Black Peoples of America - What is
Slavery?
A slave is someone who is owned by another person.
A slave has:
No choice
No freedom
No money
A slave has to do what is asked of him by his master, usually this is work of some
kind. Slaves are punished for not following their master's orders, working too
slowly, or attempting to runaway. When we think of slavery today we think of the
black Africans who were captured, sold into slavery and taken to the Americas to
work on the plantations there.
This picture shows a slave who has been muzzled. Probably as a
punishment for talking too much.
Slavery, as an institution, has a very long history. Indeed slaves were
used to build the pyramids by the ancient Egyptians, by the Romans and
by the Ancient Britons. Slavery was abolished in Britain in 1807.
This picture shows slaves in ancient Egypt carrying stones used
to build the pyramids
Sadly, slavery is not a thing of the past. In 1999, the
International Labor Conference condemned the government of
Myanmar (Burma) for their " ..widespread use of forced
labor.." And throughout our modern world, women and young
girls are forced into prostitution, while both children and
adults work in near slavery conditions in sweat shops
producing goods for the western world.
The Triangular Trade
This was the name given to the trading route used by European merchants who
exchanged goods with Africans for slaves, shipped the slaves to the Americas, sold
them and brought goods from the Americas back to Europe.
Merchants who traded in this way could get very rich indeed as American goods
fetched a high
price in Europe.
It was called the triangular trade because of the triangular shape that the three legs
of the journey made.
The first leg was the journey from Europe to Africa where goods were exchanged
for slaves.
The second, or middle, leg of the journey was the transportation of slaves to the
Americas. It was nicknamed the 'middle passage.'
The third and final leg of the journey, was the transport of goods from the Americas
back to Europe.
Effects of Slavery on Africa
Slavery was not new to Africa. Traditionally, slavery was used as a punishment for
serious crimes. However, although slavery was a punishment for criminals, they
were, in the main, treated fairly well by their masters.
This was not the case once trading in slaves became 'big business'.
From about 1510, Europeans had begun capturing slaves and taking them to work in
the Americas. They were easily able to do this because their weapons were much
more powerful than the Africans' traditional spears and shields.
As the demand for slaves grew, the demand for slaves by Europeans grew. They
exchanged guns for slaves and African chiefs, eager to possess guns which would
give them power over rival chiefs, began inventing new crimes for which the
punishment was slavery.
At the same time, coastal Africans were using guns to raid inland villages for the
slaves that the Europeans wanted. Those who resisted capture were killed.
Slaves were chained together and marched to the coast. Sometimes this could take many
days or weeks.
Slaves who did not move fast enough, or showed any sign of resistance to the traders,
were whipped.
A
cofflle
Those
who
were
too
weak
or
sickly
to complete the journey at the required pace were left to die.
Fear of the slave trader led many Africans to move to remote areas where
the soil was not so good and they were unable to grow enough crops to feed
themselves.
Africa became a continent of violence, war, fear and famine.
The Middle Passage
The transport of black Africans to the Americas by slave ship became known as the
Middle Passage because it was the middle leg of the Triangular Trade route used by
the European merchants.
The African slaves were viewed as cargo by the merchants and were packed into the
ships with no regard to their basic human rights.
Slave ships could be either 'tight pack' or 'loose pack'. A 'tight pack' could hold
many more slaves than the 'loose pack' because the amount of space allocated to
each slave was considerably less, but more slaves would die on route to the
Americas.
This famous diagram shows how slaves were tightly packed into the slave ships.
Other slaves were forced to spend the voyage sitting on deck, as on the ship 'Wildfire',
pictured left.
Many slaves became seasick or developed diarrhea.
Unable to move because they were chained into their
positions, the slave's deck became a stinking mass of
human waste. Slaves who had developed sores where
their chains had rubbed their skin, had festering
wounds often with maggots eating away their flesh.
Conditions on the slave ships were so bad that many
slaves decided they would prefer to die and tried to
starve themselves by refusing to eat or by jumping
overboard.
However, slaves that would not eat were whipped or
force fed and the traders and ship owners began fixing nets to the sides of the boat
so that the slaves could not jump overboard.
Slaves had no choice but to endure the horrific conditions.
The Slave Auction
Once in the Americas, slaves were sold, by auction, to the person that bid the most
money for them. It was here that family members would find themselves split up, as
a bidder may not want to buy the whole family, only the strongest, healthiest
member.
Slave Auctions were advertised when it was
known that a slave ship was due to arrive.
Posters like the one pictured left would be
displayed around the town.
When the slave ship docked, the slaves would
be taken off the ship and placed in a pen like
this one. There they would be washed and
their skin covered with grease, or sometimes
tar, to make them look more healthy. This was
done so that they would fetch as much money
as possible. They would also be branded with
a hot iron to identify them as slaves.
There were two main types of slave Auction:
1. Those that sold to the highest bidder
2. Grab and go Auctions
"Sold! to the highest bidder"
The slaves would be brought from the pen, in turn, to stand on a raised platform so
that they could be seen by the buyers. Before the bidding began, those that wished
to, could come up onto the platform to inspect the slaves closely. The slaves had to
endure being poked, prodded and forced to open their mouths for the buyers.
The auctioneer would decide a price to start the bidding. This would be higher for
fit, young slaves and lower for older, very young or sickly slaves. Potential buyers
would then bid against each other. The person who bid the most would then own
that slave. The picture below shows a slave being auctioned to the highest bidder.
The 'Grab and Go' Auction
All people who wanted to buy a slave on the day of the auction would pay the trader
an agreed amount of money. The trader would then give them a ticket for each slave
that they had bought. At the sound of a drum roll, the door to the slave pen would
be opened and the buyers would rush in and grab the slave or slaves that they
wanted. The buyers then checked their slaves out by returning their ticket or tickets
to the slave trader.
The slave auction was a terrible ordeal for the slaves, they did not understand the
language and had no idea what was happening.
How Slaves Lived
Africans sold as slaves in the Americas had to rely on their owners providing them
with housing or building materials, pots and pans for cooking and eating, food and
clothing. Many slaves did the best they could with what they were given. Most did
not dare complain for fear of receiving a whipping or worse punishment.
Housing
Slaves were allocated an area of the plantation for their living quarters. On some
plantations the owners would provide the slaves with housing, on others the slaves
had to build their own homes. Slaves that had to build their own houses tended to
make them like the houses they had had in Africa and they all had thatched roofs.
Living conditions were cramped with sometimes as many as ten people sharing a
hut.
They had little in the way of furniture and their beds usually made of straw or old
rags.
Slaves who worked in the plantation house generally had slightly better housing
nearer to the house and were given better food and clothing than those slaves that
worked in the fields.
Food
Sometimes they were given pots and pans for cooking, but more often they had to
make their own. The long hours they had to work in the fields meant that they had
little free time for making things to improve their living conditions. Some slaves
used a hollowed out pumpkin shell called a calabash, to cook their food in.
Most plantation owners did not spend more money on food for their slaves than
they had to and so the slaves lived on a diet of fatty meat and cornbread.
Clothing
Slaves would be given one pair of shoes
and three items of underwear a
year. Although these and other clothing
would be provided by their owner, they
were often ill-fitting and made of coarse
material.
Free Time
Most slaves had to work from sunrise to sunset. Some owners made their slaves
work every day, others allowed slaves one day a month off and some allowed their
slaves to have Sundays as a rest-day.
Slaves would spend their free time mending their huts, making pots and pans and
relaxing. Some plantation owners allowed their slaves a small plot of land to grow
things to supplement their diet.
Slaves were not allowed to read or write, but some were allowed to go to church.
The Plantation
Tobacco, cotton and sugar were grown on large-scale farms called plantations.
As European demand for these crops increased, the plantations grew larger and needed
more slaves to harvest the crops.
80% of all slaves shipped to the Americas were put to work on plantations. They worked
long hours in the fields and were punished if they did not work hard enough.
Other slaves worked in the house as servants, or were used to do other jobs around the
plantation.
The picture below is an artist's impression of a plantation.
Plantation Owner's House
The owners of plantations were very rich and lived in big houses with many rooms.
Plantation Fields
Most plantations tended to concentrate on growing just one product - tobacco, cotton or sugar were the
most common. They were grown on a large scale in one or more fields. Slaves were responsible for the
ploughing, sowing and harvesting of the crop and were punished if they did not work hard enough.
House Slaves
The house slaves - cooks, maids, nannies, butlers and drivers, were often housed separately to the field slaves. Their
living quarters were generally better than those who worked in the fields and were placed fairly close to the plantation
owner's house.
Work Done By Slaves
Slaves had no say in what task they were required to do and no control over the length of their
working day which was usually from sunup in the morning to sunset in the evening ("can see to can't
see" in the slaves language).
Although slaves were used in the northern states in factories to produce manufactured goods, most
slaves worked on plantations in the southern states.
Slaves were used on plantations for a variety of tasks:
Picking cotton
Harvesting Tobacco
Working in the Dairy
It was usually young girls that churned the milk into butter.
Washing Clothes
'I used battling blocks and battling sticks to help clean the clothes when we was washing'
Planting and Harvesting Rice
Building Railroads
Carpentry
"He used to make spinning wheels and parts of looms. He was a very valuable man."
Butchering and Preserving
Meat was butchered by the slaves, then preserved in the smokehouse
Harvesting Sugar Cane
Growing and Harvesting Coffee
Weaving
"My mammy was a fine weaver and she work for both white and colored."
Cooking
'The cooking was done in the kitchen in the yard.'
Slave Punishments
Slaves had no rights
Owners could do whatever they liked with their slaves.
Often this included inflicting harsh punishments.
A slave would be punished for:
Resisting slavery
Not working hard enough
Talking too much or using their native language
Stealing from his master
Murdering a white man
Trying to run away
Punishments included:
Being put in shackles
Being whipped
Being put in various contraptions
Being forced to walk a treadmill
die
Being chained to the ground
Being hung and left to
The more serious the 'crime' committed, the more severe the punishment.
Plantation owners often made the other slaves watch the punishment to prevent them from slacking
at work or trying to run away.