The Daily Lives of Slaves

1. The Daily Lives of Slaves

2. Forms of Resistance • Violence • Feigning Illness • Breaking Tools • Injuring Livestock • Poisoning Master’s Food • Burning Barns • Running Away • Religion & Child Naming

3. South Carolina • 1730s = North and South Carolina splits • 1730s = 2/3 of South Carolina are slaves • 1740s = Indigo introduced • Cone-shaped thatched roof huts • Shotgun shacks

4. Slavery in the Chesapeake • Gang labor on Virginia tobacco plantations • 3 types of slaves: skilled workers, house workers, and field hands • Diet of cornmeal, salt pork, fish, and vegetables

5. Slavery in the North • New York & New Jersey = slave population of 15% -30% • Shipyards, small farms, and domestic slave labor • Philadelphia, Boston, New York have free black communities • Slave codes in the north

6. Resistance through Clothing • “Dressing your station” • Bright greens, blues, reds, purples • Slaves used scraps of quilt fabric

7. Religion • Islam, Christianity, and a combination of Christianity & West African beliefs • Baptist, Episcopalian, and Methodists

8. Slave Codes • 1632 = Bermuda created first British colonial slave codes • 1682 = Virginia has first North American slave codes • 1712 = South Carolina has harshest slave codes • Slaves labeled as “chattel” • Slaves not allowed to trade, read, own weapons, meet in groups, leave plantations without a pass, or defend themselves

9. The Stono Rebellion • 1739 = South Carolina rebellion • Largest slave rebellion in colonial era • Angolan soldiers • Slaves marched south to Florida • Over 100 slaves involved

10. Emergence of African-American Culture • Difficult to form families • African naming practices • “Jumping the Broom” • Drum circle, spirituals, call and response 17th century drum from Jamaica