The Gang System And The Task System

Initially gang activity could only be found in large metropolitan cities, but now gangs have invaded neighborhoods of all sizes across the country. Gangs introduce violence and fear to the communities they occupy, raise the level of drug activities, and destroy businesses and property which brings down the overall value of the whole area. Instead of going to school, many young people find themselves drawn in to the gang life which in most cases either leads to being locked up or death. There are various reasons why people would want to join a gang, but no matter what that reason might be one can only expect a life of violence and troubles.

Fogel and Engerman´s ¨The Quality of Slave Labor and Racism¨ explains the economics behind slavery and which methods produced the most accurate and efficient results. Fogel and Engerman explained that one of the most important technological advances within the agricultural sector of the South after 1800 was in the realm of management, particularly in the “development of organizational methods which permitted southern planters to capture the potential benefits of economies of large scale operation.” (Fogel 278). On the plantations everything was setup to produce the best results, it was said it was organized as in a factory. Everybody was assigned to a certain tasks, that would keep him busy throughout the year. The various hands on a plantation were set up in gangs or teams which consisted of five different

The mainly work from sunup to sundown six days a week. Under the task system or task labor, these slave cultivate rice. This system give the slave more control over the pace of labor. With less supervision they can complete their work in an 8 hour shift. Task labor work side by side with their master rather than slave gangs.

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

This made indentured servitude, America’s first labor system, appealing to immigrants because it gave them a chance to improve their lives. Indentured servants consisted of mostly young men and some women who signed a contract to work a specific length of time for an employer, also called the master. The length of servitude intially ranged between three to seven years. Servants gained passage to America, food, clothing, and shelter.. Upon completion of their contract, servants were to receive their freedom dues. These dues included land, barrels of corn, and a few articles of clothing. Many also received extra dues such as a horse or cow and specific tools for trade depending on their gender. In return, an employer had laborers to tend their fields and more land was awarded to them for each servant he brought over from England. The purchase of indentured servants was almost three times cheaper than the purchase of African slaves that started coming to Virginia from the Caribbean. The indentured system seemed to beneficial for both the laborer as well as the employer,

Indentured servants were used in early colonial times as a means of passage to the new world. The cash crops of the early settlers were exhaustingly labor intensive. In fact, U.S. History (2015) indicated that “the growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need for labor in Southern English America” (p. 1). The technology did not exist at the time for machinery that clears the ground and works the land as it does today. The work had to be done by hand; from clearing and prepping the fields to harvesting the crops, it was all manual labor for which the new land did not have ample supply of.

Slaves were used to do chores around the house, watch children, as well as clean and cook. At this time most of the slaves weren’t native rather they were from West Africa. Since the slaves were from a different part of the world and had a much different lifestyle (culture) than the Americans did, white people always made sure to keep a close eye on the slaves, almost as if they were afraid of their own black slaves, matter of fact they probably were. The whites seemed to be so afraid of them that they put bans on West African cultural practices, such as night burials, group gatherings, and the purchase of

Field labor was an unavoidable task that was fulfilled by nearly all slaves in the antebellum south. There was no gender discrimination in the fields, female slaves had to perform almost all of the plantation chores. Some of the chores female slaves were obligated to complete were picking, hoeing, plowing, mending fences, burning fields, weeding, planting, and harvesting. The work day was long and grueling, slaves worked from sunrise to the sunset. Working the fields was a strenuous job, however it was not done alone. They acquired the opportunity to work beside other female slaves. The groups of female slaves in the fields were called gangs. The gangs often sang, talked quietly, and passed along confidential information.

(Cobb, 2015) The south also use one crop plantations, this system was based on agricultural mass production usually a few staple products grow on large plantations such as cotton, tobacco, sugar rice indigo. With the one crop plantation system, slaves was expropriated, while white benefits from crops that were being grown and sold. The term planter has no universally accepted definition but historically in the, Antebellum south Planter generally defines as a person owning property and twenty or more slaves. (Boudless, 2014) It was too hard and expensive for planter (land owner) to grow the crops for themselves to make a decent living. Slaves rights was oppress through free enslave labor to perform and learn mass production distribution. Whites and indenture servant’s and Indians fail to comply for different reason, causing whites to enslave Africans. Slavery was use prominent in the sixteen thorough eighteen century in the south, slaves worked in the fields of the plantations and inside master homes. Plantation economy reap economical off the scale but have historically relied on slavery labor to accomplished profitability particular in the American south. (Boudless, 2014) With slaves doing all the worked, land owner had more fluctuation to experiment and with the crop,

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.

Slaves would normally work from dusk till dawn, so they usually didn’t get a break for lunch. Some slaves worked inside, taking care of individuals. Some cooked, some slaves nursed, did laundry, etc. Some plantation owners allowed slaves to work for others and earn money. The owners would keep a portion of the money and sometimes let the slave keep it. This could be a way to buy your freedom.

Those who were forced into Slavery in America had many jobs and tasks to accomplish throughout the years. According to Heather Williams in her book American Slavery, in the beginning stages of American development slaves “built the roads, cleared land, cut down trees to produce lumber for buildings and wood for fires, and they burned the lime used in outhouses for burial”. On top of already being overworked, slaves had to maintain livestock including producing dairy products, grow crops so the people in their colony could have food to eat, and take care of issues inside their owner’s home such as cooking, knitting and cleaning. Depending on what environment they lived in, slaves were also forced to fish, or work in a printing press. Those who worked in

The growth of tobacco, rice, & and other crops and the plantation economy gave rise to the high demand of labor in the English southern colonies. In the early years of the southern colonies, it was mostly indentured servants who would work for their aristocratic landowning masters in accordance to the Headright System. As this system benefited the masters some may also say it benefited the laborers. Each indentured servant would have their fare across the Atlantic paid in full by their masters if they willing to work a certain amount of years. They would also be supplied room & board while working in the masters’ fields. And if completion of contract is successful, laborers would receive a bonus. However, as good it seemed, the reality showed otherwise. Only forty percent of indentured servants lived to complete the terms of the contract. And female servants were recorded to have been subjects of harassment by their masters. Furthermore, the high demand of labor due to the plantation system influenced the general favor of forced labor

Not only was slavery divided up into different systems, but the roles of the slaves varied greatly. Field slaves were subjected to strenuous labor and strict overseers. They usually worked from dusk until dawn without receiving a day off. On the other hand, household slaves took care of the children, chores, and food and were sometimes seen as part of the family. There is a misconception that household slaves had an easier life than those working in the fields. However, regardless of whether or not someone was a household slave or a field slave, they were slaves nonetheless. The documentary fuels these misconceptions by making things seem right that Washington only worked his slaves six days a week, giving them Sunday off, and was known to have treated them well.

The most common use of a slave was to have the around the house to do common tasks