Historical and social aspects of slavery

¶ … Slave in America in the 1800s

As to what my life would be like as a slave in America, first of all I will explain this as though I am a slave. Certainly I would be resigned to work hard and follow instructions to avoid any addition whippings or penalties of any kind. As much as I hate the very idea that I am incarcerated, forced into physical labor by people I don't like, people who paid money to buy me from a wicked, violent trader who bought me off of a ship from Africa, I know enough about how masters punish slaves to keep my head above water and work as hard or harder than any of the other slaves on our plantation.

On any given day, Monday through Saturday (my master usually gives slaves a day of rest on Sunday), I am up with the sun and out in the cotton or the tobacco fields. This plantation in South Carolina is a large one and there are 19 slaves working these fields. Because I was working for a slave-owner who has a large plantations (he's a planter) and because I have always shown leadership among the people in my African culture, my master has learned to trust me and give me some extra benefits.

Those benefits including some schooling. The master's wife, Sarah, who has always been kind to me, has history and science books she shows me and she even teaches me some of the words. I know she hates it when the master is violently angry with another slave. She has told me (secretly) that she cries when he whips a slave so hard the screaming can be heard in the kitchen.

He ties the hands of a disobedient slave together and loops the long end of that rope up over a rafter in the back barn. Then he pulls on the rope until the slave's arms are tightly pulled into the air and the slave is barely touching the ground. Then he pulls out his whip, a terrifying weapon that every slave fears. He makes the person's back bleed, then he whips the legs real hard.

Which again, is the reason I am always obedient although I am not a coward. I mean, I am not afraid to speak to him and explain how certain things should be done. I asked if I could have a bible and he gave me one. I like to lead the other slaves in singing Negro Spirituals. One of my favorites was "Wade in the Water," because the melody allowed voices to reach out to Jesus Christ and God through music. I am religious because I believe there is a heaven and a hell and that Christ really did come to earth to save humanity from sins. Slavery is a sin, an awful sin and someday the South will pay for their sins. I don't know how, but they will, because I have faith in what God wants people to do.

My family has been separated since we were brought to America on a horrible ship. I was sold to a large plantation owner and I don't know where my sisters went. My mother and father are both dead; my mother was raped and killed back in Africa when she tried to resist being captured. I don't know what happened to my father but I know my sisters were on board the slave ship that brought me to America. I think I was fairly lucky, I ended up learning to plant tobacco plants, how to keep them weeded, how to top the plants and during harvest how to cut the tobacco. I liked working in the barns where the tobacco was cured. I was the foreman because I knew how to get the most work out of the others, and because I learned about tobacco from the master and from a book Sarah read to me.