A Field Slave's Life     

A Field Slaves Life
By: McKenzie Roberts

            Looking back on slavery today we provide examples and proof that people could be so brutal to each other. Although most slaves were beaten and treated like a piece of property the type of slaves that were treated the worst were the field slaves. Most field slaves lives were full of miserable memories and experiences that will stay with them forever.

Normally slaves were taken from their parents in Africa at a very young age and when they get older they don’t remember very much about their homelands. Slave traders and Merchants would take long voyages to Africa o get slaves so that they could sell them when they got back. They normally took smaller children that looked healthy and strong. This was so that they would be able to work for a longer time and they could be sold for more money.

Conditions were bad for slaves form the start. When they were taken from Africa they were forced onto a boat and were placed in a cold damp cell where there were no windows and not even enough room to stand. Slaves were feed barely anything on the boat. When the slaves finally got to the plantation that they would live on the conditions weren’t much better. They would have to work in the fields from sun up to sun down. Slaves received very little food and water. When it was hot and dry outside they would sometimes only receive a few sips of water that normally wasn’t even cold.  Besides not being fed much, [i] most of the slaves lived in small cabins that were normally packed with people. [ii] Most of the people in the small cabins were forced to sleep on the floor with nothing but a wool blanket.[iii] Slaves also had to endure horrible whipping that killed some people and left scars for the rest of their lives. The slave handler or one of the other slaves normally gave the whippings. When a slave had to give another slave a whipping it was because both of them were being taught a lesson.

Although the majority of slaves were treated badly there was a lucky few that remember being treated like family by their masters. House slaves or servants mostly remember being treated like family by their masters because they worked so close to them. Even though their masters treated them like family they were still given work just to undermined them and make them feel useless. One of the slaves recalls having to stand behind the master’s wife at dinner and reaching around her and handing her every thing she asked for. [iv] House slaves were thought to be very dangerous to the master and his family because they heard everything that the masters talked about and could relay information back to the other slaves. But on the other hand on some plantations house slaves were hated by the field slaves because they thought that the house slaves were working for the master as a spy to find out who was complaining and who was going to try and escape.

Most slaves were not well educated and barely spoke English in some cases. Some of the few very lucky slaves were taught to read and write by the master’s wife. After the slaves could read and write they could keep diaries and read the Bible. [v] One thing that comes to mind when we talk about the slaves reading is the Bible is that they would often sneak out at night and have prayed sessions. Although slaves weren’t supposed to read the Bible or follow the Christian religion they often did anyway. Normally one of the well-educated slaves would read out of the Bible to the others. Even though the slaves got caught numerous times they still kept on meeting because they thought that the Bible was their last hope and that it was the only thing that they could trust. Although some slaves followed the Christian religion other followed their old religion that they had followed in Africa. This didn’t seem to bother the masters because they didn’t think that the Slaves should be privileged enough to worship the Bible, they thought that it was for the whites only.

Slaves were beaten, betrayed and made feel like they were useless property that didn’t count for anything. Although not all slaves were treated badly they still had to deal with the fact that they were someone else’s property that could be sold and traded freely.

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