Plantation Life After Slavery

What is a plantation?

plan·ta·tion

noun.

an estate on which crops such as coffee, sugar, and tobacco are cultivated by resident labor.

Slaves

When enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas, they were often alone, separated from their family and community, unable to communicate with those around them. By 1830 slavery was primarily located in the South, where it existed in many different forms. African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, inside homes, out in the fields, and in industry and transportation.Though slavery had such a wide variety of faces, the underlying concepts were always the same. Slaves were considered property, and they were property because they were black. Their status as property was enforced by violence -- actual or threatened. People, black and white, lived together within these parameters, and their lives together took many forms

Life on the Plantations

Once sold at auction the slaves were taken to their new home - the Plantation. The owners branded the slaves with"estate marks " to show which plantation they belonged to and to make it easier to identify runaway slaves. These same marks were used on cattle, barrels and other goods.

New slaves took a long time to become used to plantation life and many failed to survive long enough to become used to their new living conditions and climate. Diseases like dysentery [dis-uhn-ter-ee] and pneumonia killed many in the West Indies sugar plantations. Huts built by the plantation owners for their slaves were flimsy protection against the cold winds of winter.

Food was often dull and lacked nourishment. Meat was a rarity ; owners decided it was 'bad for slaves'. Salt Herrings, sent from England instead of meat, had often turned rotten before they arrived. On some plantations slave families were given small gardens where they were expected to grow yams

popular among plantation owners.

 and vegetables and raise pigs and poultry.
Often, slaves were given new names, although many hated giving up their African names. 

How does this connect to a Lesson Before Dying?

Some of the book was set a plantation. Grant wanted to get away from the plantation life and I think all the people that worked on a plantation want to to leave also.Like they didn't want to feel trapped and worthless anymore.

work citation:          "Plantation Life." N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014"Life on the Plantations." Life on the Plantations. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014