The
accommodation provided for slaves usually consisted of wooden shacks
with dirt floors. According to Jacob Stroyer
they were built to house two families: "Some had partitions,
while others had none. When there were no partitions each family would
fit up its own part as it could; sometimes they got old boards and
nailed them up, stuffing the cracks with rags; when they could not
get boards they hung up old clothes."
Another slave, Josiah Henson wrote that
"Wooden floors were an unknown luxury. In a single room were
huddled, like cattle, ten or a dozen persons, men, women, and children.
We had neither bedsteads, nor furniture of any description. Our beds
were collections of straw and old rags, thrown down in the corners
and boxed in with boards; a single blanket the only covering."
A slave family outside their cabin.
(1)
Francis
Fredric, Fifty Years of Slavery (1863)
This
mode of living is no doubt adopted for the express purpose of brutalizing
the slaves as much as possible, and making the utmost difference between
them and the white man. Slaves live in huts made of logs of wood covered
with wood, the men and women sleeping indiscriminately together in
the same room. But English people would be perfectly surprised to
see the natural modesty and delicacy of the women thus huddled together;
every possible effort being exerted, under such circumstances, to
preserve appearances--an unchaste female slave being very rarely found.
(2)
Olaudah Equiano, The Life of Olaudah
Equiano the African (1789)
Their huts, which
ought to be well covered, and the place dry where they take their
little repose, are often open sheds, built in damp places; so that
when the poor creatures return tired from the toils of the field,
they contract many disorders, from being exposed to the damp air in
this uncomfortable state, while they are heated, and their pores are
open. This neglect certainly conspires with many others to cause a
decrease in the births as well as in the lives of the grown negroes.
(3)
Josiah Henson, The Life of Josiah
Henson (1849)
We lodged in log huts, and on the bare ground. Wooden
floors were an unknown luxury. In a single room were huddled, like
cattle, ten or a dozen persons, men, women, and children. All ideas
of refinement and decency were, of course, out of the question. We
had neither bedsteads, nor furniture of any description. Our beds
were collections of straw and old rags, thrown down in the corners
and boxed in with boards; a single blanket the only covering. Our
favourite way of sleeping, however, was on a plank, our heads raised
on an old jacket and our feet toasting before the smouldering fire.
The wind whistled and the rain and snow blew in through the cracks,
and the damp earth soaked in the moisture till the floor was miry
as a pig- sty. Such were our houses. In these wretched hovels were
we penned at night, and fed by day; here were the children born and
the sick - neglected.
(4)
Jacob Stroyer, My Life in the South
(1898)
Most of the cabins in the time of slavery were built so as
to contain two families; some had partitions, while others had none.
When there were no partitions each family would fit up its own part
as it could; sometimes they got old boards and nailed them up, stuffing
the cracks with rags; when they could not get boards they hung up
old clothes. When the family increased the children all slept together,
both boys and girls, until one got married; then a part of another
cabin was assigned to that one, but the rest would have to remain
with their mother and father, as in childhood, unless they could get
with some of their relatives or friends who had small families, or
unless they were sold; but of course the rules of modesty were held
in some degrees by the slaves, while it could not be expected that
they could entertain the highest degree of it, on account of their
condition. A portion of the time the young men slept in the apartment
known as the kitchen, and the young women slept in the room with their
mother and father. The two families had to use one fireplace. One
who was accustomed to the way in which the slaves lived in their cabins
could tell as soon as they entered whether they were friendly or not,
for when they did not agree the fires of the two families did not
meet on the hearth, but there was a vacancy between them, that was
a sign of disagreement.
(5)
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of
the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
There were no beds given the slaves, unless one coarse
blanket be considered such, and none but the men and women had these.
This, however, is not considered a very great privation. They find
less difficulty from the want of beds, than from the want of time
to sleep; for when their day's work in the field is done, the most
of them having their washing, mending, and cooking to do, and having
few or none of the ordinary facilities for doing either of these,
very many of their sleeping hours are consumed in preparing for the
field the coming day; and when this is done, old and young, male and
female, married and single, drop down side by side, on one common
bed - the cold, damp floor - each covering himself or herself with
their miserable blankets; and here they sleep till they are summoned
to the field by the driver's horn.
(6)
Walter Hawkins, From Slavery to Bishopric
(1891)
The
system under which he laboured forbade consideration and gave little
practical sympathy to a weary slave, and when it was time to rest,
what had the slave to sleep upon? The sleeping apartments, if they
could have been called such, had little regard for decency. Old and
young, male and female, married and single, were glad to drop down
like so many brute beasts upon the common clay floor, each covered
with his or her own blanket, their only protection from cold and exposure.
How much of rest had a slave? The night, however short, was cut off
at both ends: slaves worked late and rose early. Then part of the
night was spent in mending their scanty clothing for decency's sake,
and in cooking their food for the morrow--in fact, they were whipped
for over-sleep more than for drunkenness, a sin which the masters
rarely reproved.
(7) Austin
Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave (1857)
Our
family consisted of my father and mother - whose names were Robert
and Susan Steward - a sister, Mary, and myself. As was the usual custom,
we lived in a small cabin, built of rough boards, with a floor of
earth, and small openings in the sides of the cabin were substituted
for windows. The chimney was built of sticks and mud; the door, of
rough boards; and the whole was put together in the rudest possible
manner. As to the furniture of this rude dwelling, it was procured
by the slaves themselves, who were occasionally permitted to earn
a little money after their day's toil was done.
(8)
Mary
Prince, The History of Mary Prince,
A West Indian Slave (1831)
My new master was one of
the owners or holders of the salt ponds, and he received a certain
sum for every slave that worked upon his premises, whether they were
young or old. This sum was allowed him out of the profits arising
from the salt works. I was immediately sent to work in the salt water
with the rest of the slaves. This work was perfectly new to me. I
was given a half barrel and a shovel, and had to stand up to my knees
in the water, from four o'clock in the morning till nine, when we
were given some Indian corn boiled in water, which we were obliged
to swallow as fast as we could for fear the rain should come on and
melt the salt. We were then called again to our tasks, and worked
through the heat of the day; the sun flaming upon our heads like fire,
and raising salt blisters in those parts which were not completely
covered. Our feet and legs, from standing in the salt water for so
many hours, soon became full of dreadful boils, which eat down in
some cases to the very bone, afflicting the sufferers with great torment.
We came home at twelve; ate our corn soup, called blawly, as fast
as we could, and went back to our employment till dark at night. We
then shovelled up the salt in large heaps, and went down to the sea,
where we washed the pickle from our limbs, and cleaned the barrows
and shovels from the salt. When we returned to the house, our master
gave us each our allowance of raw Indian corn, which we pounded in
a mortar and boiled in water for our suppers.
We slept in a long shed,
divided into narrow slips, like the stalls used for cattle. Boards
fixed upon stakes driven into the ground, without mat or covering,
were our only beds. On Sundays, after we had washed the salt bags,
and done other work required of us, we went into the bush and cut
the long soft grass, of which we made trusses for our legs and feet
to rest upon, for they were so full of the salt boils that we could
get no rest lying upon the bare boards.
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