LIfe+of+Slaves+in+Antebellum+America

**Living Conditions**

The Slaves living condition were much less than adequate. They had poor food, clothing, and conditions. Masters provided them with only just barely enough because they knew that a sick slave could not work.

**Food** Slaves were given rations each week or even month. Usually they were small rations and once you ran out you got no more. Although nutrition was scant, slaves found other ways of finding food. Depending on where the slave worked, the nutrition varied, but it usually consisted of meat and corn meal. On rice plantations along the coast, many slaves ate the bad rice that was dirty or broken rice. Slaves on cotton plantations weekly rations were about half a pound of meat(bacon, salt herrings, pork) and some corn meal. “The food of the slave is this: Every Saturday night they receive two pounds of bacon, and one peck and a half of corn meal, to last the men through the week. The women have one half pound of meat, and one peck of meal, and the children one half peck each. When this is gone, they can have no more till the end of the week. This is very little food for the slaves. They have to beg when they can; when they cannot, they must suffer. They are not allowed to go off the plantation; if they do, and are caught, they are whipped very severely, and what they have begged is taken from them.” —Peter Randolph, //Sketches Of Slave Life: Or,Illustrations Of The ‘Peculiar Institution.’// Boston: published for the author, 1855.


 * Truck Patches**

The rations slaves were given much less than adequate, therefore, they were forced to find ways. Many grew veggetables in a __Truck Patch.__ A Truck Patch was small garden behind their living quarters where they grew many vegetables like lima beans, cabbage, corn, squash, onions, peanuts, peas, potatoes, and pumpkins. The vegetables grown were usually easy to take care of, since the slaves had to tend the gardens after they worked all day. The vegetables grown also usually produced a lot of crop.


 * Supplementing**

Slaves found other ways to find food as well. many women pick nearby berries and plants to eat or cook. Some planation owners gave some slaves a gun to hunt for their own food. Some fished as well. When times grew desperate enough, some courageous slaves stole an animal or some crop at the risk of punishment.


 * Learn More About Nutrition in Slavery.....**

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**Clothing** The clothing for the slaves was very poor, as for everything else was for them. When slaves were born they were given clothes that would last for a very long time. Most of the things they wore were too small and patched up and/or ripped. Slaves were given a minimal amount of clothing. They were given a yearly ration of clothing. Before winter they were given one jacket and a pair of shoes. Women wore a simple dress. Men wore pants and a shrit. Most of the clothing was made out of coarse burlap bags because it was cheap. The majority of the clothes did not fit, though house slaves did have it better. They sometimes got the hand-me downs from the plantation owners. Sometimes they would sneak some of the clothing to friends and family in need of it.


 * More info on Clothing....**

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**Housing** Slaves lived in small, simple crude houses with many other people. Two big families might live in a single house. Each house was usually one or two rooms with dirt floors. None of them were insulated and they had open windows with only a cloth over them. There was no furniture and sometimes a fireplace. It was cold in the winter and hot in the summer inside the houses. They were dirty and full of diseases. Many disease were breaded in the unsanitary living conditions and spread throughout the plantation.

__**Punishment**__

The slaves worked gangs of about 25 or 30 people. An overseer would watch over the slaves throughout the day and make sure they were doing their job. If not, the slaves would be whipped and punished. Sometimes the overseer might also increase a slaves working hours or take away some or a slaves food rations. Slaves were also punished for other things, for example being disobedient or disrespectful to their master, breaking or damaging equipment, or trying to run away. For some of the larger crimes, slaves could be branded, have a body part chopped off, or being forced to wear or use a contraption (wearing chains on their feet or being chained to the ground.) Sometimes if slaves had children, it was used to bribe the slave. Masters would threaten to sell or punish the children to motivate slaves to work. Slaves were very mistreated, and were pushed around like animals.


 * __Work__**

Slaves either worked as Field Hands or House Maids. Although being a servant in the "big house" was easier than working on the plantation, the slaves had much less privacy. Masters could call you at any hour. Being a house maid, you usually had more of a relationship than a field hand would with the family. Slaves that worked in the house usually had better working and living conditions, better food and better clothing. Working as a Field Hand was much harder. Days were long, sometimes up to 16 hours in the summer months under the hot sun in the fields. ''During the planting and harvest season, we had to work early and late. The men and women were called at three o'clock in the morning, and were worked on the plantation till it was dark at night. After that they must prepare their food for supper and for the breakfast of the next day, and attend to other duties of their own dear homes. Parents would often have to work for their children at home, after each day's protracted toil, till the middle of the night, and then snatch a few hours' sleep, to get strength for the heavy burdens of the next day.''-Thomas H. Jones, New Hanover, N.C. Men, women and children worked the same length. Children started working at the age of 5, but the infant mortality rate was high and 20 percent of the children died before working age. Slaves in the field worked hard planting and harvesting cotton, tobacco, rice and sugar. Many died while working due to the extreme heat, dehydration or hunger.