AMERICAN COLLEGE OF HISTORY AND LEGAL STUDIES
Salem, N.H.

Contact: Maureen Mooney Associate Dean (603) 458-5145, X-11

Editors: The following article may be of value to you for publication during Black History Month

SLAVES TOILED LONG HOURS IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH

The lot of slaves in the antebellum South apparently varied widely so that "typical" slave families could not really be said to exist, new scholarship suggests. One thing many slaves had in common, however, were the long hours of hard work forced on them by their masters.

A just published work examining three different southern areas by historian Damian Alan Pargas reveal major differences in the lives of slaves and of their treatment by slave owners.

Pargas, an assistant professor of American History and American Studies at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, wrote "The Quarters and the Fields: Slave Families in the Non-Cotton South," published by the University Press of Florida at Gainesville. His book was reviewed for the "Virginia Magazine of History & Biography" by Michael Chesson, Founding Professor of History at the American College of History and Legal Studies, Salem, N.H.

Chesson writes that in St. James Parish, north of New Orleans, La., for example, slaves commonly put in at least a 12-hour day, toiling from dawn to dark in an unhealthy environment to grow the sugar cane crop. Worse, during the grinding season after harvest the slaves worked 18-hour days, long into the night by the light of torches and lanterns, some of them inside buildings used for turning raw sugar cane into syrup that would eventually granulate into table sugar. "It was no picnic," Chesson said. Because of the grueling work, planters sought robust male slaves so that the gender ratio was always skewed and the population failed to reproduce naturally. In his review, Chesson writes that sugar plantation slaves "had the least amount of free time but achieved moderate, family-based economies."

In Fairfax County, Va., slaves were forced "into frantic multitasking" in the fields, raising grains and potatoes, and also worked to produce meat and dairy products. Not needing surplus slaves, blacks were sold in enormous numbers so that "perhaps one in three first slave unions were broken (and) as many as one in five children were separated from both parents," Chesson writes.

And in the Georgetown District of low-country South Carolina, where slaves comprised at least 85% of the population during the antebellum era, the huge rice plantations resembled a Caribbean, rather than an American, culture. "The grueling work continued throughout the winter, but it was done on the task system," Chesson writes in his review of the Pargas book. "Families worked for themselves, engaged in internal production, and even accumulated property. They had more free time than others in the south. They had a degree of self-sufficiency virtually unknown elsewhere," he noted.

The historian adds, "The sex ratio was relatively balanced throughout the era; partners were widely available. Slave women were not at risk; there were very few mulattoes, only 0.5% of the slave population in 1850, against Fairfax (County, Va.)'s 22%. Georgetown was a net importer of slaves; few were ever sold (and) most families enjoyed relative peace and stability."

One aspect of the lives of the slaves in all three communities was strenuous labor. Or as the Urban League's Executive Director Whitney Young reminded the public a century after the Civil War, "We built the South."

In a related article published in the "Dictionary of Virginia Biography," historian Chesson said the lives of slave traders were enriched by the trade just as were those of plantation owners. Examining the career of Richard Henry Dickinson, a Richmond, Va., auctioneer "and one of the largest slave traders in the antebellum south," Chesson said that in 1860 his holdings included---besides 19 slaves---$70,000 in real estate and $80,000 in personal property, making him a wealthy man in that era. Dickinson may have sold as many as 2,000 slaves annually and in 1856 the slave trader said his sales grossed $2 million, which, at 2.5 percent commission, would have put a profit of $50,000 into his pocket.

However, Chesson cautions, "Antebellum editors, Richmond boosters, and defenders of slavery, the slave trade, and the south may well have exaggerated the sales and profits of firms. It was certainly in the interest of Dickinson...to do so. Academic historians may accept such claims at face value, because they support arguments for the significance and economic importance of the slave trade, not to mention its political implications in the 1850s. Some scholars may also use these figures to emphasize the enormity of the horror that was American slavery, just as the abolitionists did."

The American College of History and Legal Studies was created by the Massachusetts School of Law. The ACHLS is an affordable "completion" college offering the junior and senior years of undergraduate study toward a bachelor's degree in history and legal studies. All classes exclusively use the discussion (not lecture) method of teaching. ACHLS offers an "Early Admission to Law School" program whereby qualified students can combine their senior year of college with their first year of law school at the Massachusetts School of Law. To schedule a visit, request a catalog, or apply, visit www.achls.org, email info@achls.org or call 603.458.5145. #

(Further Information: Maureen C. Mooney, Associate Dean, The American College of History and Legal Studies, 1 Stiles Road, Suite 104, Salem, New Hampshire, 03079, Telephone: 603.458.5145 ext. 11, Facsimile: 603.458.2478, E-mail: mooney@achls.org, Web: www.achls.org, or Sherwood Ross, media consultant to ACHLS, sherwoodross10@gmail.com)