Life on the Plantation
Once slaves had been bought at the auction, they would be brought to their new home. Most of the slaves were sent to the deep South because that was where all the great plantations were. These plantations grew and produced mainly cotton, tobacco, sugar, and rubber. In fact, before the Civil War, America supplied 75% of the world’s cotton. It is not a stretch to say that the economy in the Confederacy, and indeed America, was built on the blood and sweat of slaves. Crops like cotton were labor-intensive and needed the light touch of human hands to pick the mature pods and later sort the cotton fiber from the seeds. Ironically, the Cotton Gin, which was invented in 1794 to reduce the labor needed when separating the cotton seeds from the fiber, in actuality, increased the demand for slave labor. Before the Cotton Gin, a slave was able to deseed a pound of cotton a day. The Cotton Gin manned by a single man and a horse was able to deseed up to 50 pounds of cotton a day. This, therefore, increased the need for more cotton, which in turn required more slaves to grow and pick the cotton. With industrialization, the North, as well as Britain, also began to increase its order for cotton for its cotton mills. As raw cotton production expanded and manufacturing costs decreased, the quality and quantity of cotton increased while the prices decreased leading to an overall worldwide demand for more cotton. Thus, by the beginning of 1800s, slavery in the deep South was not only deeply entrenched but an absolute necessity for the continued economic health of the manufacturers in the North and in Britain, the ships and railways which transported the cotton to the four corners of the earth, and especially the deep South where cotton was truly King.
The work on the field was backbreaking with horrible conditions. Field slaves often began work as early as 4 am as the sun rose, and finished at 9 pm when the sunset Monday to Saturday; Sunday was their only day of rest. Field slaves were given very few breaks, and if they stopped to rest, there would be consequences if caught by the overseer. The slaves were given breakfast and lunch in the field, but they were usually small in portion as well as poor in quality. Though the work they did depended on the crops that the plantation grew, by the 1800s, most plantations were focusing primarily on cotton. Most field slaves had a quota of bags/weight that they had to fill or they would be whipped. Though most of the slaves working in the field were young and physically in their prime, children, as well as very old slaves, were put to work too.
The field slaves were closely watched by an overseer who was hired by plantation owners to make sure that the slaves were working to their full potential. There have been countless stories of cruel overseers who bullied and whipped slaves for the smallest of infractions. The system of regular and public whippings instilled fear among the slaves. Witnessing the vicious whipping of fellow slaves for minor offenses insured that the slaves would stay in line, and produce their quota of the crop each day. Most importantly, fear was used as a way of deterring the slaves from an uprising. This became a real concern for white Southerners as the number of slaves grew in the South. While revolts did occur, most resistance was done on a much smaller scale; with slaves stealing food to supplement their own meager ration, sabotaging the plantation by deliberately breaking tools or machinery, and destroying crops or fields.
While most slaves did work in the fields, if the plantation was large and prosperous, slaves were used inside the house as well. The life of a house slave was in some ways easier than that of a field slave. For one, their work was not as physically grueling and they enjoyed some perks that the field slaves did not have. House slaves were often chosen by the owner or the mistress of the house and were given a certain measure of trust. They also usually ate better, were given hand me downs from the master and the mistress, and female house slaves sometimes developed a relationship with the mistress of the house. These differences sometimes led to bad feelings between the field slaves and the house slaves.
Ultimately, however, both the field slave and house slaves were considered commodities in their owner’s eyes. Regardless of the work they did on the plantation, the family they created, and the life they made for themselves, they could be sold any time at the whim of their master.
