Male slaves generally outnumbered females on these slaving voyages. Part of the reason for this gender imbalance was slaveholders' preferences for strong young males. On the other hand European slave-traders also bought considerable numbers of women and children, in part because they had to take the individuals that African slave-traders supplied. The result was a gender imbalance in the slave population of approximately two males to every female – considerably closer to balance than the European servant population in the early years.11
Figure 25 Plan of slave ship The Brookes. From Elizabeth Donnan, ed., Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America (Washington, DC, 1930–1935), Vol. 2. The sketch was originally drawn by opponents of the slave trade and may exaggerate the overcrowding on the ship.
On arrival at their final destination, the slaves were put up for sale, either individually or as a group. Though mothers and nursing infants were customarily kept together, no regard was otherwise paid to the relationship of one slave to another. The purchasers were concerned mainly with the health of the new arrivals, though there is some evidence that planters from South Carolina preferred individuals from Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leone because they were familiar with rice cultivation. Virginia and Maryland planters, on the other hand, had few preferences regarding the origin of their slaves. In any case, the planters often had to take what they were offered, which generally meant purchasing slaves from Angola and the Congo.
Historians once assumed that since African cultures and language groups are so diverse, the slaves on slave ships had nothing in common. Newer findings suggest that slaves tended to be shipped together from the same region, so in some cases slaves traveling together on the same ship spoke similar languages or even knew one another. If so, this could be a helpful source of support. Whether they were shipped with people from their own communities or with total strangers, newly captured slaves were forced very quickly to figure out whom they could trust. Instead of thinking of themselves as members of particular villages or kingdoms, captives might begin to see their fellow passengers as comrades to whom they were bound by their shared misfortune, rather than as foes. It was the first step in defining a new identity that would enable them to survive in the New World.12
Accurate numbers are difficult to establish, but it is thought that around 55,000 Africans were shipped to the Chesapeake area in the period 1700–40, 50,000 of them directly from Africa. South Carolina imported approximately 40,000 slaves during the same period. Thereafter imports into the Chesapeake began to decline, with fewer than 1,000 arriving annually. In contrast, South Carolina continued to buy at least 2,000 Africans a year until the conflict with Britain made the trade more difficult. Even then the trade continued, if at a reduced level.13
Having arrived in North America, a slave was sold once again to a colonial buyer, usually the owner of a plantation. From this point forwards his or her life would be dominated by one activity: labor. Since the prime economic activity of the South was the production of cash crops, most adult male and female slaves were employed in fieldwork, organized either in gangs or by individual tasks. The employment of one system as opposed to the other could make a great deal of difference to an enslaved person's daily routine, and to the amount of autonomy that he or she could assert.
Figure 26 Advertisement for a sale of slaves, Charlestown, July 24, 1769. From William and Mary Quarterly, 53 (1996), 141. Courtesy American Antiquarian Society.
Document 20
A slave market, circa 1755, reprinted in Karen Ordahl Kupperman, ed., Major Problems in American Colonial History: Documents and Essays (Lexington, Mass., 1993), 454
Questions to consider: How might the experiences described here affect a recently enslaved person's sense of himself or herself? How might they affect his or her perceptions of the Europeans who participated in the slave markets?
We were not many days in the merchant's custody, before we were sold after their usual manner, which is this: On a signal given (as the beat of a drum), the buyers rush at once into the yard where the slaves are confined, and make their choice of that parcel they like best. The noise and clamor with which this is attended, and the eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers, serve not a little to increase the apprehension of terrified Africans, who may well be supposed to consider them as the ministers of that destruction to which they think themselves devoted. In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, most of them never to see each other again. I remember, in the vessel in which I was brought over, in the men's apartment, there were several brothers, who, in the sale, were sold in different lots; and it was very moving on this occasion, to see and hear their cries at parting. O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you – learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you? Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends, to toil for your luxury and lust of gain? Must every tender feeling be likewise sacrificed to your avarice?
Masters in the Chesapeake generally worked their slaves in gangs where they could be watched, either by the masters themselves or by white overseers. Such supervision was necessary with tobacco, it was said, since each plant had to be carefully tended throughout the season. This system had its disadvantages. The pace tended to be that of the slowest member, and the slaves had less incentive to work diligently. Whenever the overseer's eye was turned, furtive secession from labor invariably occurred. As one owner commented, the slaves “work hard and seem diligent, while they think anybody is taking notice of them, but when their masters' and mistresses' backs are turned, they are idle and neglect their business.”
A lack of commitment was hardly surprising, since the cultivation of cash crops was both tedious and onerous. Tobacco, for instance, required much stooping, especially when the seedlings were being transplanted in the spring, since each plant had to be placed in a small mound of earth at the rate of 350 a day. Not surprisingly, it was at this time that slaves in the Chesapeake were most likely to run away. Next came a period of constant hoeing to control weeds, interspersed with inspections of each plant to destroy hornworms and caterpillars. In addition, the heads and suckers of each plant had to be removed to encourage growth in a few selected leaves only. These labors continued until the fall when it was time to harvest the crop, after which the leaves had to be dried and have their stalks removed before being packed into large barrels, called hogsheads, for export. The whole process, from germinating the seeds in February to the packing of the barrels in November, took about nine months of unremitting labor.
Map 13 Major British North American slaveholding regions: the Chesapeake (Virginia and Maryland) and the low country (South Carolina and Georgia).
Slaves in South Carolina generally were able to avoid gang labor since planters here preferred the task system. The South Carolina low country was unhealthy, so planters lived in their mansions in Charleston if they could and left their plantations under the management of white overseers or stewards, assisted by trusted black foremen or drivers. Groups of slaves were assigned particular tasks, such as clearing ditches or weeding rice fields, so that their completion of those tasks could be readily monitored without the need for constant supervision. The task system in turn provided an incentive for each slave to complete the assignment; once the day's tasks were completed, the remaining hours in the day belonged to the slave.
Rice was even more onerous and physically demanding to grow than tobacco. At new plantations the swampy land first had to be cleared after which ditches and banks were constructed to control the flow of water into and out of the fields. Reservoirs also had to be built to supply water at certain times of the season. Only around April could the sowing of the seed begin, which was done in the African manner by making a small hole with the heel before covering the seed with a flick of the toes. For the next three months the fields had to be constantly hoed, to control the weeds which grew prolifically in such a wet and warm envi
ronment. It was at this time that many masters offered their slaves additional food and even rum to keep them at their work. The intensity of labor eased a little in August when the fields were flooded a second time, which helped control the weeds, though some owners used the intermission to divert their workers to the production of indigo. Finally, from mid-September the harvesting and processing of the crop began. The plants first had to be cut and dried after which threshing and winnowing were necessary to separate the grains. Then came the worst part, the removing of the inner film, which, until the 1760s, had to be done by hand with a mortar and pestle. This process began in late November and could take weeks or even months to complete, producing arms that constantly ached and hands that were covered with calluses.
Indigo, the other major cash crop grown in South Carolina and later in Georgia, was another entity that required constant attention by the workforce. Apart from hoeing, it too was subject to the hazard of caterpillars and grasshoppers, which had to be plucked by hand to prevent the crop from being destroyed. The plants were usually cut twice, first in July and again in late August. Production of the dye began immediately after cutting to avoid a loss of quality. First the cuttings were steeped in a fermentation vat for 12–15 hours. Next the contents were removed to a second container where the liquid was constantly stirred to oxidize it before being transferred to a third vessel in which lime was added to precipitate the blue sediment which was the object of the exercise. This was then strained through muslin bags, dried, and cut into cakes for dispatch (see Figure 18). For the slaves none of this work was particularly pleasant since the process created a foul stench which attracted flies. Mercifully the production season was considerably shorter than that for tobacco and rice.
Slaves' work routines become more varied and somewhat less onerous with time, thanks to the introduction of technological improvements towards the end of the colonial era. In Virginia and Maryland, the shift to wheat production created more opportunities for workers to develop skills as mowers, threshers, and cradlers. Plows and horse-drawn carts began to be used more widely, which made the preparation of the ground and harvesting marginally easier. In South Carolina and Georgia some rice planters invested in threshing machines and pounding mills driven by draft animals, which spared workers the most debilitating part of the production process. Also beneficial to slaves in the lower South was the adoption after 1760 of tidal power to water the crops, which allowed the fields to be flooded more frequently, dramatically reducing the growth of weeds and the need for constant hoeing. There is evidence that some enslaved people developed real skills and indeed took considerable pride in certain types of agricultural work. Indigo production in particular was considered an art.
For most plantation slaves, though, work requirements were incessant and exhausting. The working day began at dawn and continued until noon when slaves had a break for lunch, which usually consisted of hominy or hoe cakes, though many owners added some bacon or ham a couple of times a week. Work was then resumed until either the assignment was completed or sunset approached. Some colonies attempted to regulate the working day. In South Carolina the slave code of 1740 stated that slaves were not to work more than 15 hours in the spring and summer, and no more than 14 hours during the rest of the year. However, no machinery existed for enforcing these regulations.14
When their tasks were done, the slaves had control over the rest of their time. Such control did not, however, translate into being at leisure. Most mainland British American plantation owners expected their slaves to feed themselves, at least partly, by growing corn and vegetables and by raising hogs and chickens. Most mainland slaves therefore had gardens, which seem to have been tilled on a family basis.15 These plots were an activity which could bring pride to the workforce as each family vied to produce the largest squash and corn. Archaeological evidence reveals that slaves supplemented their diet with meat from wild animals, notably opossum, raccoon, turtle, deer, squirrel, duck, and rabbit. Additional protein was also obtained from fish in nearby streams and rivers.
Raising their own food gave some slaves in the South a degree of economic autonomy. The most popular entrepreneurial activity among slaves was the raising of livestock, and most families kept a few chickens or hogs. Especially in South Carolina, where the task system gave slaves more time for such pursuits, enterprising slaves took their surplus to the local market or bartered with the neighboring community. Indeed, many plantation owners found they could not compete with their own labor force for the supply of fowl and bought from them instead. Other slaves used their spare time to set traps and go hunting, subsequently selling their catches to the white population. Profits could be used to acquire tools, cooking utensils, furniture, and occasionally horses, though slaves had no legal rights to the property they might possess.
In addition to raising their own food, slaves were also responsible on many plantations for the upkeep of their housing. When not gardening, therefore, they worked on their homes. As the eighteenth century progressed, slave quarters appeared like small villages on the larger plantations, comprising a series of one- or two-roomed huts. Skilled carpenters from within the slave population usually built these structures. In South Carolina, as in the West Indies, housing was often similar to that found in West Africa, comprising an earthfast timber frame with wattle-and-daub sides under a gable roof covered with thatch. Chimneys were usually made of sticks covered in clay (see Figure 27). In the Chesapeake, on the other hand, slave cabins resembled the frontier cabins of European settlers. One distinctive feature of slave housing in the Chesapeake was the provision of a root cellar for storing garden produce and other possessions. In the lower South, lofts, not cellars, seem to have been more common, because of the swampy ground. However, owners invested little in the construction of slave quarters, so dirt had to suffice for floors instead of sawed boards, and shutters were used for windows in lieu of glass.
Figure 27 “View of Mulberry, House and Street, 1805,” by Thomas Coram. This drawing depicts the slave quarters on the Mulberry plantation in South Carolina. Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association Collection Charleston.
Like white females, African American women were responsible for domestic chores, notably gardening, cooking, and making clothes. The difference was that enslaved women were expected to spend the vast majority of their time doing fieldwork rather than domestic work. This expectation was so widespread that in Virginia it was institutionalized in the tax code; white women were exempt from taxes because they spent their time working in the household, but black women were taxed (like men) because they spent their days producing tobacco. The result was that enslaved African American women had less time or resources for the kinds of productive domestic work that raised the living standards of white settler families.16 Slaves' living standards remained impoverished as a result. Straw often had to suffice for bedding, and garments were usually made from cloth supplied by the owners. The most common material was Osnaburg, a coarse drab linen, though this could be brightened using vegetable dyes. As to footwear, most slaves went barefoot or wore sandals fashioned out of wood or leather.
Although most slaves lived and worked on plantations, a small number lived in urban areas in the South. Here they usually worked as domestic servants in the households of rich planters. Some of these slaves had the chance to acquire skills, since urban masters were often flexible in how their slaves were employed. In Charleston and Savannah owners on occasion allowed their slaves to hire themselves out, provided they returned at the specified time with an agreed sum of money. Such privileged slaves could move about with considerable freedom, keeping their own wages and even living on their own. Sometimes they could even form families, acquire consumer goods, and establish businesses that catered to other people of African descent. With the opportunities available to them in an urban consumer economy, they developed a different cultural style than plantation slaves. For example, many urban slaves, both male and female, wore fashionable European clothing
as a way of expressing their individuality, despite attempts by the South Carolina and Georgia legislatures to prohibit them from wearing fancy dress.
Slaves in the North experienced a third variation of life in slavery, one with its own freedoms but also considerable constraints. Slaves in the northern colonies were far less numerous than in the South. Still, slavery was expanding here too as indentured servitude began its gradual eighteenth-century decline. By 1770, slaves in New York City made up about 14 percent of the population, and they were present in other northern cities as well. Slaves were most commonly employed as household servants and general laborers, especially in the maritime industries. Some were used on the larger cereal farms of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the Hudson and Connecticut river valleys, while others became skilled craftsmen. Some northern societies (especially in New England) continued to be “societies with slaves,” rather than “slave societies,” with slaves typically being incorporated into work routines that were shared by white workers. The main difference between the working roles of enslaved blacks and indentured whites was that female slaves were required to do fieldwork and white female servants almost never were. As in the South, the difference in work roles quickly became a marker of black women's degraded status relative to whites.
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