LifeasaSlave

The life of a slave is a very difficult and tragic journey. For most slaves the most constant part of their life was work. Generally slaves began their heavy labor at a extremely young age. For slaves there were many jobs on the plantations for them to do. The most common was to work in the fields picking and farming crops for hours on end. Other slaves worked as craft people, such as blacksmiths,carpenters, ect. Just as working conditions varied for slaves so did the quality of food, housing, and clothing. On plantations slave owners usually distributed food to the slaves once a week. It depended on how kind the slave owner or overseer. Slave cabins were small and in very poor conditions. There were about 10 to 12 slaves that shared or lived in a cabin or hut. The slave huts were breeding grounds for diseases that were responsible for killing hundreds of slaves. If a slave did not follow an order than their most common punishment to befall them would be whipping. A master or an overseer would force a slave to bend over or lie down. Then the slave would be repeatedly beaten with a whip. It was not unusual for a master to beat a slave to death. Sometimes when slaves could no longer stand their inhumane treatment they decided to run away. Slaves ran away for a variety of reasons. Many ran away to because of the terrible brutality. Others ran away because of a particular unfair punishment. For a slave to run away was a very dangerous journey. Most escaped slaves has a money reward for anybody to catch them. Overall slavery was a terrible stain upon the history of our Nation and something we all try to forget.**
 * Life as a slave



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