The Culture of Slavery on the Old Trace

Page under development

If you have suggestions let us know, please e-mail

The information on this page is from Travel, Trade, and Travail: Slavery on the Old Natchez Trace
Kelly Obernuefemann and Lynnell Thomas
Eastern National for Natchez Trace Parkway 2001

 

Women often moved from household to field chores, depending on the season.

NPS

Every Situation Was Unique - For Better or Worse

No doubt, the worse of situations occurred; maybe some too evil that we cannot imagine. And surely some enslaved people found themselves in very livable situations. Not to lessen the offensiveness of enslaving another person, this page will aim toward presenting an abstract median, if there is such a thing.

Although all black people in the antebellum South were not enslaved, the vast majority of them were forced into servitude-dislocated from their homelands in Africa and the New World, separated from their families, and denied equality and respect through legislation, custom, and the temperament of their owners. Despite the obstacles, they were able to form a kinship network centered within the plantation community, and many strove to maintain a nuclear family while faced with forced separations.

There was no one experience. Many factors influenced how an enslaved person would be treated: Did the enslaved work in the house or in the fields, in the city or in the country? How many enslaved people did the enslaver own? Was the enslaver having a profitable year? How often was the enslaver at home? Was the enslaver kind or cruel? How much alcohol did the enslaver consume?

Mount Locust

The situation at Mount Locust plantation was somewhat different than other plantations in the area, to the point where the enslaved people were nicknamed "The Chamberlain Free Slaves" because they were given the freedom to come and go and visit other area plantations.

 

Enslaved coopers building hogshead casks or barrels. One hammers on metal rings around staves while the other cuts shingles to be formed into staves using a froe and mallet.

NPS HFC

Basic Life

Although some enslaved people escaped the violent aspects of life, none escaped the drudgery of work on the plantation. Once an enslaved person arrived at their destinations in Mississippi, they were trained to do specific occupations in the operation of the plantations. Newspaper advertisements confirm that enslaved people were sold and hired to perform very specialized tasks; plantations needed carpenters, black­smiths, coopers, cobblers, and weavers. Not only was forced labor more tightly regulated, but every aspect of the enslaved lives was scrutinized.

Records of daily lives are contained in logs and account books. Enslavers and overseers frequently kept daily journals which included the smallest details of operating a plantation . Entries pertaining to the weather; hiring of overseers, procuring enslaved people; accounts; sales of goods; sales of the enslaved; passes written for travel; deaths, births, and burials; errands; and labor tasks, fill these books. Logs from plantations along and near the Trace provide a view of how enslaved people were managed, as well as how the enslaved people managed to make a place for themselves apart from the injustice and humiliation of the slave system.

Work System
Cotton plantations usually employed a gang system of slave work rather than a task system, which was usually employed on rice and sugar plantations. Work was done by "gangs," or groups of enslaved people, rather than individuals on land holdings with large enslaved slave forces. In general, a farmer had to have fourteen or more enslaved people to organize them into gangs.Unlike one enslaved person assigned a task, a gang did not stop for the day when his work was completed. Gangs stopped their work when the overseer or driver decided enough work had been completed.

In the hottest times of the day, between 12 and 3pm, slaves were often given a break from the heat. Monetary incentives were sometimes given to increase production. An average of 100 pounds of cotton a day was picked by each person. One person produced an average of five to seven bales or 2,000 to 2,800 pounds of cotton each season.

 

Enslaved men and women met under many circumstances.

HFC NPS

Establishing a Home

It's hard to imagine what it would be like if a spouse, child, or best friend could be sold at any moment. Some enslaved people lived in tenuous situations. Others lived more stable lives. When the Chamberlains were undergoing a harsh year after a cotton failure, TJ Chamberlain begged his mother to sell or rent out their enslaved staff. She refused.

Elsewhere, conditions were more harsh. Between 1864-1865, in Mississippi, 25-35% of the registered marriages involved someone who had been forcibly separated by an enslaver.

Marriage

Marriage was permitted, and even encouraged at some plantations. One marriage at the Melrose estate was documented in a letter, by plantation owner Mary Louisa McMurran. She threw in a jab at Mrs. Stowe (no doubt Harriet Beecher Stowe), whose opinion, McMurran did not appreciate. The married couple's friends were from nearby Monmouth plantation, including Viola who was a bridesmaid.

First, we were preparing for the marriage of two of your young servants--two we have reared and trained in the family--the children of old and favourite servants. They were married last Thursday, in our presence, and behaved extremely well with perfect dignity and propriety. They then retired and passed the evening with some invited friends, and had a fine supper, as happy and merry a company as one would wish to see. Would Mrs. Stowe could have viewed the scene, perhaps it might have changed some of her erroneous opinions.
August 4, 1856

A small number of enslaved people were married in churches. Most were married on the plantations. If they were married by a White clergyman, they were permitted to attend worship at the White churches as long as they did not sit with the White church members.

Family

Families formed in the Lower South were less at risk of forced separation than those of the Upper South because of the pattern of the slave trade that brought enslaved people from north and east to south and west. The enslaved people in the Lower South were in much greater demand. However, they could still be separated through local sales and gift-transfer, which usually occurred at the time of the enslaver's death. Family members separated by local sale or gift-transfer were sometimes able to visit each other if living on neighboring plantations.

In cruel situations, women who produced children were considered to have more monetary value because they added "stock" to the plantation to become workers to be sold.

Keeping Traditions Alive

Despite the often squalid appearance, the homes of the enslaved were places where the enslaved could created their own culture and keep traditions alive.

Throughout the South, enslaved people on neighboring plantations interacted with one another in a network of communities. They communicated across short distances in a variety of ways. The drum was often used to send messages. In less covert instances, enslaved people were given passes to visit each other on Sundays, and sometimes they encountered one another while running errands for their enslavers.

Through these encounters, African-based cultural traditions and beliefs were maintained and disseminated to other enslaved people. For example, the terms of address taught to young people, included "aunt" and "uncle" when referring to older blacks. This was a form of respect that was shared from plantation to plantation.