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The slaves were brought over from Africa in horrific conditions. After they reached port, they were sold to men as property. They worked tediously for hours, but the work was not back-breaking. The first Africans were servants; they slowly became slaves as the needs and the wants of the whites grew. In 1662, Virginia passed an act declaring that anyone born of a slave mother should serve as a slave forever. 1705 brought about a law declaring that a slave might be inventoried as real estate. On large plantations slaves were often whipped by their slave masters, hired to watch the slaves while they worked, to make sure they were not lazy in any way. Often, a trusted slave would help the slave master.
According to the slaves, slavery existed for two reasons: free labor, and the money saved because of free labor. Slave owners sold their slaves if they were in debt. Some bred slaves to be sold and to get a work force for the next generation. Slaves were either sold informally, as to a friend, or at a market. To get to the market, slaves were chained together in a slave coffle. At the market, the slaves were to look healthy to bring higher profits in. They were to look strong, well fed, and willful. Slaves were sold regardless of family ties-- parents and children, brothers and sisters were sometimes sold to different masters, never to see each other again. After they were sold, the slaves were again placed in a coffle to get to their new home.
The slaves' new home on the plantation was not normally a large white house, the usual image of a plantation. Most plantation owners lived modestly, some even lived poorly.
According to the slaves, there was a "big house", which belonged to the owner. Then there was "slave row", a row of slave dwellings. The overseer's house was near slave row. There were also numerous barns and sheds in this general area. Beyond all of this, there was freedom.
The houses of the slaves were generally miserable. The husband and wife, if there were such in the family, slept on a makeshift mattress. The children slept on the floor. There was a chimney and a little bit of furniture that they were allowed to buy with money gained from selling chickens from the plantation. Some houses were better than others, some were worse.
The dress of the slaves was often a cotton jacket and a pair of pants yearly for the men. For women, a tow cloth dress; the children had nothing but a shirt. As the children grew older, they got a pair of pantaloons or a gown in addition.
Food was even more sparse. In harvest season, they often received three meals a day. But in the regular seasons, there were only two meals, if you were owned by a nice man.
Life was generally the same for all slaves where work was concerned. They worked in the fields all day long. Because cotton, the major crop that the slaves worked with, was so unruly, it could not be left alone all year.
A normal slave day during the harvest season consisted of many labors. They were called out of bed an hour before sunrise to get breakfast, worked until lunch, when they got little time to scarf down their food, and worked again until dinner which was after the moon was risen. Each slave was to pick 200 pounds of cotton a day. After all the field work was done, the slaves still had chores to do, such as feeding the mules or the swine or cutting wood. They often had their own gardens to tend and their own work to do around the house. The social and recreational activities all occurred after sundown, after all the work was done.
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