2015

Julian from Shirley Plantation

“African Americans were slaves. A few were freed. 52 percent of people slaves. Economy was based on slaves. Slaves farmed tobacco. There were worms on the tobacco that they had to kill and they didn’t have pesticides. Woke up very early. Lived in very small buildings. Couldn’t visit people unless they got a special note from their master. If the owner got in to finance troubles, he could sell one of his slaves and they would get separated from their master. Slaves could be wedding gifts. They were worked to death. They slept where they worked, kitchens, on the dirt floors. Not taught as well as white men. When slaves were taught skills, they were more valuable because they were trained. This was a problem form white men because it took some of their jobs, so they started training them less. People wanted you to work very hard for very little money. Middle classed white people couldn’t afford slaves. People tried to enslave the natives. It didn’t work because the natives weren’t used to the diseases of the Europeans. In the Indian culture, the women were the field workers and the men hunted and gathered. If the natives ran away, they wouldn’t be able to find them because the natives knew the land. Slaves could steal food easily because they were the first to see it. The amount of people in slave quarters depended on how many people worked on the plantation. Masters couldn’t hurt their slave too much because then they couldn’t work, and they wasted their money. They didn’t want to hurt their slaves too much.”