Education

    Imagine that you’re a slave in Colonial America who was found to be one of the quick learners, and you’re trying to be stopped from learning how to read and write. Your master doesn’t want you to know about how people are arguing over the expansion of slavery and that some whites think that Africans should be free. Also, your master doesn’t want you and the others to know about free slaves up north. Still, you and your allies secretly read and write under lamp at night or in the woods during the day. You read anything you can get your hands on including books and newspapers.

    Some masters’ wives and/or daughters educate many slave children at night in shadowy rooms and read by firelight. They block up the keyholes and make the room look dark to keep it secret. Some of the masters don’t like this, but others think everyone should have an education. The children of freed slaves sneak to secret schools in churches while risking their lives, too. They do this to get an education to be able to get a job. One of these schools was just discovered and had to move to a large boat. In disguise, it makes its way up and down the rivers helping slaves, who have escaped, to go north and picks up black children to educate them. Although the whites tried to stop you from learning, you were greatly educated.

Myers, Walter Dean. Now is Your Time!: The African-American Struggle for Freedom. page 40-43.New York Scholastic Inc. 1993

Salerno, Marilyn G. "Steal Away to School." Cobblestone: African-American Education: A Proud Heritage. Cobblestone Publishing Company, February, 1998.

    A regular working day in the fields for a slave was from sunrise to sunset. From a slaves point of view it was when you could see the big yellow thing until you couldn’t see it. Slaves were treated so badly it was almost as if they were farm animals, or old machinery.

    One of the main crops that slaves had to pick by hand was cotton. It was extremely difficult to do this, because there were always thorns in it. It was mostly the men who did the cotton-picking while the women helped tend to the oxen by feeding, washing, and putting those stubborn creatures in their stables.

    Slaves were very non-valuable people, and had very hard lives. We Are lucky that we live in the 20th century, and not back when those poor people suffered so intensely!

Everett, Susanne. The History of Slavery. Chartwell Books Inc. Copyright 1991.

Families

    What was family life like for slaves in the Colonies? The Africans came from a strong tradition of extended families which was torn apart at the slave auction. Mothers and their children were separated from one another. Once a girl slave became a woman, she was forced to have kids. Even at the age of twelve, many women had children just to make more slaves for the master. When the slave woman married, the master laid down a broom on the floor. The two slaves jumped over it and the master declared them husband and wife. There were no instruments, so the slaves had to make them. They took a hollowed tree trunk, and they stretched goat or sheep skin over it. That’s what family life was like for slaves in the Colonies!

Haley, Alex. Roots. New York. Doubleday. 1976.

Passive Resistance

    What is passive resistance? Passive resistance was something that slaves did either to annoy, hurt, or kill the master or the person in command. Some examples of passive resistance are sabotage, refusing to work, singing, and poisoning. Sabotage is when slaves would break their tools purposely to get out of doing their work. For example, the slaves would break a hoe and then repair it just enough to look repaired. Then the tool would break when the slave was in the fields, working. Refusing to work was when a slave would just not do anything the master told him to. Doing this often led to a severe beating. Then comes singing, a very popular way to resist. In the fields slaves would sing songs about the master, when someone was going to runaway, or just plain silly song, for enjoyment. Slaves also poisoned their master. If the slaves were really mad and really wanted their freedom, they would ask the cook, a slave, to put some poison into the masters food. A poison was, usually, something the master didn’t like or was allergic to. Passive resistance was very successful and helpful to slaves.

    What is active resistance? Active resistance is the opposite of passive resistance, and is more violent. A couple ways to resist actively are to set fires or hurt the master. At night a slave would set fire in a big pile of wood near a slaves hut, to make their master think he is insane. A slave could also have a sudden outburst, in the fields and charge at the head in command. Slaves who did that were severely punished. Active resistance was a slaves last resort  in captivity.

Lester, Julius To Be A Slave. The Dial Press Inc.: New York, 1968.

Wood, Peter H. Strange New Land. Oxford University Press, 1996.

House Slaves

    Join me while I show you what house slaves were like in colonial America. House slaves were trained to do their work from childhood. They would be away from the other slaves. They would sleep on a pallet besides the masters' bedroom. The house slave was taught to believe that being a house slave was the best thing that could become of him or her. All older housemaids wore a key ring. On it, were all the keys to the pantry , the , smokehouse , the cooling cellar, and other food storage’s. Every house slave would walk in a way so that the keys would jingle to show how, proud, important and trusted the slave was. Close to the kitchen was a large wooden building called the kitchen quarter in which the house servants ate. They also did the washing in the family and the unpleasant work such as scaling fish, cleaning and putting up pork, etc. Being a house slave was easier than being a field slave, but they had to work longer hours.

Ball, Charles. A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball,A Black Man. Pittsburg: John T. Shryrock, 1854.

Haley, Alex. Roots. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1976.

Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave. New York: E.P Dutton, 1968.