Large numbers also worked as boatmen, waiters, cooks, drivers, housemaids, spinners, and weavers. During the 1850s, half a million slaves lived in southern towns and cities, where they worked in
textile mills, iron works, tobacco factories, laundries, and shipyards
.
What jobs did slaves have in the Southern colonies?
As in the South, enslaved men were frequently forced into
heavy or farm labor
. Enslaved women were frequently forced to work as household servants, whereas in the South women often performed agricultural work.
What jobs did slaves do?
The vast majority of enslaved Africans employed in
plantation agriculture
were field hands. Even on plantations, however, they worked in other capacities. Some were domestics and worked as butlers, waiters, maids, seamstresses, and launderers. Others were assigned as carriage drivers, hostlers, and stable boys.
How was the life of slaves?
Plantation slaves
lived in small shacks with a dirt floor and little or no furniture
. Life on large plantations with a cruel overseer was oftentimes the worst. However, work for a small farm owner who was not doing well could mean not being fed. The stories about cruel overseers were certainly true in some cases.
How much did slaves get paid working?
Wages varied across time and place but self-hire slaves could command between
$100 a year
(for unskilled labour in the early 19th century) to as much as $500 (for skilled work in the Lower South in the late 1850s).
How many hours did slaves work a day?
On a typical plantation, slaves worked
ten or more hours a day
, “from day clean to first dark,” six days a week, with only the Sabbath off. At planting or harvesting time, planters required slaves to stay in the fields 15 or 16 hours a day.
How long did slaves live?
A broad and common measure of the health of a population is its life expectancy. The life expectancy in 1850 of a white person in the United States was forty;
for a slave, thirty-six
. Mortality statistics for whites were calculated from census data; statistics for slaves were based on small sample-sizes.
What did slaves eat?
Maize, rice, peanuts, yams and dried beans
were found as important staples of slaves on some plantations in West Africa before and after European contact. Keeping the traditional “stew” cooking could have been a form of subtle resistance to the owner’s control.
Where do slaves sleep?
Slaves on small farms often slept in
the kitchen or an outbuilding
, and sometimes in small cabins near the farmer’s house. On larger plantations where there were many slaves, they usually lived in small cabins in a slave quarter, far from the master’s house but under the watchful eye of an overseer.
What did House slaves look like?
Whereas many field workers were not given sufficient clothing to cover their bodies, house slaves tended to be
dressed with more modesty
, sometimes in the hand-me-downs of masters and mistresses. Most slaves lived in similar dwellings, simple cabins furnished sparely. A few were given rooms in the main house.
How many hours a week did slaves work?
Industrial slaves worked
twelve hours per day, six days per week
. The only breaks they received were for a short lunch during the day, and Sunday or the occasional holiday during the week.
At what age did slaves start working?
Boys and girls
under ten
assisted in the care of the very young enslaved children or worked in and around the main house. From the age of ten, they were assigned to tasks—in the fields, in the Nailery and Textile Workshop, or in the house.
Did slaves get days off?
Slaves were generally allowed a day off on Sunday
, and on infrequent holidays such as Christmas or the Fourth of July. During their few hours of free time, most slaves performed their own personal work.
How long was the boat ride from Africa to America?
The journey between Africa and the Americas, “The Middle Passage,” could take
four to six weeks
, but the average lasted between two and three months. Chained and crowded with no room to move, Africans were forced to make the journey under terrible conditions, naked and lying in filth.
What did skilled slaves do?
Skilled slaves arrived with knowledge of a wide range of traditional African crafts—
pottery making, weaving, basketry, wood carving, metalworking, and building
—that would prove valuable in the Americas, particularly during the preindustrial colonial period, when common household goods, such as thread, fabric, and soap, …
Who was the worst plantation owner?
| Stephen Duncan | Education Dickinson College | Occupation Plantation owner, banker |
|---|
