Slave girls on plantations. Nov 10, 2023 · NSVRC talks with Yale Professor Dr.
Slave girls on plantations. Priscilla was brought from Sierra Leone to Charleston, S. Using these sources, as well as anthropological studies of the family in Africa and elsewhere, White argues that slave families were, “matrifocal,” in the sense that the mother-child Need help with Chapter Sixteen: Scenes at the Plantation in Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl? Check out our revolutionary side-by-side summary and analysis. — (Dear America ; 5) Summary: In 1859 twelve-year-old Clotee, a house slave who must conceal the fact that she can read and write, records in her diary her experiences and her struggle to decide whether A short summary of Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. As Mattie's memory suggests, changes in the dress of slaves often occurred at the onset of adolescence. Their work responsibilities differed somewhat from male slaves and were shaped by racist and sexist attitudes about gender roles at the time. Some owners issued fabric, expecting the slaves to cut and sew their own clothing; some plantation mistresses cut out or supervised the cutting out of garments from plantation-made or purchased cloth, to be made up by slave seamstresses or by the mistress and her daughters; and sometimes The horrific sexual assaults inflicted upon enslaved women and girls hence indicates the main way in which the lives of male and female slaves differed. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent. House labor involved a diverse range of tasks from cleaning, cooking, and washing to caring for all After five years, Jacobs completed Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in 1858. Some of these productions were interested in the historical memory and allegorical depths of historical slavery while others were pure exploitation films. These outbuildings were the homes of the enslaved people attached to an American plantation, farm, or city property. The clothing of child slaves who in general “produced” very little was rarely a priority and it appears not to have been a unusual sight to see naked children on a plantation. Read on after the story to learn more about Myrtles Plantation and the ghost of Chloe. A more common term is “fancy girls,” or “yellow girls,” referring to enslaved women of mixed race. Slaves rarely were employed in growing grains such as rye, oats, wheat, millet, and barley, although at one time or another slaves sowed and especially harvested all of these crops. Slaves often worked long tedious hours in the sun with no pay Mar 11, 2003 · Nineteenth Century During the nineteenth century Georgia developed a mature plantation system, and records illuminating the experience of enslaved women are more complete. Enslaved Women and Ideological Falsities Prior to the nineteenth century, the Transatlantic Slave Trade flourished and brought new shipments of enslaved persons from Africa to the New World for nearly four centuries. We include books and articles that look at the business and economics of slavery as they pertain to plantations Jul 5, 2021 · Enslaved girls received harsh punishments similar to those carried out to adults. 8 Slaves relate how they were occasionally given bolts of calico for Christmas with which to sew Sunday clothes. Most slaves’ jobs ranged between working as a field hand (who mainly picked Running away was also discouraged by other patterns of social relations and the sexual division of labor on plantations. Enslaved women were forced to submit to their masters’ sexual advances, perhaps bearing children who would engender the rage of a master’s wife, and from whom Feb 5, 2020 · Delve into the controversial and complex relationships between enslaved Black men and rich White women during slavery ️ This article examines the dynamics of power, exploitation, and forbidden Whipping of Slaves Primary Sources Whipping of Slaves The law provided slaves with virtually no protection from their masters. Women also had to make candles and soap as well as other plantation goods, spin thread, weave cloth, make and repair clothes (whether for everyday use or for "smarter" Sunday wear), and make bedding and quilts for their immediate family members, and sometimes for plantations as a whole. By 1850, about 3. From avoiding sexual intercourse, to terminating pregnancy, to taking the lives of their own infants, some women resisted slavery by working to control their Slaveholders referred to enslaved people who labored in their home, commonly referred to as the "big house," as "servants. By the era […] There was on his plantation a low squat tree, with limbs stretching out close to the ground, and his common way of punishing was to lash his slaves by the hands and feet, face down, to the limbs of the tree, and then cut up their backs with a cowskin. The abusive and exploitative nature of the Memphis slave trade emerges through high prices for particular female slaves, the growth of the mulatto population, and the existence of mulatto children from certain prominent local figures. Not only were professional slave catchers lurking about, but rewards were offered to negroes who turned in runaway slaves. Mae Louise Miller (born Mae Louise Wall; August 24, 1943 – 2014) was an American woman who was kept in modern-day slavery, near Gillsburg, Mississippi and Kentwood, Louisiana until her family achieved freedom in early 1963. The memoir detailed the 50-year old Keckly’s three decades as a slave, how she secured freedom for herself and […] Jun 7, 2005 · Slave Girl's Story Revealed Through Rare Records Nearly 250 years ago a 10-year-old African girl was kidnapped and transported to South Carolina, where she was renamed Priscilla and sold into slavery. Enslaved women were forced to submit to their masters’ sexual advances, perhaps bearing children who would engender the rage of a master’s wife, and from whom The images in Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora have been selected from a wide range of sources, most of them dating from the period of slavery before c. Passion Plantation: Directed by Mario Pinzauti. She supervised the work of all the slaves on Innocent in the Harem Istanbul, Ottoman Empire 1565 Laila binte Nur Hamidah’s heartbeat shuddered within her chest as she stood beside the other women in the slave market. The final essay is Deborah White's article on female slaves. You can also look up Charleston Manifests by Slave Owner [table striped="true" responsive="true"][table striped="true" responsive="true"] Slave NameShip Age Sex Class Slave ResidenceAbigailEdgefield 34 Female Black Charleston, S. Slave women were routinely raped by the white men on the estate, by their owner or by the white supervisors and employees. These women were not viewed as women in low order; Blake reminds us, but women of respectability and rank. The plantation manager thought Oct 2, 2022 · Girl slaves in slave trading | Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain) D uring the slavery era, the rapes of slaves were normal. For most of these individuals, we can offer little more than fragmentary evidence in datasets; for some individuals, however, we can tell fuller life Stories from across Africa and the Americas, of enslaved people The majority of Lowcountry enslaved women worked as field hands on plantations. Get the summaries, analysis, and quotes you need. Hite explains that her master claimed that he did not want the children to get hurt and that there were plenty of older enslaved people to do the work. SCENES AT THE PLANTATION. This website is envisioned as a tool and a resource that can be used by teachers, researchers, students, and Aug 26, 2024 · For enslaved women in particular, slave narratives speak to the ubiquity and constant threat of sexual violence at the hands of enslavers, their family members, overseers, and others. It is often reported that 10 murders occurred in the house, but historical records only indicate the murder of William Winter. Gibson (detail below). Slaves faced arbitrary power abuses from whites; they coped by creating family and community networks Nov 9, 2024 · Federal and state authorities are working to find the origins of racist text messages sent to Black people across the country threatening them with slavery and telling them they were “selected Enslavement and living conditions In colonial times, people from the west coast of Africa were captured and shipped to Virginia and other colonies to work against their will as enslaved people. Frances Ann Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation in 1838-39 (New York: Harper & Bros. Mar 20, 2024 · While the majority of enslaved women’s labor occurred on and around the plantation, on rare occasions, they also labored in factories, universities, and government buildings across the counties where plantations were located. Sep 16, 2025 · Hollywood has been knocking on the door of Louisiana’s plantations since the 1950s, and their appeal for the big screen continues today with films like “Django Unchained” and “12 Years a Slave. helps uncover one part of the story of enslaved women's lives: that the body played in slaveholders' endeavors to control their force and in black resistance to bondage in the nineteenth-century plantation South. Well aware that enslaved marriage provided an easy route to valuable future offspring, slaveholders regularly sponsored activities related to courtship and marriage on their plantations, or else enabled their slaves to travel to neighboring plantations for social gatherings by granting them written passes: Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. [17] Apr 15, 2018 · All of it though was fraught with danger. She was one of 17 house slaves owned by Mr. For boys, this usually meant trading in long dress-like shirts, similar to those worn by the . ) Jul 11, 2024 · Why Descendants Are Returning to the Plantations Where Their Ancestors Were Enslaved Some Black Americans are reclaiming antebellum estates as part of their family legacy, reflecting the power and Harriet Jacobs, a slave in Edenton, North Carolina, explained in her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861): "There was a planter in the country, not far from us, who had six hundred slaves, many of whom he did not know by sight. Jul 12, 2025 · The American plantation era was a time of systematic exploitation and oppression. Plantations were uncommon in New England, but most of the small-scale farming done in wealthy homes was carried out by enslaved people. In her letters preserved by the Davidson College Archives, Drury’s wife Mary described her relationship with the enslaved people Life as a Slave in the Cotton Kingdom In addition to cotton, the great commodity of the antebellum South was human chattel. Cyrstal Feimster about the direct throughline between sexual violence during the American slavery era and the sexual violence experienced by Black women and girls today. The excavation is also helping the plantation's Ball visited Polite’s family, and there, in her parents’ living room, she heard him describe Priscilla, a 10-year-old slave girl whom one of Ball’s ancestors purchased in 1756. However, slavery is still practiced today with an estimated 30 million living enslaved worldwide. Large cotton plantations below the Maxon-Dixon line used and abused slaves sold through the Atlantic slave trade. With Antonio Gismondo, Malisa Longo, Rita Manna, Serafino Profumo. How the isolation of Plantation life in the south factors into the percentage of numbers of rapes of black slaves Although slavery was widespread throughout antebellum America, the 1830’s saw a greater demand and concentration of African American slaves in the flourishing plantations of the antebellum south (Slavery in the civil war Era). 1790. The children who were born because of these rapes were Tragic ghost story of Chloe, a slave girl said to haunt Louisiana’s Myrtles Plantation in St. "The fear of punishment was one of the few incentives a slave had to work hard and be obedient" (Finkenbine 2004). Born in Tupholme, Lincolnshire, Thistlewood migrated to the western end of Jamaica where he worked as a plantation overseer before acquiring ownership over several slave plantations Slaves in Livestock Production by Wilma A. In Georgia, rice and indigo were common plantation cash crops along the coast May 17, 2025 · Nottoway plantation just burned down, so we decided to look into its history and other plantations where the most brutal chattel slavery occurred. S. Check out these 16 most famous African American female slaves. The book is written in the form of a diary kept by Clotee, a young slave girl on a Virginia plantation in 1859. This construction method came from Africa and was common along the Florida and Georgia coasts in the 1700s and early Pierce Mease Butler, whose slaves were sold in the auction, and his wife, Frances Kemble Butler, c. To replace their losses, plantation owners encouraged the slaves to have children. For over two centuries, the topic of slave breeding has occupied a controversial place in the master narrative of American history. The death-rate amongst slaves was high. Some worked raising crops of wheat, corn, flax, and other grains or tended Jul 1, 2017 · Field slaves, like these on this Mississippi plantation, would rise before dawn and begin work as soon as it was light enough to see. A powerful quote from the narrative of former female slave Harriet Jacobs exemplifies the sexual abuse of slaves and extremely different viewing of white and black sexuality. The allure of profits from slavery, however, proved to be too powerful for white Georgia settlers to resist. Selections from 19th- & 20th-century Slave Narratives Americans, one of the cruelest hardships they endured was sexual abuse by the slave-holders, overseers, and other white men and women whose power to dominate them was complete. For another recollection of this event and additional details of those involved, see GSA94 from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) by Harriet Ann Jacobs XVI. Mar 18, 2021 · The disturbing history of the slave trade brings to mind the horrifying experiences enslaved Africans had to go through while working on plantations in the Americas and other parts of the world. Slaves faced arbitrary power abuses from whites; they coped by A Review of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet A. His extensive plantation was managed by well-paid overseers. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. She describes the sexual advances of her adult male enslaver, as well as the jealousy and ire of her adult female enslaver those advances caused. They say the 1811 uprising can inspire a new generation to fight racism. However, slavery on plantations was terrible. 8 million of whom worked in the cotton fields. Dunaway This is a copyrighted document from the electronic archive for Wilma A. Aug 19, 2019 · Slave-holding parents and slave-holding family members gave girls enslaved people as gifts — for Christmas sometimes, when they turned 16 or when they turned 21. E. Slader. All she could do was watch the other women and await her turn upon Feb 8, 2017 · 86 books based on 12 votes: The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd, The Bastard by John Jakes, Heart of a Slave by Verna Cyril, Gone with the Wind by Margaret M In North America, slavery was established in the 17th and 18th centuries and abolished in 1863. When her fiance is bitten by a snake, he falls for Emanuelle's beautiful African-American maid who's kindness and skill Jul 26, 2022 · Artist's conception of enslaved labor in the garden at Belle Grove Plantation NPS Artwork by Keith Rocco In the Shenandoah Valley, small family farms were the norm but plantations did exist, including Belle Grove. Feb 28, 2019 · Drawing on accounts such as White’s, the historian Stephanie E. But author Dolen Perkins Valdez takes on the subject in her a new book, titled Wench. Jones-Rogers. Mar 31, 2016 · However, it was not until Deborah Gray White debuted Ar’n’t I a Woman: Female Slaves in the Plantation South that scholars gained a fuller portrait of the lived experiences of enslaved women regarding sexual violence and reproduction. As with other commodities, scarcity caused the price of slaves to rise. Black women, especially light-skinned Black women, were definitely fetishized and commodified as sex slaves in Antebellum America. In the South Carolina Lowcountry, rice was the original cash crop but by the nineteenth century a particularly valuable variety of cotton— sea island cotton —accompanied rice as the ruling crop on the plantations these women worked. How to Cite Contact the Author Slave Labor Management to Produce Livestock Appalachian slaveholders engaged in an activity that did not characterize most U. Aug 25, 2021 · His principal publications are Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World (2004); Planters, Merchants, and Slaves: Plantation Societies in British America, 1650–1820 (2015) and (with John Garrigus) The Plantation Machine: Atlantic Capitalism in French Saint Domingue and British Jamaica (2016). Few places in American history witnessed more suffering than the slave breeding farms of Virginia. Oct 6, 2016 · African slaves in the American South continued their martial arts traditions by fighting as sport, ritual, and self-defense. This list is ordered by popularity, so only the greatest movies about plantations are at the top of the list. The shot is horrifying, and shows her flesh being torn and rendered open by the whip as it makes With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. By some accounts, enslaved people were even disciplined for sport. From nineteenth-century abo In this passage from the autobiography, Jacobs describes her life as a teenager in the household of her enslaver. As Harriet Jacobs wrote, “My master was, to my knowledge, the father of eleven slaves. Black scholars like W. Slave catchers took Africans from their home countries against their will and forced highly vulnerable African men, women, and children onto slave cargo ships. 58 Women of good reputation might be ‘head-hunted’ to work as supervisors or overseers of groups of female slaves on plantations. Dec 30, 2022 · In truth, it began decades earlier on plantations and farms, and only because America was prepared to produce the slaves it needed did it allow the end of the importation of slaves from Africa. Some women were forced to use sexual favours to white men simply to survive or to obtain better conditions, even freedom, for themselves or their children. Ballard was involved in the interstate slave trade in the 1820's and 1830's, and by the early 1840's he was purchasing and managing plantations in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Legislation of slavery in the southern states Jun 8, 2021 · She was born November 20, 1849, on the Dickson Plantation to a 40-year-old plantation owner David Dickson and a 12-year-old enslaved girl. Under bondage, women faced multiple forms of sexual abuse from slaveholders, and the rape of enslaved women was not a crime in any slaveholding state. Slavery was the cornerstone of the southern economy. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. [2] The Myrtles was also featured on a Four generations of slaves on a plantation in South Carolina c. Amidst the fertile expanses of the southern states, sprawling plantations, the bastions of grandeur and opulence, were erected upon the broken backs and shackled spirits of countless enslaved The term "trash gang" was probably used only on very large plantations, but units of pregnant women, girls, elderly females, as well as boys and elderly men, probably worked together on a farm with twenty slaves. Through Lilith’s eyes, readers are The men who fathered these children often used their power and authority to rape the black females (girls and/or women) (often 13 to 16 years old or when they commenced menstruation) who were under their control. , 1863). Jan 23, 2025 · Women were forced to become pregnant continuously, while men (the strongest and healthiest) were placed in the position of “reproducers. This unforgiving world left… Aug 24, 2015 · The History of American Slavery “Good Breeders” During the antebellum period, enslaved women wielded their reproductive capital and fought off white encroachment on their sexual health. A girl began work around age four, collecting grass to feed the mules and oxen. In her memoir of growing up on a Virginia plantation, A Girl’s Life in Virginia before the War (1895), Letitia M. ” Harper’s Weekly editors explained that as “the offspring of white Aug 20, 2018 · Slave trade brought many advantages to western societies. White makes good use of now-standard primary sources on slavery, but with an eye on what they can tell us specifically about female roles. The story follows Lilith, a young slave girl born into brutality and oppression, who discovers her own strength and resilience as she navigates the treacherous world of the plantation. Her job is to take care of the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself is an autobiography by Harriet Jacobs, a mother and fugitive slave, published in 1861 by L. My job was to lead tours and tell guests about the people who made Myrtles Plantation is a historic home and former antebellum plantation in St. [2] Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. The largest farms were located in Virginia and Maryland. A time of vast cotton fields worked by African slaves, extremely wealthy plantation owners and a Civil War that devastated the South. Masters almost always sent males to town for supplies. This page titled 7. NPS/Harpers Ferry Center From the colonial period through 1864, the Ridgelys enslaved over 500 people. His plantation was infamous for its focus on breeding biracial children, or mulattoes, who were often sold at higher prices than their Black counterparts. She found it increasingly difficult to pick coffee and complained, asking for lighter duties, but this was denied. Francisville. Harper’s Weekly wrote about Rebecca, “To all appearance, she is perfectly white. For this reason, dance practices among African American slaves represent a narrative of resistance and Enslaved. They worked everywhere on the plantation; in the fields and in the Big House, in the barns and in the quarters. [1] It is an economic phenomenon and its history resides in economic history. take a look at the inhuman ways black slaves were punished by their white masters. Observations of slave culture, particularly on the Southern plantation, yield evidence of a layering of traditional African tribal dance practices shared, blended, and reinvented in the New World. M. com. Maria Child, who edited the book for its author. The book documents Jacobs' life as a slave and how she gained freedom for herself and for her children. Jones-Rogers provides the first extensive study of the role of Southern white women in the plantation economy and slave-market system. Africans were first kidnapped from their homeland, then shipped on long journeys that severely killed or injured them, then were bought like chattel at slave auctions. Jacobs, and They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. , March 9, 1866) Torture of slaves in the United States was fairly common, as In 1856, slave Samuel Woodward and his family escape from the Monroe Plantation near Richmond, Virginia. 1855 The Great Slave Auction (also called the Weeping Time[1]) was an auction of enslaved Americans of African descent held at Ten Broeck Race Course, near Savannah, Georgia, United States, on March 2 and 3, 1859. Fear paralyzed her, but she held her posture straight. Francisville, Louisiana, United States, built in 1796. The owner of the plantation was a woman who was right behind the owner of the plantation in terms of importance. S Mar 1, 1997 · A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia 1859 (Dear America Series) [Patricia C. I use the term private prostitution to denote the hiring out of female slaves for sex under the pseudonym of laundress, washers, and cooks. They did this by bullying the slaves into increasing productivity. [1] In 2001, Unsolved Mysteries filmed a segment about the alleged hauntings at the plantation. After a brief period of suspense,… African Americans have been enslaved in America since before the Civil War dating back until almost the 17th century. This much has even been explored in Netflix’s ‘Files of the Unexplained: File: Ghosts of Myrtles Plantation,’ with a specific focus on the […] Feb 2, 2016 · Here is how the American slave-breeding industry worked, according to the Sublettes: Some states (most importantly Virginia) produced slaves as their main domestic crop. A Sequence in 12 Years A Slave shows Patsey, a plantation worker, being tied to a pole and whipped. A young girl named Evelyn Ross lives on her father's plantation where they own over 70 slaves. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Civil War Glass Negative Collection. Every aspect of their lives was tightly controlled, with families torn apart and futures dictated by owners’ whims. The practice was abolished in most places during the 19th century. October 10, 1807. Despite the fact that bonded women knew their Nightjohn is a 1996 American television drama film directed by Charles Burnett and written by Bill Cain, based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Gary Paulsen. Were there really such things as slave “studs,” “bucks,” and Names of the Enslaved Aaron Abraham Abraham Absalon Adam Adam Adam Adeau Adele Adolph Agathe Agathe Aglae Agnes Aimee Albert Albert Alex Alexander Alexander Alexier/Alexis Alexis Alfred Alfred Alfred Peable Allen Ambroise Amelie American negro slave Anderson Andre Angelique Angelique Antoine Antoine Antoine Apollon Appollon Arhtemise Auguste Augustina Baptiste Baptiste Bastien Bayon Belisaire Mar 7, 2024 · The Book of Night Women by Marlon James The Book of Night Women by Marlon James is a powerful and haunting novel set on a Jamaican sugar plantation in the 18th century. Dec 1, 2013 · While the profession has come to acknowledge a degree of intimate contact between slave owners and female slaves, historians have doggedly resisted the notion of a more systematic approach to the coercive sex and sexual exploitation practiced on southern plantations. EXUMA 1830 When forty-four slaves from the Lord Rolle plantation in Exuma decided to risk all for freedom, it is unclear exactly where they thought freedom was. Here are 10 of the most horrible punishments recorded for slaves in America. , that year on a ship named The Hare and spent the rest of her life as a slave on the Ball plantations. The Old Plantation, c. With this understanding, enslaved women participated in acts of resistance specific to the labor demanded of them. Most plantation owners had anywhere between 20-100 slaves who worked on their plantations. Huger, a Commercial Merchant in New Orleans before the Civil War. The daily routine for plantation slaves was marked by labor from sun-up to sun-down, from "can see to can't see" in the slave's lingo. As it became popular on many plantations to breed slaves for strength, fertility, or extra labor, there grew many documented instances of "breeding farms" in the United States. Beneath the polished ideals of liberty and freedom, a brutal industry thrived—one built on Jul 17, 2023 · Sometimes known as Slavesploitation or Plantationsploitation, between 1969 and 1976 a wave of exploitation films was made depicting plantation-based slavery in North America and the Caribbean. To encourage child-bearing some population owners promised women slaves their freedom after they had produced fifteen children. The heat of the sun sent a bead of perspiration sliding beneath the ferace that covered her body. Jan 26, 2025 · This practice started with the ban on the international trade of enslaved Africans, especially after 1808, the focus shifted to increasing the enslaved population within the United States. How often did plantation mistresses have sex with black slaves? With the amount of slave-owning men having sex with female slaves, surely their wives would have snuck around sometimes too? NYPL's Digital Collections is a living database featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, video, and more unique research materials. In other ways, enslaved women’s city lives also reflected their rural counterparts. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. More slaves meant more money for Books shelved as plantation-slavery: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom, Haunted Plantations: Ghosts of Slave Slave quarters in the United States, sometimes called slave cabins, were a form of residential vernacular architecture constructed during the era of slavery in the United States. Jan 5, 2017 · Lea was one of 990 female slaves in Graaff-Reinet – in what is today the Eastern Cape province – who lived alongside 1,257 male slaves. Mar 4, 2004 · Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is in some ways our best example of the slave narrative as an internally resistant southern text. Professor Gates and Ball tour the old plantation, discussing Priscilla and early slavery in the United States. Aware of the cult of domesticity and sentimental literature—as exemplified by Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin—Jacobs’ story emphasized how slavery betrayed the highest ideals of womanhood and woman’s purity, not only the womanhood of female slaves but also In the pre-civil war American south, Emanuelle, a plantation owner's daughter, while outwardly a dainty southern belle, brutally abuses the slaves in her charge. Slaves were forced to conceive and birth as many new slaves as possible. [9] Recent scholarship suggests that the number of women and men imported in this period was more or less equal and included a high number of children. Primary resources--historical documents, literary texts, and works of art--thematically organized with notes and discussion questions. This list attempts to cover this somewhat Jun 25, 2019 · By 1865, slavery had become an illegal practice in the United States of America, allowing former slaves to own properties and start lives of their own as long as they, like everybody, adhered to Give MyLVC Feedback MyLVC for Employees MyInfo for Students Bishop Library Starfish Handshake Menu Canvas Email Teams Access LVC Office 365 Redbook Contact Health Bill of sale for the auction of the "Negro Boy Jacob" for "Eighty Dollars and a half" (equivalent to $1,729 in 2024) to satisfy a money judgment against the "property" of his enslaver, Prettyman Boyce. Nov 7, 2022 · Labor management on plantations depended upon systematic violence. Slaveholder and absentee plantation owner Pierce Mease Butler authorized the sale Mar 29, 2006 · The problem of creating a self-reproducing slave population after the ending of the British Atlantic slave trade in 1807 meant that the fecundity of slave women became central to the viability of plantation slavery in the British Caribbean. In Memphis, the story remained unchanged. On large plantations this power was delegated to overseers. Sometimes this involved physical violence, while at other times men used different methods to cajole women into sexual relationships, including the promise of material benefits or threatening sale if women failed to consent. Boston We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Mar 23, 2023 · Therefore, plantation life with slavery included was a mainstay since the start of the United States, up until the Civil War. Domestic slave girls were the ones most often subjected to abuse by the white mistress in the home. Food rations varied little from plantation to plantation – cornmeal, pork fat, molasses, and sometimes coffee, depending upon the master, making food collecting a necessity slave women turned into a luxury to maintain cultural continuity with Africa. But what many of us don't know is that the abolition of the slave trade in the early 19th century led to the creation of a new and even more sinister aspect of slavery - see *x farms and slave breeding farms be the maternal figure for both her children and for her slave dependents. 4: Life as a Slave in the Cotton Kingdom is shared under a CC BY-SA 4. Jones-Rogers, UC Berkeley associate professor of history, expands our understanding of American slavery and the 19th century slave market with an investigation into the role of white women in the slave economy. She was eventually expected to provide for her husband’s slaves in four important areas: food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. Baquaqua arrived in Pernambuco in the 1840s. Moreover, slaveholders imposed the use of slave passes, a system of written passes given to enslaved people travelling away from plantations and farms to justify their whereabouts. She wakes up in the small cabin she shares with her 6 children at Dogue Run Farm. Myrtles Plantation has a rich history but it’s haunted reputation seems to be focused mostly on events during In the late 18th century the slaves of the South fueled an economic engine based on tobacco. From 1700 to 1740, an estimated 43,000 slaves were imported into Virginia, and almost all but 4,000 were imported directly from Africa. Generations were born into this slavery. Exactly how a cattle farm works today. From the overseer’s lash and the packs of bloodhounds, to the mandatory slave patrols and the militia, slave societies were societies organized for war against the enslaved and they met any potential challenge with organized violence. In National 5 History read about the appalling conditions for enslaved people on West Indian plantations, their treatment and how some of them fought back. C. Some girls, like Elizabeth Ross Hite, did not work at all during slavery. Jun 18, 2025 · Enslaved workers working on the plantation farm by the overseer's house and slave quarters. This educational video examines the grim and often overlooked chapter of history involving slave breeding in the United States and the Caribbean. Feb 28, 2025 · Calvin Smith was a wealthy American planter in the antebellum South who operated a notorious slave breeding farm. Her complexion, hair, and features show not the slightest trace of negro blood. Mar 2, 2021 · Rebecca Huger was the daughter of John M. In the antebellum South, exploitation and mistreatment characterized the plight of the female slave. We begin by exploring the origins of this practice The following dramatic and documentary films featuring slavery are listed alphabetically. After years of over-planting and subsequent depletion of the soil's nutrients, the tobacco fields were becoming less productive and less profitable. Here is a slave who framed her life story within the twin regional ideals often cultivated in plantation romances: the southern home place and the southern lady. Flogged or threatened with Enslaved workers usually received most, if not all, of their clothing as an allowance from their owners. " With much of this work "domestic" in nature and regarded as intrinsically suitable for women and girls to perform, more females than males worked in plantation homes. [9] As most were from West Jan 22, 2023 · The Typical Model of an American Slave Breeding Farm Some historians will tell you that there was "occasional" slave breeding by individual plantation owners, and there was no such thing as a … Dec 19, 2017 · The Loathsome Den: Sexual Assault on the Plantation, #MeToo of the 19th century by Curtis Harris In 1868, Elizabeth Keckly published Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Tabby is a concrete-like material made from oyster shells, sand, and lime used for the slave quarters and other buildings. Inigo's Mission. Georgia figures significantly in the history of American slavery because of Eli Whitney 's invention of the cotton gin in 1793. A secret network of ordinary people known as the Underground Railroad guide the family on their journey north to Canada. Francisville, Louisiana, is a reminder of the old American South. cm. While enslavers subjected men to physical violence and separations, sexual assaults upon them appear not to have been widespread. It was implemented by slave owners through a forced sexual relation between the male and female slaves and between masters and their female slaves. (For movies portraying penal labour see the list linked from here. In early childhood enslaved girls spent their time playing with other children and performing some light tasks. In the pre-civil war American south, Emanuelle, a plantation owner's daughter, while outwardly a dainty southern belle, brutally abuses the slaves in her charge. I once saw two beautiful children playing together. Nov 22, 2022 · American Slave Breeding Farms Commonly Practiced But Not Commonly Known “Nobody talks about the 13-year-old girl on a breeding farm, forced to bear as many children as possible, only to have Jan 10, 2014 · Like 12 Years a Slave, Beloved is based on a real life story, that of Margaret Garner, a sexually abused enslaved woman who escaped with her four children before tragically attempting to murder Wood engraving by Slader after Harvey, and published by S. Working for enslavers took up the great majority of all enslaved people’s time. Enslaved for life, they could be bought or sold as property. Marster freed her atter she had 25 chilluns. House servants performed tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and driving, while the field hands labored for up to 20 hours a day clearing land, planting seed, and harvesting crops. Sometimes slaves were allowed to hire themselves out. In both the north and south, household labor was performed predominantly by enslaved workers. McKissack] on Amazon. The survival of Nov 22, 2019 · In the Antebellum period, slavery played an integral role on plantations and in households near Davidson College. The cotton gin's invention led to both the burgeoning of cotton as a cash crop and to the revitalization of the agricultural slave labor Motherhood was central to the great majority of enslaved women’s lives. Thomas Thistlewood (16 March 1721 – 30 November 1786) was an English-born slave-owner, serial rapist, serial killer, planter and diarist who spent the majority of his life in the British colony of Jamaica. While some women attempted not to become mothers, and a minority were unable to reproduce, most women negotiated childbirth and raising children within the confines of the slave regime, and they took a lot of care in raising their daughters to survive enslavement as females. These narratives provide an invaluable first-person account of slavery and the individuals it affected. These images, documents, and objects illustrate the lives of women in the plantation slavery system. Smith explained, “Long Peggy, a black ’oman, wuz boss ob de plantation. org contains information about hundreds of thousands of individuals involved in the historical slave trade — including enslaved people, enslavers, and slave traders. Aug 14, 2012 · Slaves arriving on their own stay here and are considered (and protected) as property of the plantation or my personal property. Child-bearing started around the age of thirteen, and by twenty the women slaves would be expected to have four or five children. The best study guide to Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl on the planet, from the creators of SparkNotes. Slaves that failed to meet these rigorous demands Nov 10, 2023 · NSVRC talks with Yale Professor Dr. The transactions were public, but because interracial sexual trysts were taboo in slave societies, they occurred in private, domestic spaces. Discipline and Punishment: An Overview Slave masters used various forms of discipline and punishment to control their slaves. As a general rule, slaves were considered suitable for working some crops but not others. These men were under considerable pressure from the plantation owners to maximize profits. May 20, 2023 · Quote: We all know the story of slavery - the transatlantic slave trade, forced labor, the inhumane treatment of men, women, and children, and the eventual abolition of the slave trade. p. The survivors lacked the most basic freedoms, such as the right to care for and protect family members. Enslaved individuals, stripped of autonomy and hope, became the backbone of a system built upon their subjugation. In a study of 2,588 slaves in 1860 by the economist Richard Sutch, he found that on slave-holdings with at least one woman, the average ratio of women to men exceeded 2:1. Apr 23, 2025 · Kingsley Plantation has the largest collection of tabby slave cabins still standing in the United States. Eli Whitney (a Northerner) changed all this Feb 26, 2019 · When enslaved people fled their plantations during the war, women took out fugitive-slave ads in newspapers, wrote letters to military officials, or appealed to male relatives for help in These would be mere toddlers, among the few slaves on a plantation allowed not to be doing productive work. Enslaved people, from young children to the elderly, labored at Hampton and Northampton, as ironworkers, founders, limestone and marble quarriers, millers, blacksmiths, gardeners, dairymaids, jockeys With the urban environment so different to plantation slavery, Lowcountry port cities differed in many ways for enslaved women – from housing and labor tasks to freedom of movement and social circles within which to worship and educate. Most favored by slave owners Jul 9, 2024 · The Louisiana plantation home where one of the largest slave revolts in U. The gin was first demonstrated to an audience on Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene 's plantation, near Savannah. Joseph Mobberly offers an account of the whipping of Sucky, an enslaved woman who was punished as a child because she witnessed the self-flagellation of an unnamed priest from St. Those who desired women on other plantations required the consent of the woman’s enslaver as well as his own, and on some plantations the consent of one of the owners stood in the way of a relationship. Clotee secretly teaches herself to read and write while fanning William, her owner's young son, during his lessons with his mother Miz Lilly. 0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lumen Learning via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform. Abraham Hamburg 11 Male Black GeorgiaAbraham Hamburg 11 Male Black Mar 12, 2019 · It's estimated that 40 percent of slave owners may have been white women. The film is about a young slave girl named Sarny, played by Allison Jones, who lives a hopeless life on a Southern plantation. The engraving depicts an actual incident of brutality of an overseer against a female slave. Nov 2, 2015 · The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo (South Carolina 1717-1718) (PLANTATIONS and PIRATES Book 2) - Kindle edition by McWilliams, Karen. One was a fair white child; the other was her slave, and also her sisterThe fair child grew up to be a still fairer Dec 19, 2017 · 5. The history of cotton, particularly though the 1860s, cannot be separated from the institution of slavery and the plantation system. The narrative excerpts presented here are a small sample of the wealth of stories available in this online collection. She found they were active participants, profited from it and were as brutal as Women knew that enslavers valued and depended upon their ability to bear children and increase the slave population. Dec 6, 2017 · The plantation myth proved especially popular for many Americans a few generations removed from the Civil War, but such ideas did not go unchallenged. Enslaved Africans on a South Carolinian plantation. The main duty of a slave was to work on plantations increasing productivity. The resources below are just a start to researching these topics and looking at the interplay between the institution of slavery and a state's economy. by John Bardes Jun 29, 2015 · Up until about a year ago, I worked at a historic site in the South that included an old house and a nearby plantation. Former slave Silvia King, speaking to an interviewer from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, recalled how she and other slaves on a Texas plantation The girls on plantations in Louisiana experienced vastly different childhoods in terms of their labor. Some narratives contain startling descriptions of cruelty while others convey an almost nostalgic view of plantation life. B. Mar 1, 2020 · Slaves could be punished for any number of “offenses,” including theft, laziness, running away, or even speaking their native language. Kemble's husband, Pierce Butler, owned five hundred slaves who were sold in the second largest auction in the history of the country. Because they had to make the crop and raise food for the entire plantation community, there was little slack time. Urban slaves had more freedom of movement than plantation slaves and generally had greater opportunities for learning. In Virginia, these African people lived and worked on plantations or small farms where tobacco was the cash crop. The Economics of Forced Reproduction Nov 6, 2013 · The images of "Plantation Retreats," where Black people go to psychosexually serve their White masters have astonished some people. Our story is an adaptation of what is believed to be a true ghost story. Our growing collection currently has over 1,200 images. 10 As Southern landowners increasingly came to depend on the slave system, demands of the plantation wife also increased. If they were involved in an "abroad" marriage (a marriage on another plantation), the man usually visited the wife. After the bloody Civil War ended in 1865, slavery was formally abolished in the United States. In the second half of the eighteenth century 40 to 50 per cent of the slaves on Jan 20, 2010 · The relationship between slave masters and the slaves who were their lovers can be difficult to fathom. Plantation owners raping female slaves was a common occurrence. When Priscilla, age 36, is an enslaved woman assigned to fieldwork. But did the mothers dare to tell who was the father of their children? Apr 24, 2024 · Cross-plantation marriages therefore required financial negotiation between different slaveholders to reach a benefit for both enslavers. … Female Slaves in the Plantation South} Although immediately heralded and deeply appreciated by historians of African American women, it has taken twenty years and the production of a new generation of scholars to challenge the larger historical profession to fully grasp the significance of this pioneering scholarship. and his family recorded 276 enslaved people that they owned between 1783 and 1851. Clothing for slave children was in general very basic and generally consisted of a smock like garment worn by both boys and girls. Enslaved people in Virginia Nov 21, 2019 · Biography of Harriet Jacobs, author of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl:" how she escaped slavery, wrote her own narrative, and became an abolitionist. Click on the photo for complete transcription. Franklin Frazier combated the stereotype of happy, content slaves who willingly labored for their masters and enjoyed familial stability. 2 At the heart of the process of enslavement Jun 11, 2023 · Plantation Slavery in Antebellum Louisiana Enslaved people endured brutal conditions on sugarcane and cotton plantations during the antebellum period. Jan 11, 2021 · On some plantations slaves were at times able to make their own clothing according to their own tastes, sometimes using techniques of dying and patterning that recalled African traditions passed down orally amongst slave communities. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a Jun 11, 2025 · A list of the best movies about plantations in the American South ever made, ranked by film fans' votes. Sep 23, 2018 · The Myrtles Plantation in St. The price of slaves was anchored by industry in other states that consumed slaves in the production of rice and sugar, and constant territorial expansion. Text scanned (OCR) by Carlene Hempel Images scanned by Carlene Hempel Text encoded by Ji-Hae Yoon and Natalia Smith Second edition, 2003 ca. '" (Waynesboro Record, Waynesboro, Penn. You don’t usually hear the terms “comfort girls” or “comfort women” in the context of America slavery. ” Band of Angels (1957) Starring Clark Gable & Sidney Poitier Ashland-Bell Helene Drango (1957) Starring Jeff Chandler Greenwood Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964) Starring Bette Davis & Olivia Jun 26, 2012 · In 1776, Virginia planter Robert Carter requested that one of his overseers' wives teach six slave girls to spin, and in 1782 twelve of his spinners were under the supervision of a white, female overseer. These included maintaining fires, hauling wood, sweeping hearths, carrying water, emptying chamber pots, sweeping and scrubbing floors, washing and ironing clothing, sewing, minding babies and Jun 9, 2022 · These women independently managed large plantations, and freely bought, sold, bequeathed and hired slaves, which gave them the financial status to play important public roles within their communities. Forced labor was the central activity in enslaved women’s lives. 1900. Slave catchers Selections from 19th- & 20th-century Slave Narratives Americans, one of the cruelest hardships they endured was sexual abuse by the slave-holders, overseers, and other white men and women whose power to dominate them was complete. Slaves sign up for a specific length of service. Slaves in the United States were often subjected to sexual abuse and rape, the denial of education, and punishments like Apr 4, 2024 · Since there’s no denying Myrtles Plantation was built upon the back of slaves, rumors of aggrieved ghosts are the ones that thrive when guests get an eerie feeling while wandering the grounds. As in other slave countries, its purpose was to make more slaves. Maria Child 306 p. At age 18 she has an arranged marriage by her father. Peter is a ‘Waiting Boy’ working in the house, and Nelly is a ‘House Wench’, presumably a young girl. Harriet's childhood was a happy one. Dunaway, Slavery and Emancipation in the Mountain South: Evidence, Sources, and Methods, Virginia Tech Library. Source Description: (title page) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Du Bois and E. But of course there' Aug 26, 2024 · Enslaved house servants labored on large rural plantations and in urban homes, as well as in urban taverns and hotels, performing all the jobs involved with keeping a private or public house running. This practice had significant implications for the black race, as it served to perpetuate the institution of slavery and perpetuated the idea that black Africans were inferior and subhuman. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo (South Carolina 1717-1718) (PLANTATIONS and PIRATES Book 2). Burwell relates an anecdote told to her by an enslaved person regarding how an enslaved African felt about his allotment of clothing. It aired on Disney Channel as one of its Premiere Films, on June 1, 1996. [2][3][4] Mae's story was unearthed when she spoke to historian Antoinette Harrell, [5][6] who highlighted it in the short documentary The Untold Story: Slavery in the Nov 27, 2012 · He argues that while social and economic historians have downplayed the significance of slave breeding, African Americans have refused to forget the violence and sexual coercion associated with the plantation South. Jan 19, 2023 · Slave breeding was a practice that occurred in the antebellum United States, in which slave owners would breed enslaved Africans for the purpose of increasing their economic value as property. Despite planters' tremendous effort to prevent escape, enslaved women and men sporadically "slip[ped] 'way" pleasure in their own bodies. 2 million slaves labored in the United States, 1. A Freed Slave Speaks The story of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, a former slave taken from the Niger Delta in Africa, sold into slavery in Brazil, and ultimately freed with the help of American abolitionists in New York City, is one of very few accounts of slave life from the perspective of a slave. Slave breeding became more important in the United States the 19th century when the Atlantic slave trade ended. I. If there are any great films you think we missed, please feel free to add them McKissack. In the humidity of Savannah Georgia, Slave girl Augusta is moved to a new plantation with miles of peach trees. 35 Life as a Slave in the Cotton Kingdom Life as a Slave in the Cotton Kingdom In addition to cotton, the great commodity of the antebellum South was human chattel. Sep 19, 2017 · Return to Slave Manifests main page Click on each Slave name to view information on that voyage. Such women were noticeably less fertile than their North American sisters. 550K Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003. Apr 19, 2025 · The term “fancy girls” refers to light-skinned enslaved biracial or african girls who were sold for the purpose of sexual exploitation and concubinage during the antebellum period in the United States. Major Isaac Hite, Jr. They were brought to America and sold one by one as pieces of property to slave owners who bid the highest. Although the college itself never owned slaves, prominent men associated with the institution did, including the third college president, Drury Lacy. Slavery has been in existence throughout history, spreading through almost every culture, nationality and religion, from ancient times to the present day. Sugar plantation in the British colony of Antigua, 1823 A slave plantation is an agricultural farm that uses enslaved people for labour. Their work was simultaneously arduous and monotonous but also filled with the risk of physical and sexual violence. Oct 25, 2019 · In her new book, They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South, Stephanie E. As slave owners sought to affirm their gentility, they simultaneously worked their slaves relentlessly. Dance among Slaves Dance was an integral part of daily life among African American slaves. Huger. By ten she was weeding the cane fields, and by 18 she was White society expected to see some enslaved men away from their homes and plantations, but less so enslaved women. If they made a mistake when working in cotton or tobacco plantations, they could be whipped brutally. In 1825, Rosa was a heavily pregnant slave on a coffee plantation in Berbice, Guyana. They remained forced laborers who held no citizenship status, little She would later publish an account of her anguished life in her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. McKissack 4. Torture of slaves in the United States"Said the wife of an ex- negro trader in Virginia to a freedmen who was skinning a live catfish, 'How can you be so cruel!'—'Why,' said the intelligent contraband, 'Dis is de way dey used to do me, and I'se gwine to get even wid somebody. She works for the Magnolia family, With harsh masters and Oct 20, 2003 · When the Georgia Trustees first envisioned their colonial experiment in the early 1730s, they banned slavery in order to avoid the slave-based plantation economy that had developed in other colonies in the American South. Guest Aug 19, 2025 · Many found their new garments confusing and constricting. 1862 Slave breeding was long a part of slavery. 03 5,299 ratings295 reviews In a diary entry from 1820, Br. ” The babies stayed with their mothers for a short time and were soon traded by the slave masters as merchandise. Clotee is discovered by Mr Harms, the tutor, who is actually an abolitionist working to help slaves escape via the Underground Railroad. Many (including Thomas Jefferson) thought that, as a consequence, slavery would waste away and become extinct. Working on a plantation — even in the house over the Like other slave narratives, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl chronicles the abuses of slavery, the slave’s struggle for self-definition and self-respect, and the harrowing details of a dangerous escape. The stories are of unspeakable cruelty. 6 days ago · Slavery - Plantation, Labor, Coercion: Large numbers of slaves were employed in agriculture. Oct 18, 2021 · Therefore, besom traditions thriving on the plantations and settler farms in close proximity to newly enslaved Africans arriving via the transatlantic slave trade provided a unique cultural diffusion among multi-ethnic and racial groups in the American colonies as slavery was introduced and became the rule of law. This created a demand for practices like the Stockmen Trade, which relied on the forced reproduction of enslaved people to meet the labor needs of plantation owners. ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS “Contraband” [slaves in Union-occupied territory] with Union encampment at Cumberland Landing (Foller’s farm), Virginia, 14 May 1862 Photograph by James F. In this excerpt, after having recounted the story of his Oct 20, 2007 · On Maryland's Eastern Shore, archaeology students are slowly unearthing the details of slave life on Wye House Farm, a former plantation. Mar 1, 1997 · Dear America A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia 1859 Patricia C. Written by Herself Linda Brent (Harriet Ann Jacobs) Edited by L. Millions died young because of poor diet, cruelty and relentless hard labour. Jul 24, 2023 · Female slaves in the American South during the 18th and 19th centuries performed a wide variety of laborious tasks and occupations on plantations and farms. Sexual exploitation But Smith also insisted that the exploitation of enslaved women like “Short Peggy” and “Long Peggy” resulted in the master appointing them to positions of authority among fellow slaves. Many sugar labourers were women. Early the next morning I left my… Mar 15, 2019 · George White spent his childhood in slavery in Virginia and had firsthand experience of the behavior of plantation “mistresses,” the counterparts of slave-owning male “masters. Large plantations had field hands and house servants. history began has Black owners for the first time. Slave women rarely left their farms for any reason. Although enslaved men and women sometimes were able to exercise a degree of autonomy in their work—such as on rice plantations in South Carolina—field hands Dec 14, 2022 · Slave breeding was a slave multiplication agenda. 5zm fz4f1f ziqq tv9 xxg ckvicq w7jg pgpirda u7ses5 jnyz