Physical Slavery By Day, Mental Freedom By Night

Slaves in the colonies during the revolution were faced with no real options and little liberty. The slaves’ lot in life varied greatly between individual experiences. Those slave owners who had only a few slaves generally treated their slaves better than those with large numbers of slaves. Even if they were treated well, the slaves had little in the way of freedom. They would be required to work throughout the day at the bidding of their masters and had no recourse to whatever punishment was given at their master’s hands. The slaves also had little hope of ever obtaining freedom for themselves and their children (Pavao, n.d.).

Slavery in colonial America was a hard way of life. Slaves varied in ages and gender. Slaves were assigned a task or tasks that had to be completed during the day. The male slaves would participate in the hard labor such as working on the farm. The female slaves would generally work in the household, sent on errands or spent most of their time with the house owner. Female slaves were forced into sexual relationships for reproduction. Reproduction would either be forced between one African slave and another or between the slave and the house owner. Slaves were also treated like livestock and being bought, sold and traded among owners. For the enslaved people they had to endure being separated from their families when captured or when sold at the slave market. Their new

Slavery was a dark time in America’s past. Not only did slavery separate millions of families, it destroyed the white man’s reputation to African people. Many slave owners treated their slaves well, many did not. They forced their slaves to live in deplorable conditions. Malnutrition and overworking often led to death. If you were a slave, would you risk it all and try to run away? You might not have a choice if you wanted to stay alive.

The life of a slave was harsh to say the least. They worked long hours from dusk to dawn, most of them laboring in the hot southern cotton or tobacco fields. They were often separated from their family members and suffered harsh punishments when their masters felt they did wrong. But, after the Civil War ended, the slaves were left with hope that they would be free and have the same rights and opportunities that the white men had. Unfortunately, it would take decades for them to see true freedom.

Once the slaves were brought to their new home they were put right to work. Slaves did all sorts of tasks such as heavy labor, farm work, cleaning, cooking, construction, animal tending. Basically a slave did everything the owner didn’t want to do. If the slave refused to work or weren’t working hard enough they would be whipped.

After reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, it is clear to see the true horrors behind the entirety of slavery. It is one thing to learn about it from a textbook or to sit through a lecture, but it is a completely different experience to get an account of how grossly inhumane, frightening, and appalling slavery really was from someone who experienced the terrors first-hand. Reading this narrative provided extremely descriptive details of how slaves truly were treated. Douglass recounted the time where he had often:

Freedom is a gift that came with America and was given to its citizens. However, that’s not always how it used to be especially in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 17th century there were over 30,000 enslaved African Americans in North America . Many indentured servants were brought to the New World to help with growing crops and other duties. However, they were never a good fit for the new and wild America they had come to. In this essay I will be addressing the comparisons and contrasts of African American slaves and indentured servants in America.

Life under slavery was harsh, and during the mid-1800s, it was the main way of living in the South. Unlike the North, the South had very few industries, but made up for this with plantations. They then gained wealth by using slavery as they pleased, but under slavery, African- Americans were treated brutally. Under this kind of treatment, slaves made many ways to endure this pain and even sometimes then rebel.

While slavery was a horrific thing that led to the mistreatment of millions of black people, it had the power to last for centuries. When looking closely at historical accounts it becomes easier to see why this horrible practice was able to sustain for so long. One of the reasons was because the economy of Colonial America relied heavily on the labor of slaves. Farming, the slave trade itself, and the harsh treatment of slaves were all driven by the greed of slave owners. Another reason that slavery lasted so long was racism. During this time, the black population was considered inferior to the white population. This helped to promote the cruel behaviors that occurred in slavery. Lastly, many whites actually felt that the slaves were treated

Slavery is a stain in the history of the United States that will always be particularly remembered for the cruelty it exhibited. Up until 1865 slaves were imported in shiploads and treated as if they were merely cattle. On the farms slaves were given no mercy and had to work long, arduous days for nothing. Additionally they were often subject to cruel overseers who would beat and whip them on a regular basis. As brutal and destructive as the institution of slavery was, slaves were not defenseless victims. Through their families, and religion, as well as more direct forms of resistance, Africans-Americans resisted the debilitating effects of slavery and created a vital culture supportive of human dignity.

The slave’s life depended on their owners. Most owners treated their slaves well by making sure they had decent food, clean houses, and warm clothes to wear. Other planters spent little time caring about these things. They were determining to get the most work possible from their slaves. Slaves worked from sunup to sundown, at least sixteen hours a day. They sometimes suffered whippings and other cruel punishments. Owners thought of them as valuable property, that way the owners wanted to keep their human property healthy and as productive as they can. Keeping slaves families together was very difficult to do because slaves were considered as

Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, “Men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains.”(Mulder) Well it is the exact opposite, men are born in chains, and they will have to earn their freedom, because nothing is free in this world or there is no such thing as free lunch as they say. Bing dictionary defines the word slavery as “the state or condition of being held in involuntary servitude as the property of somebody else.” (Bing Dictionary) They were sold and purchased at many different auctions, and most of the time, they were miserable and afraid. Imagine being traded around like a piece of clothing, wear and tear shows through you, and being shipped to a foreign country. The slaves really had a hard time with their lives. Many Americans ruined African Americans’ lives by treating them as lesser beings and using them for their own needs, this not only takes away their freedom but also their dignity and since the Americans took away the slave’s freedom, they shall not deserve any themselves.

The daily life of a slave in North Carolina was incredibly difficult. Hard workers, especially those in the field, played from sunrise until sundown. Even small kids and the elderly were not exempt from these long work hours. Slaves were generally granted a day off on Sunday, and on infrequent holidays such as Christmas or the Fourth of July.

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).

By 1750, about 200,000 slaves lived in the colonies and most of them in the south, where the warm climate and good soil permitted the great development of plantations such as rice, tobacco, sugar cane and cotton among others. Slaves therefore played a big role in these plantations working directly in the fields, though some others worked as servants craft workers, etc. In the northern colonies, slaves worked in factories, homes, and shipyards.