Life+of+Slaves+in+Antebellum+America

If we look in the past on the topic of slavery we can tell the differences between slaves and slave owners. We can notice the differences in looks, in customs, and experiences. Unlike slave owners of the earlier times, the colonies were not forced to accept slaves, but were able to look at them and say, "They're not like us. They don't look like us or act like us. They don't seem to think the way we think, so they obviously don't feel the way we feel.” Such statements were very convenient when it came to conditions that the slaves were in. They were treated like animals. Animals were fed scraps housed in shacks and worked under the horrible weather with a whip beating down on them. These conditions were basically similar to how slaves were treated under their cruel master/slave owners. Some owners even said that the slaves were not like us, meaning having no soul. Some slave owners did not always treat their slaves with brutality, whipping them and overworking them until they died, others would treat them with consideration and, worry about their welfare. In the end the main concept of slavery in North America was based on "the assumption that blacks were something less than real people." __North Star to Freedom__

Some slave owners did believe that they were superior to the slaves, but some worried constantly about keeping them separated and kept them from coming together. Household slaves had a close relationship with the families who owned them, but the outdoor slaves had a distant relationship, they were often treated with suspicion. They were expected to be humble to their owners and overseers, especially not to look them in the eye! In some states of the country, they couldn't leave the property without written permission and they could be stopped and searched at any time, at any place. They were often denied instruments because they might use them to send messages to other slaves. Those who challenged such rules were severely punished.

In the time period where slavery existed there was a law that stated slaves were considered property. This means that they were not considered citizens, but are to be bought and sold by slave owners, the white people. Slaves who were sold lost a lot of family members by separation, never seeing each other again. Slaves were also forbidden to speak their language or even practice it. Slaves were not allowed to have their own property, to gather for meetings, or to marry whom they chose. Slave owners were careful about not letting a slave learn to read and write for fear that a book or a newspaper might give them all sorts of dangerous ideas, especially ideas about freedom and equality. Also people who could read and write could communicate across distances and perhaps plan to revolt. Basically the truth was that slave owners were afraid of one major thing, slaves might rebel. They were afraid because if slaves were granted any chance to rebel, then the whole system of slavery might fall apart.

The plantation life was a world of its own. On the plantation, there were houses owned by slave owners and a line of little cabins for the slaves. The slaves would call the slave owner house the "big house" and the slaves would call their houses a "home". The line of little cabins was called a "slave row". They were surrounded by fields and woods, which beyond that was freedom. The houses of the slaves were more for animals than for the slaves themselves. Sometimes the houses that the slaves lived in were not even fit to be called home. A husband and a wife would sleep in the same bed, making the children sleep on the floor. The beds were made out of straw and old rags with a single blanket for covering. The room also had a very poor chimney with little kitchen furniture. In a place called Alexandria, slaves were allowed to sell chickens and use the money to buy furniture. They also received Indian corn every week and a cotton jacket with a pair of breeches. The life on the plantation was indeed a life of its own.

African Americans would work for twelve hours a day, six days a week. Some slaves were fortunate not to work in the fields; instead they would work in the master’s house. They would cook, clean, and take care of the children. The jobs that the slaves did in the field were picking or planting tobacco, cotton, and corn. Slaves who refused to work or try to run away were beaten or killed, though slaves would get killed anyway, without any punishment beforehand.