Cotton Slavery Essay

Compare and contrast the experience of slaves on tobacco plantations in the early seventeenth-century Chesapeake region with that of slaves on nineteenth-century cotton plantations in the Deep South. What forces transformed the institution of slavery the early seventeenth century to the nineteenth century?

Introduced to Britain's North American colonies in 1619 by the Dutch, the slavery of African Natives did not become a notable source of labor for the southern plantation system until the eighteenth century. Economic factors such as the development of plantations made the use of slaves more necessary and profitable and greatly influenced the idea of slavery. Also, social factors including

The slaves prepared their own food and carried it out into the field in buckets. Slaves were housed in slave cabins. Small, rudely built of logs with clapboard sidings, with clay chinking. The Floors were packed with dirt, and they were leaky and drafty. The combination of wet, dirt, and cold made them diseased infested environments.

Slavery was created in pre-revolutionary America at the start of the seventeenth century. By the time of the Revolution, slavery had undergone drastic changes and was nothing at all what it was like when it was started. In fact the beginning of slavery did not even start with the enslavement of African Americans. Not only did the people who were enslaved change, but the treatment of slaves and the culture that each generation lived in, changed as well.

Slave as defined by the dictionary means that a slave is a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. So why is it that every time you go and visit a historical place like the Hampton-Preston mansion in Columbia South Carolina, the Lowell Factory where the mill girls work in Massachusetts or the Old town of Williamsburg Virginia they only talk about the good things that happened at these place, like such things as who owned them, who worked them, how they were financed and what life was like for the owners. They never talk about the background information of the lower level people like the slaves or servants who helped take care and run these places behind the scenes.

     Slavery caused a great impact in the evolution of history. Slavery was the cause of many wars and disruptions along the time line that dates to the present twenty--first century. People of color were deprived of having a life of their own and going about normal ways because of the greed that consumed society. The role of slavery in society attributed to the desperation and anger the slaves felt and lead them to strike against their owners in many occasions. Despite the threats and the unfair treatment, many people of color retaliated and firmly stood up for their rights as equal human beings. It was absurd how society based their government on religion at one point and still managed to dispossess people of

In the 1790’s the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney sparked an increase in cotton production in the South. The cotton gin decreased the labor time it took to pick seeds from the cotton. Slave owners moved or sold their slaves to deep Southern states

In the 1800s slavery wasn’t a new concept in America. The sad truth was that this way of life in the “Old South” was normal. Many challenged it, some thought it was the only way, that slavery was natural way of living and blacks were only seen as property. In the era of slavery, most people often wonder if it could’ve ever have been prevented. Another aspect is that slavery was inevitable and that in a twisted way it made us better. With all these questions, and twisting of views one thing is for certain, it’s a part of our history, we are taught about it and it happened. It’s up to us to make sure we never get back to this “way of life” or the idea of slavery as normal.

On the plantations, slave labor was the primary source of workers. These slaves were brought to the colonies by ship, once they arrived they were sold at auctions. The slave auctions had just men, just women, just children or whole families up for bid. Southern plantations were predominantly black, male slaves. At one point it was believed to be seven male slaves to every one female. The slaves were purchased and then became the property of the

Life for slaves was difficult. Every year they normally received two cotton shirts, one jacket, two pairs of trousers, a pair of socks, a pair of shoes, a coat, and a wool hat. To eat, slaves of the time mostly were given eight pounds of pork or fish, and cornmeal salt herring each month. Slaves were housed in wooden shacks with dirt floors, but sometimes they were made of boards nailed up with cracks stuffed with rags. The beds

Slavery, especially in America, has been an age old topic of riveting discussions. Specialist and other researchers have been digging around for countless years looking for answers to the many questions that such an activity provided. They have looked into the economics of slavery, slave demography, slave culture, slave treatment, and slave-owner ideology (p. ix). Despite slavery being a global issue, the main focus is always on American slavery. Peter Kolchin effectively illustrates in his book, American Slavery how slavery evolved alongside of historical controversy, the slave-owner relationship, how slavery changed over time, and how America compared to other slave nations around the world.

During their few hours of gratuitous time, most slaves did their own personal study. The diet supplied by slaveholders was generally short, and slaves often supplemented it by tending small plots of land or fishing. Many slave owners did not provide enough clothing, and slave mothers often worked to clothe their families at night later on long days of toil. One visitor to colonial North Carolina wrote that slaveholders rarely gave their slaves meat or fish, and that he witnessed many slaves wearing only rags. Although there were exceptions, the prevailing attitude among slave owners was to allot their slaves the bare minimum of food and clothing; anything beyond that was up to the slaves to gain during their very limited time off from employment.

In most cases, however, slaves were expected to cook the evening meal in their cabins. The food, which was issued once a week, was generally coarse and lacking in variety. The usual allocation was a peck of corn and three of four pounds of bacon or salt pork. They were also given milk, potatoes, peas and beans, molasses, and fish. Fractional amounts, usually one-half, were allotted to each child in the family. Most slaves supplemented this meager fare by trapping coons and opossums in the fields or by stealing corn from the master's corncribs and chickens from his chicken coops. Slaves made a distinction between taking and stealing. It was considered right to take anything that belonged to white folk but it was wrong to steal the property of other slaves (Olmsted 69-72).

In addition, slaves had to produce for themselves. Plantation owners were quite interested in reducing cost and they did so at the expense of many slaves. They overworked slaves tremendously and even made them produce their own foods to cut down on export expenditures. However, slaves had to do this in their own "free time" which was on Saturdays. Quite disgruntled, slaves had to work everyday, and on their day of rest, they were forced to work extra hard to produce for themselves. "The planters perceived it in their interests to spend as little money, time, or energy as possible on slave maintenance" (Tomich, 304).

light a fire and make their own meal. This was their usual way of life