Hidden History: Life in the Slave South

Episode 12: Life in the Slave South

A New History of the American South

Dr Edward Ayers (2018)

Film Review

Ayers begins this lecture by examining how depleted soils caused Virginia and South Carolina to lose at least half of their population (to Western territories) in the early 18000s. During this period, the South of this period was a broad mix of English, French, Spanish, Scotch-Irish, African, Caribbean and Native American cultures. One-third of residents of Southern cities were immigrants. As in the north, the majority were poor Irish laborers, lived in slums and were often unemployed or underemployed. By 1860, more than 1/3 of the free Black population lived in cities or towns – only 15% of whites lived in cities or towns. Most had earned their freedom during the brief period of manumissions* between 1790 and 1810.

Most of this presentation explores the variety of lifestyles slaves experienced prior to emancipation. In addition to working in cotton fields, they also produced wheat, rice, corn, sugar and tobacco. Some cared for livestock and race horses, while others worked as carpenters, blacksmiths, stevedores** and ship builders. Three-quarters of all slaves worked mainly in the fields. During busy periods (ie harvests) even domestic slaves did so. Most slaves had Sundays free for domestic chores and hunting.

Major cities such as Richmond, Lynchburg and Petersburg employed slaves  for non-farm work, including iron foundries and tobacco and flour mills. In Mobile, Charleston and Alabama slaves worked on the docks and in shops. The largest slaveholders in cities were businesses, with some owning more than 50.

In Richmond, at least 54 corporations also owned at least 10 slaves. Virginia Central Railroad employed 275 slaves, hired by the day from their masters. Many cities hired slaves for public works. In cities, slaves had somewhat more freedom because they could choose where to live and who to associate with after work.

One-quarter of all slaves belonged to families owning fewer than nine slaves, 1/4 lived on the 3% of plantations with more than 50 slaves and 1/2 lived on holdings with 10-49 slaves. In cities 40-50% of families owned at least one slave, mainly as domestic servants.

During this period, slave trading (one of the South’s most lucrative vocations) accounted for 15% of the southern economy. Following Britain’s ban on the North Atlantic slave trade in 1807, roughly two million slaves were traded domestically within the US. Two-thirds of these trades occurred to provide slaves in new Western territories. Slavery provided the early South an extremely flexible workforce. Any given slave stood a 30% chance of being sold to a new plantation during their life time.

Other entities that profited from domestic slave trading were the factorage houses that drew up the titles (slaves were regarded as property) and took a commission on every trade; the agencies that transported, housed, clothed, fed and arranged medical care during the 1-3 months it took to transfer them to new owners; the insurance companies that insured their lives; the banks that extended loans to buy new slaves and the local jails that charged a fee to house slaves awaiting transfer.

It was common for slave traders to steal slaves, buy free Black people convicted of crimes or kidnap free Black people and sell them into slavery.

Although US slaves were fed better and lived longer than Caribbean and South American slaves, they were whipped, branded, shackled, and locked up in sweltering quarters for minor infraction. 1/3 of the infants born into slavery died prior to age one.

*Manumission refers to the act of freeing slaves by their owners.

**A stevedore is a dockworker employed to load and unload ships.

Video can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/life-slave-south

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