Monday, November 29, 2010

Abuse and punishments towards slaves!


Slaves in the 1800s were called property which cost a lot of money. Because they cost so much and they were considered “property” owners felt that they had the rights to give them punishments for anything they felt was wrong of them doing. The idea of slave punishments started in England.  Most slave owners didn’t believe that their punishments were harsh or mean. Others, very little smart slave owners who were nice to the slaves they bought because they knew that cruel punishment would lead to slaves running away and it would take more time and effort to get the slaves back. They also knew that if the slaves were to run away, their plantation wouldn’t grow because the lack of work done, which meant less money and less slaves to be bought. The punishment for not doing the right thing or doing something improper was either whips ranged from 50 to 100 lashes, branding, drowned, put in stocks, slapped, kicked, tarred and feathered, and/or tied up. Punishment for run away slaves would be to be chased by dogs. If they were caught they would be hit with paddles or whips, or their body part would be cut off, mostly their ear. Even thought these punishments can get really bad most slaves believe that the worst abuse is being sold away from the family.
Resourse:

Information:
http://library.thinkquest.org/5643/sppe.htm  (ThinkQuest: project by students for students)

Picture 1:
http://8crwlsv.pbworks.com/f/slave-punishment-1.jpg (slave being whipped by his owner as punishment)

Picture 2:
http://webspace.webring.com/people/lp/pillory/slave.jpg (slave about to be killed as a punishment)


Sunday, November 28, 2010

More About Women slaves!


The first female slave was in Georgia. It has been shown that female slaves had a much difficult time than male slaves. They are apposed to more burdens and challenges. For example physical, sexual, and very cruel emotional abuse form their owners and other male slaves. At the young age females jobs are told to play with other kids and did easy work that was given to them. At age 10 young girls were trained to nonagricultural labor in domestic settings or put in the fields with the older slaves. If they were put in the fields they were in the fields by five in the morning, and in the evening they worked as late as nine in the summer and seven in the winter. They prepared fields, planted seeds, cleaned ditches, hoed, plowed, picked cotton, and cut and tied rice stalks. Slave women also cleaned, packaged, and prepared the crops for shipment. Some slave owners mainly believed that female slaves picked more cotton then male slaves. If a female slave got to work in the house, they house had to dressing their owners, combing their hair, sewing their clothing or blankets, nursing their infants, and preparing their meals and were on duty 24 hours a day. As a female slave got older they had access to more jobs, such as, washerwomen, wet nurses, cooks, hairdressers, midwives, servants to the children, and house wenches but most worked in cotton field. When a female slave was put up for sale advertisements would be put in newspapers and were wrote with revealing descriptions of the women For example; Stout and tall, about 30 years old, speaks no English, has her country marks upon her body, had on when she went away white negroe cloth cloaths. —Whoever takes her up, or can give any intelligence of her to the subscriber, so that he may have her, shall have 20s. reward. —There is a great reason to think the Indians have carried her off.

Resources:

Information:
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-841 (The New Georgia Encyclopedia: History and Archaeology)

Picture 1:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/images/the_abolitionists_gallery_04.jpg  (female slave being sold by white man and child is being separated from mother)

Picture 2:

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Ser Nat Turner: a memorable slave!

Nat Turner was born into slavery. He was born on October 2, 1800. He was from Southampton County, Virginia. Nat was very intelligent and spiritual. In 1821, Nat Turner ran away but returned thirty days later because he believed he was set with a vision. His master died a year after that, who then sold him to Ms. Thomas Moore. Three years later Nat Turner believed to have another vision. Then, another on May 2, 1828. In the beginning of 1830, his new owner was a young child named Putnum Moore, the child of Thomas Moore and her new husband Joseph Travis. In February, 1831 Nat started to create a plan with his four friends, Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam because he believed that there was a sign in a eclipse that occurred that day. Nat soon became ill which made the plan postpone. On August 21, 1831 Nat and six of his friends decided to kill everyone in Travis’ household at two in the morning while they were asleep, then they would continue from house to house and kill all the other white people. He felt that the sign was that on August 13 there was an atmospheric disturbance in which the sun appeared bluish-green. Nat had more the forty slaves that joined him to kill these people. Nat Turner used Travis’ farm as a hid out place but on October 30 he was discovered, captured and taken to county jail. On November 5th he was sentenced to execution back at his home town court. On November 11th Nat Turner was hung and skinned.

            Because fifty-five   people were executed, many more were banished and about 200 innocent black people were killed by a mob of white people, Virginia stated decided to abolish slavery, free the slaves and give more support and rights to black people. I believe we can say thank you to Nat Turner in some form of way.

Resources:

introduction to the slave life!




In the 1800s people mostly had slaves in the south rather than the north because the south had larger plantation area which needed more workers. There were many different jobs for a slave to have. Some slaves called field hand slaves worked in plantation which meant that they picked cotton and planted from sunrise to sunset. Some slaves worked in master’s house, and worked as a servant and did things like laundry and make food. Slaves also were able to work in factories, do construction, in mines, dockworkers, office workers, riverboat pilots and in lumberjack.
         Every few slaves had the right to have a family, get married, testify in court, own their own property, some can also make their own money to set themselves free. Many slave owners did not wanted their slaves to learn to read or write because they believed they might make plans with others to run away. If slaves were lucky, they would have a nice slaveholder who would treat them kindly by giving them gifts and/or by giving them a fair pay. Some slaves who worked in the house were able to be set free their owner put it in their will when they died because they feel the slave was very loyal and did a good job.



resources:
information: http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/slavery.htm - thinking quest, slavery
picture 1: http://media-files.gather.com/images/d624/d426/d744/d224/d96/f3/full.jpg (in this picture there is a women being sold, and a picture iof how a poster would look to buy slaves)
picture 2: http://www.tfaoi.com/cm/6cm/6cm352.jpg (slaves walking towards the feild to work)