarters” where the slaves could escape from the pain of bondage and be more than just a slave. In the cabins, the yards, and the land around the quarters, they courted and married, bore babies, raised children, had friendships, everything that made their lives seem more than a slave.

Although the slaves had established a family life of the their own within the slave quarters. The slaveholders thought of them as property, and the owners thought that the most important relationship that the enslaves person should maintain should be with them. The reason for this was because they thought that children would rear to respect other authority figures, such as parents, which may question the legitimacy of the southern social order, which granted the slaveholders a lot of power over the enslaved people. Owners would plan activities and establish rules made to minimize the importance of the slave’s family life and to emphasize the owners place as head of the plantation. Owners would make it their prerogative to determine what slaves did at all times, including deciding how they ate, what they wore, and when they went to sleep. The slaves didn’t agree with their owners thinking.

Although, the masters gave each slave families food rations, or weekly food allotments, which usually consisted of some type of fatty, salted meat, corn meal, and potatoes, which the owners thought were sufficient to keep the slaves healthy enough to perform the heavy labor jobs that were demanded of them. The slaves thought differently the slaves found the rations insufficient, the rations tended to be monotonous and of poor quality. And also could be withdrawn if the owner wanted to punish the family. The family life that they were able to lead helped to make their lives in bondage a little bit easier. Families would engage in a variety of different economic