Enslaved Women In The 1900's

During the time of the 1900’s, we have seen the disgusting ways African Americans were treated. We have seen the selling, leasing, and physically punishing someone. There was torment that a human being had to go through because they were taken away from their homeland and were considered “slaves”. Now you would probably think that between enslaved men and women that enslaved women would have less suffering to go through. Completely false. Women were given the hardest workload and the hardest time during enslavement. Enslaved women went through so much more pain and hardship than anybody can ever imagine. The road to freedom was more gruesome and intense for a enslaved women that it would ever be for an enslaved man.
“Women during this
time were very valuable considering they could work as well as have children." (Doherty). With these women, it gave an incentive to the slave owners because this brought on a new generation of slave. Before the start of the Civil War, females were sold for much more money than males. "Depending on the groups of women, the given price relied on their appearances and willingness and obedience to the master they had before" (Doherty). While proficient men were sold for up to $1,500 and inexpert field hands were sold for as little as $1,350, Women were sold for as much as $1,800. (Gates 22).
Women who worked in the fields were given agonizing tasks on purpose. They often "worked eleven hour days, 'from day clean to first dark.” They almost worked six days a week, granted the Sabbath off if their master allowed it. (Slave labor). Contingent on the type of plantation they were on, they would have to pick cotton, harvest sugar or grow tobacco, all of which were extremely manual labor intensive to do. Some slave owners found the struggle of black women amusing. In some cases “they would throw rocks at the women slaves to see them cry out in pain.”(Slave Labor)
This burden on women was practiced all year long with no regard to the excruciating weather conditions, and with the circumstance that they were also pregnant. Women usually worked up to a few weeks or the week of their pregnancy. Being a woman in the nineteenth century, childbirth was difficult for all women; but even more so for enslaved women because “[S]lave owners believed that black women were more robust than white women were and therefore required less treatment during childbirth." (Gates 38) Imprisoned women often did not receive any type of prenatal care no matter what the situation (Life under Slavery). Due to the insufficient intake of vitamins needed for nutrition for imprisoned women, there were typically many difficulties during the gestation period. Following the tremendous amount of physical labor up until childbirth, there was an enormously high rate of unprompted abortions, stillbirths, and deaths right after the child’s birth (Life Under slavery) After birth, women gradually returned to work.
According to Wilma King, some slave women were granted as little as a month off from work, while other slave owners made them tend to their duties earlier. Contingent on the slave owner, some slave women were given more nimble jobs to work on, while other slave owners forced slave women to go back to the problematic jobs they had before the birth. “Women often had no additional choice than to take their brand-new child along with them to their infinite days of work, often in the smoldering summer sun” (King 13). The children would sometimes die from the heat exhaustion or from
dehydration.
Enforcing punishment on slaves was an important part of plantation life. As much as people tried to avoid it, it was inevitable in some cases. Enslaved women received the biggest and most excruciating punishment on the plantations out of anybody. “Plantation managers reported that women resisted work and were a constant source of frustration, causing them to be punished” (Gates 86). “Owners believed the use of force was suitable to give slave the push they needed to work, establish discipline, and maintain order” on the plantation (Gates 88). Slaves were reprimanded for any action that the slave owner saw as defiant or worthy of reprimand. Severe punishment was put in place for negligence of tasks, thievery, challenging instructions and authority, defiance towards slave owners, and negative responses towards rules ” (Gates 89). The examples of breaking rules that their master had set in place would range from “mutilation, branding, solitary confinement, whippings, and hand and foot stocks” (Gates 88). In some cases, “Auctioning family members of defiant slaves was reserved for extremely bad behavior” (Gates 88).
Many women were molested as a type of punishment for their misbehavior. In most cases, slave owners or their heirs would molest enslaved women for no particular reason; other than the feeling of being powerful and almighty. Many women suffered from the horrible acts these men had committed and all the while, having to bear children from this horrid act. Many slaves grew up knowing the fact that they’re mother was molested and the molestation led to their existence. Diana Ashley, a previous enslaved woman, gives us her appalling tale on how she was conceived and how low women were treated during this time:
“My mother 's mistress had three boys, one twenty-one, one nineteen and one seventeen.
Old mistress had gone away to spend the day one day. Mother always worked in the house. She didn 't work on the farm in Missouri. While she was alone, the boys came in and threw her down on the floor and tied her down so she couldn 't struggle, and one after the other used her as long as they wanted for the whole afternoon. Mother was sick when her mistress came home. When old mistress wanted to know what was the matter with her, she told her what the boys had done. She whipped them and that 's the way I came to be here”. (Gates 96) This comes to show that women were used as sexual pleasure and were seen as nothing more than that. Women would only be good for sex and for
work.
When slavery was abolished, slave women were struck in the face with more obstacles to overcome. Since they were free, free women now faced an entire new world. Former slaves now needed to care for their families on their own without their former master taking care of them. They were freed from their masters, but they were also freed from a place to rest. They didn 't have a master to give them a home, or any type of nourishment. Former slave women had to find ways to survive without their master telling them what to do. And even though slavery ended, discrimination toward African American women did not. They now faced a world filled with whites and racism. Women needed a plan to survive, without risking their freedom, and that objective was a very long way away.

Cited Works

Doherty, Jane. “Louisiana Black Women: An Ignored History.” Black History. (N.d) Web. 11 January 2013.
Gates, Henry Lewis Jr. “Unchained Memories Reading From the Slave Narratives.” Spencer
Crew, (N.d). Web. 11 January 2013
Derger, Robert. “Life under Slavery.” Digital History. Cynthia Goodman, 2 May
2004. Web. 21 December 2012
Smith, Chris. “Slave Labor.” Digital History. Frank Roosevelt, 2 May
2004. Web. 23 December 2012