Life of a Slave on the Plantation Essay

Slavery has long inspired controversy among historians. Many have different views on slavery whether it was slaves lived under kind masters, or slavery was a brutal system that drove slaves into constant rebellion, but neither viewpoint is accurate although both contain some truth in it. Many masters wanted to earn profit off of slaves no matter what because some masters were kind causing the slaves to develop genuine affection for their owners. Although slaves had affection for owners they did not even question themselves when deciding to desert to Union lines when northern troops descended on the plantations during the Civil War. The experience of slaves working on cotton plantations in the 1830s and 1700s differed because of reasons unrelated to the kindness or brutality of masters. More of reasons like the plantation system, the work and discipline, the slave family, and the longevity, health, and diet of slaves.

Africans were considered “better” slaves because they were helpless compared to the Indians who were at home in the Americas and could escape much easier than the blacks that were now alone in a strange place.

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.

After the American Revolution, slavery became a more significant component in the American economy. As a result of many slave owners being materialistic, slaves were overworked and treated callously. One such slave was Frederick Douglass. Through most of his life, Douglass was trapped in a typical slave environment. However, Douglass taught himself to read and eventually escaped the desolate life of a slave. After his freedom, Douglass wrote his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, which chronicled his life story. In his book, Douglass details his slave upbringing and how it affected him. His autobiography was incredibly comprehensive which is one reason

From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern for the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as remembered traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art

The Zong, which carried hundreds of Africans to the “New World” began this hold on the black body. The ship symbolizes the arrival of what we know today, as the “black body” and the departure of ones known language. Surrounded by water, the ship holds hundreds of bodies dying of thirst, ultimately dissolving their previously known languages. In order to gain and maintain control over the black bodies, the Europeans introduce the language of violence. According Sharpe, “The language of thirst and hunger and sore and heat, the language of the gun and the butt, the foot and the fist, the knife and the throwing overboard” (pg.69). Violence has been embedded into the black community since the Africans were held in the belly of the ship. During the voyage, many black bodies were starved, beaten, and even thrown overboard. All to gain and maintain power over these bodies, which sparked the cycle of oppression.

Slavery in America was a horrific time period that negatively affected African Americans, and still affect some to this day. Africans were kidnapped from their homes, brought overseas in an inhuman effort, tortured, beaten, and forced to work long grueling hours for no pay. Because of the color of their skin they were considered worthless, and they were also considered as property. Whites did not recognize African Americans as human beings, and

Slavery has a lot of effects on African Americans today. History of slavery is marked for civil rights. Indeed, slavery began with civilization. With farming’s development, war could be taken as slavery. Slavery that lives in Western go back 10,000 years to Mesopotamia. Today, most of them move to Iraq, where a male slave had to focus on cultivation. Female slaves were as sexual services for white people also their masters at that time, having freedom only when their masters died.

(1) The use of natural dialect can be seen throughout the slave narrative interviews through words and phrases used that were common during the period of slavery, but are not used today. One example can be seen in the dialect used by former slave Mama Duck, “Battlin stick, like dis. You doan know what a battling stick is? Well, dis here is one.” Through incomplete sentences and unknown words the natural dialect of the time can be seen. Unfamiliar words such as shin-plasters, meaning a piece of paper currency or a promissory note regarded as having little or no value. Also, geechees, used to describe a class of Negroes who spoke Gullah. Many examples can be seen throughout the “Slave Narratives”

On the plantation, many slaves worked in the fields tending to the crops. On large plantations, the owner may have hired overseers to make the Africans work. Some colonies had slave codes. Slave codes were rules regarding the behavior and punishment of the enslaved people. Many Africans found strength in their African ties; they created a culture from their languages, customs, and religions in Africa. Some Africans learned a trade, and a few were lucky enough to buy their freedom from working as a carpenter or a different

The ability of a people to hold on to its indigenous roots is important to the psycho-social development of such a people. For the descendants of the Africans brought to the Western hemisphere as slaves, Standard English is the imposed language of racial oppression. Since blacks in America, in most cases, cannot retrace their original tongue, they have a double edged sword with which to contend. Therefore, care must be taken so as not to

“Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers” (Chavez). Language a puzzle piece of a person’s culture. In history Americans used the demise of others to receive their glory. People like the African slaves and Native Americans suffered at the hand of the Americans. Focusing mostly on the African slaves, Americans cut their culture away from them by forbidding their language in their new “home” and forced their language onto them. Though the Americans believed that they had the upper hand by cutting off the African culture, the Africans exceeded their power by founding their own american culture, through African American Vernacular English.

African slaves in the United States created Christian songs called spirituals; the songs emphasized the hardships of slavery. Today, they are referred to as Negro spirituals, Black spirituals, African American spirituals, church songs, jubilees, holy roller songs, and African American folk songs. The African American spirituals originated from western and central African countries. The use of spirituals began in the 1500s, when Africans were taken from their homelands and traditions to work as slaves in the New World. While in captive, slaves used their spirituals to pass times while working, communicate without outsiders knowing, and most importantly to keep connected with their religious beliefs.

Education of African American people was not supported in Southern States, this was because white people believed that if they permit their slaves to learn to write, speak and talk in English, they would eventually become rebellious to their masters and become disobedient. This fear led them to think that fundamentally African American people were unable to absorb education.

Africans who were brought to the Caribbean lost much of their culture during the period of slavery. Nevertheless, many African religious practices and beliefs survived until 1838.