Field Slaves
My journey next saw me at another plantation, this one in Virginia, where women worked the same hours as men and pregnant women were expected to continue until their child was born. Henry Clay reported in Twenty-Nine Years a Slave: “During the crop season in Virginia, slave men and women worked in the fields daily. We were worked in all weathers. It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow too hard for us to work in the field. Work, work, work was scarcely more the order of the day than of the night. The longest days were too short for my master, and the shortest nights too long for him. The discipline of my master succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died. The dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute.”
The housing provided for slaves consisted of wooden shacks with dirt floors. According to Jacob Stroyer, who wrote My Life in the South (1898), they were built to house two families: “There were no partitions so each family would nail up old boards, stuffing the cracks with rags, or they would hang up old clothes. In a single room were huddled, like cattle, a dozen persons. Our beds were collections of straw and old rags.”
The housing provided for slaves consisted of wooden shacks with dirt floors. According to Jacob Stroyer, who wrote My Life in the South (1898), they were built to house two families: “There were no partitions so each family would nail up old boards, stuffing the cracks with rags, or they would hang up old clothes. In a single room were huddled, like cattle, a dozen persons. Our beds were collections of straw and old rags.”
House Slaves
Whilst in Virginia, I formed the opinion that house slaves lived better than field slaves. They seemed to have better food and were sometimes given the family’s cast-off clothing. William Brown explained to me: “ I was a house slave – a situation better than that of a field hand, as I was better fed, better clothed, and not obliged to rise at the ringing of the bell, but about half an hour later.”
This was not the opinion of all house slaves. Harriet Jacobs, also from Virginia, reported to me that on Sunday her mistress “would station herself in the kitchen, and wait till it was dished, and then spit in all the kettles and pans to make sure the slaves did not eat what was left over.” Jacobs added, “She did this to prevent the cook and her children from eking out their meagre fare with the remains of the gravy and other scrapings. The slaves could get nothing to eat except what she chose to give them. Provisions were weighed out by the pound and ounce, and she gave them no chance to eat wheat bread from her flour barrel. She knew how many biscuits a quart of flour would make, and exactly what size they ought to be.”
This was not the opinion of all house slaves. Harriet Jacobs, also from Virginia, reported to me that on Sunday her mistress “would station herself in the kitchen, and wait till it was dished, and then spit in all the kettles and pans to make sure the slaves did not eat what was left over.” Jacobs added, “She did this to prevent the cook and her children from eking out their meagre fare with the remains of the gravy and other scrapings. The slaves could get nothing to eat except what she chose to give them. Provisions were weighed out by the pound and ounce, and she gave them no chance to eat wheat bread from her flour barrel. She knew how many biscuits a quart of flour would make, and exactly what size they ought to be.”