Seasoning Process In Slavery

The Life of a Slave
Slavery itself was a horrible part of history alone and one of the parts of slavery really is not mention as much as it should. The part of slavery a lot of people are clueless about happened before plantation life. This is the in depth story of slavery. This paper will talk about what’s called the “Seasoning Process”, I will break down that process as well as reveal the gruesome and horrific details, also this paper will talk about the living conditions, and Lastly I will touch on what the women had to go through during slavery When you hear the word “Seasoning” you probably think about someone you know or even yourself seasoning a piece swine or chicken. Well you have the right concept but at the same time it is meant
in a whole different way.
When you season a piece of meat you our changing what the original piece look and taste like added the things you want, you are beating and tenderizing the meat to add more flavor and so that the meat will be tender. That whole concept came in to play during slavery but instead of the meat being chicken or swine it was an African American slave. Seasoning started at the auction spot, where they were looked at and when sold they were branded with the slave master symbol. This process consisted of getting the slaves ready for life on the plantation. The slaves that survived the middle passage after beginning taken to West Indies were dehumanized, stripped away their personalities, beaten, and inspected before they were sold. During the inspection the slaves would be washed off with water from the feces and blood and vomit from being packed on the boat on the way to the Americas. This process lasted up to two whole years and some slaves didn’t even make it out of the seasoning process . The men had their penis inspected to figure out how they grow
to be big, the women’s private area was inspected and examined opening them up even causing them to bleed to death and die. Getting off the boat there were so many diseases one was “Dysentery” this disease caused uncontrolled diarrhea and when getting off the boat if the French men noticed that a slave had that they would put a cork in his rectum until he got to the plantation where their slave master will take it out the cork and not only with it just be diarrhea, but blood and even part of bodily meats from intestines causing slow and painful death. Living conditions were horrible.
Slaves were forced to stay in mud huts either provide for them or the slaves would have to build them their selves . The floor was dirt and grass, only having one bed in there. Depending on the plantation and plantation master they decided how much things were put in the huts and such as the number of beds, a table, etc. so housing units were nicer than others being made out of wood than mud and clay. The slave where given only little clothing and cloths. The men had one pair of pants, shirt and a hat for their heads for hot sunny days. In the cold men where giving thicker clothing like a long sleeve. Women were given a dress or skirt with a shirt and a scarf for their heads. The children ran around naked until their body reached puberty and they were given a piece of cloth to cover themselves up. Slaves had to work in crazy conditions and crazy weather conditions on a hot day the slaves would be picking cotton and if they got over heated or worn out they couldn’t take a break they got whipped and beaten. When it came down to whippings master or over seeker would lash out on the slaves whipping their backs until they bled and in some cases slaves even died from blood loss. That horrible punishment left slaves not only with marks and bruises, it left them with open wounds that turned into keloid which was a taboo. The slaves referred the marks on their backs as trees because looking at them the marks looked like branches. Whippings weren’t
the only things slaves had to endure as a punishment. Slaves had their ears cut off, had holes punctured into their ear, men women and children were abused and raped . If the slave master’s wife got jealous of one of the slaves that her husband was having sex with she would cut all her hair off making her look less attractive and she would cut off her ears, slave owners would cut of limbs of a slave such as there foot if they tried to run away, their fingers, etc. Lastly I want to talk about exactly what the women had to go through. Some may think that just because it’s a women they were treated better, well not in this case if you were of color automatically you are looked at and treated different little or small, boy or girl. Women slaves had to do house work, outdoor work, also had to watch the children. When doing house work, the women were nannies and maids but also subjected to rape. Being in the house the slave master would rape and abuse the women and even children that were in the house on a regular basis and if they would refuse of fight it they were beaten badly and even hung and whipped in some cases. The worst part about this even though it is already bad enough is that even when the women weren’t in the house but in their own home outside in their master would go out there and rape the women in front of their husband and children not caring, making them watch from being to end because of this there were a lot of mixed children running around. This was a reminder to the master’s wife showing his infidelity she would often take out her feelings and aggression on the child beating her or him, cutting their hair or making them get in trouble. If the wife saw the mother of the child, which is the slave she would beat her and do anything she wanted to her to case her pain and to make her seem less attractive so that her husband will not mess with her anymore. The older women more involved with taking care of the children while their parents worked all those hours. Women were treated horribly and they still had to hold their heads up and go to bed with her husband and children. Though their husband knew what was going on, he couldn’t be mad at her or their master even when the raping was taken place right in front his face, if he showed any aggression or anger and even attempted to walk over to the bed and stop it get punished.
Whenever a slave was brave enough to try and escape, there would be guides called “conductors” the conductors were white me and women helping the slaves pointing in the direction they need to go to find freedom. The slaves than met up in a place where they would find a blanket with symbols on it they symbols showed where to meet the stationmaster. The stationmaster would hide the slaves somewhere on their land until it was safe for them to keep going. The only thing is once a slave got caught running away they would get severely punished such has getting their foot cut of, getting branded again symbolizing a runaway slave and they also got beaten and whipped and in some cases they even got hung or shot. If the slave master found out who the stationmaster was and the conductors Slavery was a horrible period in history, because of it a lot of African Americans were killed and tortured for the eye of evil, money. White over seekers made a profit off of slaves and thee crazy part about this whole thing not only were they forced into slavery, they were taken from their homes and shipped in to slavery. In some cases free black men and women were sold into slavery. In my option slavery was one of the horrific and memorable times in history that needs to be talked about even more than it is now.