What was life like for the slaves?
Life on the fields meant working sunup to sundown six days a week and having food sometimes not suitable for an animal to eat. Plantation slaves lived in small shacks with a dirt floor and little or no furniture. Life on large plantations with a cruel overseer was oftentimes the worst.
How was life different for slaves in the city than on the plantation?
How was life different for slaves in the city than on the plantation? They could live on their own if they contracted with their masters. They could perform jobs that immigrants were doing in Northern cities. They frequently relied on the free black communities to help them escape.
How did the Civil War change the lives of slaves?
Slaves saw emancipation as more than an end to slavery, but also education, voting rights, and rights before the law. The 13th Amendment passed in January 1865 ending slavery in the Union and ensuring that under US control, slaves in the south would be freed.
Where were most slaves located before the Civil War?
There were five states with over 400,000 slaves just before the beginning of the Civil War. Virginia with 490,867 slaves took the lead and was followed by Georgia (462,198), Mississippi (436,631), Alabama (435,080), and South Carolina (402,406).
What did slaves do for fun?
During their limited leisure hours, particularly on Sundays and holidays, slaves engaged in singing and dancing. Though slaves used a variety of musical instruments, they also engaged in the practice of “patting juba” or the clapping of hands in a highly complex and rhythmic fashion. A couple dancing.
What did slaves do to get punished?
Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, beating, mutilation, branding, and/or imprisonment. Punishment was most often meted out in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but masters or overseers sometimes abused slaves to assert dominance.
What did House slaves look like?
Whereas many field workers were not given sufficient clothing to cover their bodies, house slaves tended to be dressed with more modesty, sometimes in the hand-me-downs of masters and mistresses. Most slaves lived in similar dwellings, simple cabins furnished sparely. A few were given rooms in the main house.
Was the Civil War all about slavery?
A common explanation is that the Civil War was fought over the moral issue of slavery. In fact, it was the economics of slavery and political control of that system that was central to the conflict. A key issue was states’ rights.
What did slaves get when they were freed?
Freed people widely expected to legally claim 40 acres of land (a quarter-quarter section) and a mule after the end of the war. Some freedmen took advantage of the order and took initiatives to acquire land plots along a strip of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida coasts.
How did slavery start the Civil War?
The war began because a compromise did not exist that could solve the difference between the free and slave states regarding the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in territories that had not yet become states.
How long did slaves usually live?
As a result of this high infant and childhood death rate, the average life expectancy of a slave at birth was just 21 or 22 years, compared to 40 to 43 years for antebellum whites. Compared to whites, relatively few slaves lived into old age.