Source: “Classroom Handouts.” Gilder Lehrman History Online. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2001.

<http://www.gliah.uh.edu/historyonline/us16.cfm>

Reading1:

An hour before day light the horn is blown. Then the slaves arouse, prepare their

breakfast, fill a gourd with water, in another deposit their dinner of cold bacon and

corn cake, and hurry to the field again. It is an offense invariably followed by a

flogging, to be found at the quarters after daybreak....

The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning,

and, with the exception of ten or fifteen minutes, which is given them at noon to

swallow their allowance of cold bacon, they are not permitted to be a moment idle

until it is too dark to see, and when the moon is full, they often times labor till the

middle of the night. They do not dare to stop even at dinner time, nor return to the

quarters, however late it be, until the order to halt is given by the driver....

Finally, at a late hour, they reach the quarters, sleepy and overcome with the long

day's toil. All that is allowed them is corn and bacon, which is given out at the

corn-crib and smoke-house every Sunday morning. Each one receives, as his weekly

allowance, three and a half pounds of bacon, and corn enough to make a peck of meal.

That is all.

Solomon Northrup

Reading 2:

The laborers begin work at six o'clock in the morning, have an hour's rest at nine for

breakfast, and many have finished their assigned task by two o'clock, all of them by

three o'clock. In summer, they divide their work differently, going to bed in the middle

of the day, then rising to finish their task, and afterward spending a great part of the

night in chatting, merry-making, preaching, and psalm-singing....

The laborers are allowed Indian meal, rice, and milk, and occasionally pork and soup.

As their rations are more than they can eat, they either return part of it at the end of

the week, or they keep it to feed their fowls, which they usually sell, as well as their

eggs, for cash, to buy molasses, tobacco, and other luxuries....

The sight of the whip was painful to me as a mark of degradation, reminding me that

the lower orders of slaves are kept to their work by mere bodily fear, and that their

treatment must depend on the individual character of the owner or overseer.

Sir Charles Lyell

Reading 3:

The Negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people

in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the

comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they

are oppressed neither by care nor labor. The women do little hard work, and are

protected from the despotism of their husbands by their masters. The Negro men and

stout boys work, on the average, in good weather, not more than nine hours a

day....Besides they have their Sabbaths and holidays.

The free laborer must work or starve. He is more of a slave than the Negro, because

he works longer and harder for less allowance than the slave, and has no holiday,

because the cares of life with him begin when its labor end. He has no liberty, and not

a single right.

George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All or Slaves Without Masters, 1857

Reading 4:

On the 12th of May, 1828, I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly

appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke

he had borne for the sins of Men, and that I should take it on and fight against the

Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last

should be first.

Question: Do you not find yourself mistaken now?

Answer: Was not Christ crucified?

Since 1830, I had been living with Mr. Joseph Travis, who was a kind master who had

placed great trust in me. On Saturday evening, August 20th [1831] we decided to

meet the next day for a meal and to work out our plan of attack....It was quickly

agreed we should start at home (Mr. J. Travis') on that night.

I took my station in the rear, and, as it was my object to carry terror and destruction

wherever we went, I placed fifteen or twenty of the best armed and most to be relied

on in front, who generally approached the houses as fast as their horses could run.

This was for two purposes--to prevent their escape and strike terror to the

inhabitants.

Confessions of Nat Turner, 1831