Slavery - Life On The Plantations :: Slavery Essays

Slave Life The warm climate, boundless fields of full-bodied soil, long growing seasons, and numerous waterways provided favorable conditions for farming plantations in the southernmost (Foster). The richness of the South depended on the productivity of the plantations (Katz 3-5). With the invention of the cotton gin, elaborateness of the country occurred. This cal conduct for the spread of slavery (Foster). Slaves, owned by one in four families, were controlled from birth to d saph by their white owners. Black men, women, and children toiled in the fields and houses under horrible conditions (Katz 3-5). The slave system attempted to destroy black family structure and take away human dignity (Starobin 101). Slaves led a hard life on the Southern plantations. Most slaves were brought from Africa, each kidnapped or sold by their tribes to slave catchers for violating a tribal command. some(a) were even traded for tobacco, sugar, and other useful products (Cowan and Maguire 518). Those not killed or gold enough to escape the slave-catching raids were chained together (Foster). The slaves had no understanding of what was misadventure to them. They were from different tribes and of different speaking languages. Most captured blacks had never seen the white struggle foreigners who came on long, strange boats to journey them across the ocean. They would never see their families or native lands again. These unfortunate people were shackled and crammed tightly into the holds of ships for weeks. Some refused to eat and others committed suicide by jumping overboard (Foster). When the ships reached American ports, slaves were unload into pens to be sold at auctions to the highest bidder. One high-priced slave compared auction prices with another, saying, "You wouldnt fetch bout fifty dollas, but Im wuth a thousand" (qtd. in Foster). At the auctions, potential buyers would examine the captives muscles and teeth. manpowers and womens bodies were exposed t o look for lash attach. No marks on a body meant that he or she was an obedient person. The slaves were needful to dance or jump around to prove their limberness. Young, fair-skinned muttaloes, barely raiment and ready to be sold to brothel owners, were kept in esoteric rooms (Foster). It was profitable to teach the slaves skills so that during the crop off-season they could be leased out to lend. Although they were not being paid, some were doing more skilled work than poor whites were.