In recent years much research has been done by Historians trying to determine how life was different for slaves who lived in the North American Colonies during the 18th century from those who lived in the United States during the 19th century.
Many factors would have been different.
The number of slaves living on a tobacco plantation in the 18th century may have been far less than the number of slaves living on a cotton plantation in the 19th century.
Directions: In this exercise read the excerpts below in an effort to reconstruct what slave housing was like for slaves living in the English mainland colonies. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What materials were used to build the walls and roof?
- Were the walls solid or were there chinks in the walls?
- How many rooms were there?
- Did the houses have windows? If so, did the windows have coverings? How many doors did the houses have?
- What kind of furnishings were used? How many people lived in each house?
After answering these questions and devloping your conclusions, move on to the next page, Historical Context: The Visual Evidence, to explore further 18th century slave housing.
Reading #1 : Austin Steward – Slave in Prince William County, Virginia. Born 1793. Master William Helm who owned over 100 slaves.
Our family consisted of my father and mother - whose names were Robert and Susan Steward - a sister, Mary, and myself. As was the usual custom, we lived in a small cabin, built of rough boards, with a floor of earth, and small openings in the sides of the cabin were substituted for windows. The chimney was built of sticks and mud; the door, of rough boards; and the whole was put together in the rudest possible manner. As to the furniture of this rude dwelling, it was procured by the slaves themselves, who were occasionally permitted to earn a little money after their day's toil was done.
For more information: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASsteward.htm
Reading #2: Josiah Henson – born on June 15, 1789, Charles County, Maryland.
We lodged in log huts, and on the bare ground. Wooden floors were an unknown luxury. In a single room were huddled, like cattle, ten or a dozen persons, men, women, and children. All ideas of refinement and decency were, of course, out of the question. We had neither bedsteads, nor furniture of any description. Our beds were collections of straw and old rags, thrown down in the corners and boxed in with boards; a single blanket the only covering. Our favourite way of sleeping, however, was on a plank, our heads raised on an old jacket and our feet toasting before the smouldering fire. The wind whistled and the rain and snow blew in through the cracks, and the damp earth soaked in the moisture till the floor was miry as a pig- sty. Such were our houses. In these wretched hovels were we penned at night, and fed by day; here were the children born and the sick- - neglected.
For more information: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAShenson.htm
Reading #3: Moses Grandy – born 1786 in Camden County, North Carolina. Master – Billy Grandy.
MacPherson was an overseer where slaves were employed in cutting canals. The labour there is very severe. The ground is often very boggy: the negroes are up to the middle or much deeper in mud and water, cutting away roots and baling out mud: if they can keep their heads above water, they work on. They lodge in huts, or as they are called camps, made of shingles or boards. They lie down in the mud which has adhered to them, making a great fire to dry themselves, and keep off the cold. No bedding whatever is allowed them; it is only by work done over his task, that any of them can get a blanket. They are paid nothing except for this overwork. Their masters come once a month to receive the money for their labour: then perhaps some few very good masters will give them two dollars each, some others one dollar, some a pound of tobacco, and some nothing at all. The food is more abundant than that of field slaves; indeed it is the best allowance in America: it consists of a peck of meal, and six pounds of pork per week; the pork is commonly not good, it is damaged, and is bought as cheap as possible at auctions.
For more information: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASgrandy.htm
Reading #4: Francis Frederic – born in Fauquier County, Virginia. Worked in Virginia and Kentucky
I remember when a boy I did not care how I was fed, all I was anxious about was to get sufficient. This mode of living is no doubt adopted for the express purpose of brutalizing the slaves as much as possible, and making the utmost difference between them and the white man. Slaves live in huts made of logs of wood covered with wood, the men and women sleeping indiscriminately together in the same room. But English people would be perfectly surprised to see the natural modesty and delicacy of the women thus huddled together; every possible effort being exerted, under such circumstances, to preserve appearances - an unchaste female slave being very rarely found.
For more information: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASfredric.htm
The men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal Their yearly clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts, one pair of linen trousers, like the shirts, one jacket, one pair of trousers for winter, made of coarse negro cloth, one pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes; the whole of which could not have cost more than seven dollars. The allowance of the slave children was given to their mothers, or the old women having the care of them. The children unable to work in the field had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers, given to them; their clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts per year. When these failed them, they went naked until the next allowance-day. Children from seven to ten years old, of both sexes, almost naked, might be seen at all seasons of the year.
There were no beds given the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such, and none but the men and women had these. This, however, is not considered a very great privation. They find less difficulty from the want of beds, than from the want of time to sleep; for when their day's work in the field is done, the most of them having their washing, mending, and cooking to do, and having few or none of the ordinary facilities for doing either of these, very many of their sleeping hours are consumed in preparing for the field the coming day; and when this is done, old and young, male and female, married and single, drop down side by side, on one common bed,--the cold, damp floor,--each covering himself or herself with their miserable blankets; and here they sleep till they are summoned to the field by the driver's horn.
For more information: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASdouglass.htm
Mount Vernon – 1798, Julian Niemcewicz, a Polish visitor to Mount Vernon visited one of the outlying farms –
“We entered one of the huts of the Blacks, for one can not call them by the name of Houses. They are more miserable than the most miserable of the cottages of our peasants. The husband and wife sleep on a mean pallet, the children on the ground; a very bad fireplace, some utensils for cooking, but in the middle of this poverty some cups and a teapot.”
Please send comments to: atucker@nvcc.edu
Updated March 30, 2005
©2004 Alicia L.B. Tucker