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African Americans living in
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During the fifteenth to the eighteenth
century, African Americans lived and worked as slaves on American
plantations, a large agricultural estate. They lived in poor conditions, worked
everyday in horrible surroundings and had no control over their lives. In Colonial America, most African
American slaves worked on large cotton fields on which there were one hundred
or more slaves. They planted, picked and prepared the cotton for their
masters. In 1793 Eli Whitney invented
the “cotton gin,” a machine which removed cotton seeds quickly. With the
cotton gin slaves were able to clean fifty or more pounds of cotton a day.
Not all African American slaves picked cotton. Many worked on rice, tobacco and sugar
plantations in the south. Slaves lived in cabins on an area on
the plantation. Their cabins were badly made of thatched roofs, or logs. Cabins were tiny with
few windows and most had dirt floor. Living conditions for slaves were cramped
with as many as seven or more people sharing a cabin. Slaves had little or no
furniture and their beds were usually made of rags or straw. They were given
one pair of shoes and three items of underwear a year. These clothes were often made of coarse
materials. A few African American slaves were house servants, who worked in
the master’s house, and their lives were fairly better than the field
slaves. These slaves were fed better,
clothed better, and not whipped as often as the field slaves. Their homes
were better and closer to the master’s home.
African American slaves worked in
all kinds of weather and harsh conditions. They worked when it was hot and
cold in the rain and hail. Slaves worked in fields from sunrise to sunset. Men
and women worked the same hours and pregnant women were expected to work
until their child was born. Some
African American slaves worked every day of the week; others were given
Sunday as a day of rest. Some plantations had old women who cared for the
babies, and the children who were too young to work. They were also
responsible to cook for the slaves while they worked in the fields. Slaves
were allowed thirty minutes to eat their morning and The family and education of a slave
was in the hands of his master. Slaves
did not have a real family because they feared they would lose their wife,
husband or children. A master could sell a wife, husband, or children for a
profit and the family would be split up. Once a slave was sold, the chance of
seeing that love one again might never happen. Some slaves were allowed to go to church
and going to church was a family activity.
African American salves were not given an education. Slaves were not allowed to read or write
because their masters felt they would runaway and use their education to make
a better living. Now you can see how African American
slaves lived and worked on American Plantations. They lived and worked on these plantations,
with little or nothing and had no control over their lives. Click here to do word search Additional learning Resource: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plantation.htm BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE
CURRENT Textbooks: World History - Medieval
and Early Modern Times. Across the Centuries.
Dasilva, Benjamin, and Milton
Finkelstine. The Afro-American in Internet Websties: The American
Civil War." Slavery in Handler, Jerome S. The Atlantic Slave
Trade and Slave Life in The Little Known Facts
About Slavery. 23 Feb. 2006 <Handler, Jerome S. The
Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in |
