Slavery In The Mid-1800s

Imagine the United States if there was never slavery. Of course, we don’t legally support slavery today, but back in the 19th century, slavery was huge. Africans were shipped across the ocean and sent to work for slave owners, typically in the South. Whole families were separated and sold away from each other to work for different people. In the mid-1800s, life as a slave was extremely harsh. One reason why the slaves’ lives were hard was that enslaved people had to wake up early and work after dark. Because they worked all day, the slaves found quiet ways to rebel, or act out passively. For instance, some slaves worked sloppily enough to break tools or damage crops, while slaves in the house stole food from the kitchen and even poisoned their owner’s food. Since
Jenny Proctor, a former slave, reported, “We had old ragged huts made out of poles, and some of the cracks were filled with mud and moss, and some weren’t. We didn’t have any good beds, just scaffolds nailed up to the wall made out of poles and old ragged bedding.” On top of this, slaves had bad clothing, and only received new apparel once a year. At this, slaves rebelled outwardly and sometimes attacked their owners. Slaves did not have it good when it came to living conditions. When slaves rebelled, they were punished, and usually that punishment wasn’t pretty. Slaves were whipped or worse by owners if they did anything they didn’t like. Sometimes, they would hurt them so badly, they would have scars everywhere. One of these instances that former slave Vinnie Busby recalled was, “One of the cruelest things I ever saw done to a slave was done by my master.he took that slave and hitched him to a plow and plowed him just like a horse. He beat him and jerked him about until he got all bloody and sore, but the old master kept right on day after day.” When slaves were caught rebelling or misbehaving, they were severely