The Slave Community Write Up

I did a Write Up on The Slave Community by John W. Blassingame For my U.S. History Course through BYU Independent study. Here it is:

Slavery was a harsh and morally wrong system, with white masters denying slaves very basic human rights and exploiting their labor with the bare minimum requirements for survival in most instances.

A field hand's life consisted of waking up before dawn, preparing a meal, eating, feeding livestock and then getting out to the fields a bit before dawn. They were whipped if they were late. Then they worked until dusk in a variety of labors, depending on the season and the type of crop.

For instance they could be planting the crops, preparing the fields, clearing the land, getting rid of pests, or harvesting the crop.

Then after sunset they put away livestock, and made their meal before going to bed, but sometimes they worked till nine or later if they were ginning cotton or boiling sugar.

The domestic slave ate better food and wore better clothes than the field hands, but they still had negatives like being under the constant watch of the whites, absorbing white anger in the form of punching or whipping, and being at their beck and call day and night.

According to Nathaniel Ware, a slave could be sustained by $20 (in 1844, around $645 today) a year, while a free laborer needed $100 (~3,225 today) for food and clothing alone for him and his family.

This meant that slaves sometimes did not have enough food, and when this happened they stole food. They also had wretched, crude, one room, and often crowed cabins with holes and hard dirt floors. Basically the bare minimum.

Many masters attempted to assure their authority over their slaves and that of all whites’ superiority over all blacks (very much against natural law). Most planters also worked to make "their" slaves submissive and non-rebellious.

Planters forced slaves to act happy about slavery and their exhausting labors, while truly and inside they did barely felt any joy about these things.

Black overseers had really strenuous lives because they were caught in the middle between the slaves and the master. When they worked the slaves too hard, the master was happy with them, while the slaves were not. On the other hand when they let the slaves slack off and not really work that much, the master got mad and usually whipped the overseer.

Domestic servants acted as the secret police of the planter, they spied on the other slaves and reported back to him. Masters were sometime very cruel to the slaves in punishment, with extensive flogging and iron shackles to the slaves’ limbs.

Planters also physically abused and even mutilated their slaves. Masters sometimes killed slaves under punishment, whether accidentally or intentionally. But while it was illegal for masters to kill their slaves, they were not usually held accountable for any crimes by the white government if one died under punishment.

There were also some masters who were generally kind like Dr. Carson. Some of the things kind masters did was that they abstained from flogging, giving enough food and shelter, and leaving slave families together.

Some kind masters became cruel when they were angry, but overall most of masters were neither kind nor exceptionally cruel with the treatment of slaves.

While planters extracted all the labor from their slaves that they could, they also tried to act humanely and were forced to recognize the humanity of their slaves.

Planters were kinder to their slaves sometimes because they were worried about public opinion and/or they tried to apply Christian principles in their relations with slaves.

Many slaves limited their work so to try to speed up the work planters gave prize’s to the best cotton pickers.

Slaves coped with this oppressive system in different ways. One of the biggest ways slaves coped with it was through their culture which came largely the oral traditions from West Africa.

Regional Storytelling in West Africa included acting, and singing that was a favorite evening entertainment. West African Folk tale culture was largely transplanted to the South and the slaves’ culture. Patterns and symbols/symbolism of the folktales can tell us a lot about the slaves’ thoughts and views.

These attempted to explain natural phenomena and had heroes and morals. Often the audience responded to questions and the tales were accompanied by drums.

West African tales show us that they valued Families and knowledge. There were a lot of Animal storied and Trickster figures- like the Nigerian Tortoise and the Ghanaian spider and rabbit-are all over them. They are weaker than the other animals but through cunning they outwit them and triumph over evil.

Folk tales were not only an entertainment they were also a concentration of folk wisdom, a manifestation of a slave’s dreams, hopes and personal experiences. They were also used as instructional devices to teach young slaves how to live.

Folk Tales were an area which was out of the whites’ control, and they allowed the slave to convey hostility at his master and explain the plantation system.

In animal tales the slaves identified themselves with the weaker animals, and were fascinated with weakness overcoming strength. This could be a symbol of the weak unarmed slaves overcoming the whites including their masters.

Sometimes there were not just symbols of masters, overseers and slaves but direct references, like with the John series. This series is a very accurate and specific depiction of slavery in the folk tales, where John longs for freedom, runs away, gets beaten, desires revenge for his suffering and often defies his master.  

John symbolized the discontent of slaves, the many options for the slaves, a set of survival techniques, and was a means of increasing self-worth.

Folk tales prove that the hardships and cruelties of slavery were not enough to demolish the creativity of the slaves and folk tales allowed the slave to view himself symbolically and to find patience and hope when he talked about his fortune. 

Folk tales helped the slave cope with the hardships of slavery because they were mental tools that helped channel emotions allowing them to talk about their resentment of their masters and white people in ways that had little or no physical threat and provided leisure, fun and creativity.

Slaves also coped with their hardships through religion where he found hope of escape of the brutalities of slavery.

Protestant missionaries had taught thousands of slaves Christian doctrines, and slaves believed God promoted freedom interpreting the freedom from bondage of Israel to mean that they had a hope for freedom too.

The Religious faith of the slave often conquered the slave’s fear of their master. When slaves were whipped for going to church they continued because they determined that their master could only harm their physical body and not their soul.

Religious services and activities also provided the slave with welcome rest from constant, hard labor and gave him joy and companionship.  By engaging in these activities the slave could take his mind of his/or her hopeless condition and focus on the happy future that awaited him.

The Slave’s life was hard, and would have been practically unbearable had there not been a black plantation culture separate from and out of the control of the white people.

It also helped the slaves form an appreciation for group protection and unity. Finally the slave’s culture boosted his self-worth and joys, helping him have enthusiasm in what was otherwise a very difficult and unpleasant life.