Beginnings
Beginning in the 17th century when tobacco was in high demand and labor was hard to find, a Dutch ship filled with African slaves was the solution to the problem. After a while tobacco prices started fluctuating and the need for slaves decreased until Eli Whitney decided to invent the cotton gin in 1793. Cotton replaced tobacco as the South’s main way of making money and the need for more slaves increased and became very popular.
The issue of whether or not having slaves was morally wrong was brought up, but many Southerners defended the institution by saying slaves were incapable of taking care of themselves and this was a way for them to be provided for. The institution of slavery was anything but moral. The slaves working the field most likely worked as long as sixteen hours a day during harvest doing backbreaking work. Slaves were organized into gangs of about twenty-five people with a slave driver over seeing them. If a task was incomplete or not done to the slave drivers liking the slaves would be punished, which usually meant a whipping or they were given less food.
The issue of whether or not having slaves was morally wrong was brought up, but many Southerners defended the institution by saying slaves were incapable of taking care of themselves and this was a way for them to be provided for. The institution of slavery was anything but moral. The slaves working the field most likely worked as long as sixteen hours a day during harvest doing backbreaking work. Slaves were organized into gangs of about twenty-five people with a slave driver over seeing them. If a task was incomplete or not done to the slave drivers liking the slaves would be punished, which usually meant a whipping or they were given less food.
Slaves were allowed by their masters to get married because they thought the slaves would be less likely to run away, but this was not a legal marriage, which meant the slave owners could sell the slaves wives or children to other plantations. Religion was thought of in the same way as marriage as a way to control the slaves. Slaves would assemble together for a service held by their slave masters where they would hear the same sort of sermon time and time again. The sermon was usually about being obedient to your master, not stealing from your master, and not lying to your master. But that wasn’t enough for the slaves, they would hold their own services in secret consisting of sermons that were about hope and freedom and never giving up. The sermons were usually based off of Moses and “the promise land”. They would also sing songs, which became known as “Negro spirituals”. Many of the slaves were not even moral people but they were religious nonetheless. Many times their religion included African and tribal rituals passed on from their ancestors.