Jobs To Field Slaves For The Owners example essay topic

Slavery was a big part of life in the South. Many plantation owners relied on slaves and their work to help get the money and crops they needed. There were basically 2 types of slaves in the South at this time. There were house slaves and there were field slaves. House slaves consisted of servants, maids, and butlers.

They were normally treated better than the field slaves (Biel 14). They got to be inside most of the time. Owners of house slaves would usually not beat them because they wanted the slaves to look presentable for whatever guests arrived or stopped by. With house slaves, the owner's family enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle (Biel 14). These houses were normally extremely elegant. Some house slaves had the luxury of being taught basic education.

Just enough to understand what was going on and what to do. Field slave life was much different than that of a house slave. There was no education taught to a field slave. Literacy for enslaved blacks was clearly viewed as a potential weapon against the slave system ("Voices of Triumph" 167). Educated slaves were thought not only more likely to rebel but also to pose a greater threat if they did ("Voices of Triumph" 167). Forty to fifty slaves lived on a typical plantation (Biel 14).

These field slaves were very important and was a heavy contributor to the plantation owner's income. Slavery was a way to use man, woman, and child power to raise crops for sale (Boorstin and Kelly 273). The largest of these crops was cotton, which the Southerners thought was the "King" of all crops, but also important were tobacco, rice, hemp, and sugar (Boorstin and Kelly 273). From age 12, slaves were expected to get up at sunrise and work until it was to dark to see (Biel 14).

It was the black slave, working from dusk to dawn, who planted, tended, and harvested these crops, as well as built fences, cut wood, and fed farm animals (Boorstin and Kelly 273). The institution of slavery was operated by the planters and through custom. The owner of the plantation was the head guy who ran the plantation. A small planter would go ahead and supervise the plantation by himself if he could. If he was a medium or major planter, he hired an overseer and perhaps an assistant overseer to represent him (Williams, Current, and Friedel 494).

An overseer was a position that had the responsibility of watching over the plantation and making sure that everything was going well. These overseers were hired if the owner of the plantation was to busy or occupied with something else. Almost as important as the managerial force was the "head driver", a trusted and responsible slave, who acted under the overseer as a kind of foremen (Williams, Current, and Friedel 494). The head driver was normally a prior long time slave who could be trusted to help get the work done that needed to be done. There were two methods of appointing jobs to field slaves for the owners. One method was the gang system.

Under this method, the slaves were simply divided into groups, each of which was directed by a driver, and were worked for as many hours as the overseer considered a reasonable workday (Williams, Current, Friedel 494). This gang method was found in regions growing tobacco and cotton (Stewert 22). The other method was the task system. Here a slave was allotted a particular task in the morning, say to hoe one acre; When he completed his job, he was free for the rest of the day (Williams, Current, and Friedel 494).

Many of the slaves would use this time to tend their own crops, which they used to supplement their diets, and if there was a surplus, to sell to other slaves or local traders (Stewert 22). This was a good time for the slaves to finish what they needed to be done. Most slaves, however, would not be given this opportunity because most plantation owners would see this as a waste of time. The treatment of slaves was terrible, especially for the field slaves. Between six and twelve slaves lived together in a leaky, drafty, dirt-floored, one-room shack (Biel 14). Such poor living conditions lead to many diseases.

They were fed little corn and maybe some fatty pork (Biel 14). They wore shabby clothes made of homespun cotton known as "Negro cloth" (Biel 14). In addition to these harsh conditions, there were also slave codes. The slave codes or the Southern states forbade a slave to hold property, to leave his master's premises without permission, to be out after dark, to congregate with other slaves except for church, to carry a firearm or any type of weapon, and to strike a white person (Williams, Current, and Friedel 494). Before slave codes, some slaves were freed by their owners, or allowed to earn money to buy their own Freedom and that of their wives and children (Boorstin and Kelly 274).

Besides poor living conditions and slave codes, the treatment of slaves was far more worst when it came to beatings and disciplinary actions. Slaves would sometimes be pushed to exhaustion (Boorstin and Kelly 273). Failure to perform up to expectations could lead to a whipping (Boorstin and Kelly 273). Slaves would sometimes try to resist their owners in a number of ways. Slaves would work slowly and carelessly (Boorstin and Kelly 274). Sickness could be faked also (Boorstin and Kelly 274).

These types of resistance would lead to whippings. If blacks committed offenses they could be handles by the master or the courts. Most slave offenses were tried by the master, who might inflict punishments ranging from some mild disciplinary action to flagging or branding (Williams, Current, and Friedel 494). Major offenses, including crimes were generally referred to the courts (Williams, Current, and Friedel 494). It was conditions and issues like these that caused the attempts of runaways. Many slaves would try to runaway and if they were caught there would be severe punishment.

A number of them actually made it to freedom (Boorstin and Kelly 274). Some runaway slaves would risk their lives and risk becoming a slave again and return back to try and help more slaves runaway. Such a person for this job was Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery. As she was growing up she learned to walk on the hard packed earth outside the cabin. She normally answered to the name of Mint a or Minty (Petry 12).

She was a quiet girl but a bright one. Her parents hoped that she would learn a trade when she was young so that she wouldn't have to work in the fields. As she grew up she was taught to say "yes, Missus" or "no Missus" to white women and "yes Mas'r" or "no Mas'r" to white men (Pentry 21). As she grew up she realized and was aware of the hardships of slavery. She recognized that it was unfair and unjust so she felt she had to do something. In 1849, Harriet Tubman made a decision that she was going to runaway from slavery.

She escaped from a plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She escaped into the North where she found freedom even though society was based on whites. Harriet Tubman became a black abolitionist. She wanted to start a program to help other blacks in the south to find their freedom they deserved also. She was an escaped slave who dedicated her life to helping other slaves get out of the south (Biel 14).

She had great moral and physical strength. She learned to recognize the signs in nature that would enable her to escape (Pentry). Freedom wasn't enough for Harriet Tubman. She had to go back to get others. She walked, ran, hid, coaxed, cajoled, and prayed until three hundred of her people had been delivered into freedom (Pentry).

From 1849 to the Civil War, she risked her life many times on trips into the south (Biel 14). During her long courageous career, she helped spirit away her own parents and some other 300 slaves (Boorstin and Kelly 310). Many people referred to Harriet Tubman as Moses (Petry 179). The route to freedom was known as the Underground Railroad (Biel 14).

This was the answer to the dream she had for a better life for her people. The Underground Railroad was a loosely organized with the help of other black abolitionists. Passing fugitive slaves from farmhouse to farmhouse, hiding them by day and moving them warily through forests and swamps by night (Goldston 75). The Underground Railroad was a series of routes and stations leading north to Canada for runaway slaves.

Abolitionist leaders, generally free blacks, brought them to freedom past local police, militia and the dreaded slave patrols (Goldston 75). At this time they had special jobs to help look out for runaways. They would be out at night just patrolling the streets and different areas for slaves who were trying to runaway. Harriet Tubman was excellent at helping slaves. She made many different trips and was never caught. Abolitionists who were caught suffered beatings, imprisonment or lynching at the hands of outraged southerners (Goldston 75).

Reportedly, Harriet Tubman would carry a gun with her and more than once threatened a slave who suddenly became frightened and wanted to turn back (Stewert 41). She forced them to stay strong and reminded them of the hardships of slavery. Some of the most important people with the Underground Railroad were white (Stewert 41). Levi Coffin was a Quaker who helped many slaves escape. There were other whites like this who helped slaves immensely. They would help them runaway, help hide them, and provide for them.

Some built special house for them to stay so they wouldn't get caught. Some would go as far as turning their own house into a place where slaves could go and hide out for awhile. The people in the north made a big contribution to runaway slaves also. Some Northern states passed "personal liberty laws" which made it difficult if not impossible to catch fugitives and banned state officers from assisting in their captures (Williams, Current, and Friedel 448).

Bibliography

African Americans Voices of Triumph. Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1993.
Biel, Timothy Levi. The Civil War. California: Lucent Books, 1991.
Boorstin, Daniel, and Brooks Mather Kelly. A History of the United States. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992.
Goldston, Robert. The Coming of the Civil War. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972.
Pentry, Ann. Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad. New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 1955.
Stewert, Jeffrey C. 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History. New York: Main Street Books, 1996.
Williams, T. Harry, Richard N. Current, and Frank F reidel. A History of the United States to 1877.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1969.