Growing up in slavery. (American History).

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Declaration of Independence

Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It called for the liberty and equality of all people. But the document did not abolish slavery. That cruel system endured in the South until the Civil War ended, in 1865.

What was it like to grow up in slavery? Millions of African-American children were separated from their families, forced to pick cotton on vast plantations, and denied access to adequate food, homes, schools, and churches. Many were kidnapped from Africa; others were born here. All were forced to live under a barbaric system.

They worked for no pay and could be bought, sold, beaten, or killed. But in the eyes of their parents, they were children like any others, who needed love and protection. Although enslaved parents had little say in their children's fate, they helped their children learn many important survival skills.

Here is how five African-Americans described growing up in slavery.

I Discovered the Difference

Lunsford Lane grew up in the early 1800s on a plantation near Raleigh, North Carolina. He didn't know hardship until he went to work.

"When I began to work, I discovered the difference between myself and my master's white children. They began to order me about, and were told to do so by my master and mistress. I found, too, that they had learned to read, while I was not permitted to have a book in my hand. To be in possession of anything written or printed was regarded as an offense. And then there was the fear that I might be sold away from those who were dear to me and conveyed to the far South....

"My friends were not numerous; but ... they were dear; and the thought that I might be separated from them forever was like that of having the heart wrenched from its socket." (1)

He Was the Meanest Man

Born in 1839 in Jackson Parish, Louisiana, Alice Alexander tells about a cruel overseer (manager) on the plantation where she grew up.

"We had an overseer an' my mother said he was the meanest man on earth. He'd jest go out in de fields and beat dem [slaves], an' my mother tole me one day he come out in de field beatin' her sister an' she jumped on 'im an' nelly beat 'im half to death an' ole [Master] come up jest in time to see it all an' fired dat overseer. Said he diden want no man working fer 'im dat a woman could whip." (2)

I Was Kidnapped!

Half American Indian, half black, James Green was born a slave, then became a "free boy." He was later kidnapped and sold in a Virginia slave market to a Texas ranchman. Here he describes the kidnapping.

"My mother was owned by John Williams of Petersburg, Virginia. I came born to her on a plantation, and den my father went about getting me free. He was a full-blooded Indian, and had done some big favor for a big man high up in de courts, and by and by Mr. Williams comes to my mother and says I am a 'free boy.' I never knowd what was mixed up in it, but Mr. Williams used to laugh and call me 'free boy, Jim.' I never had to do much work for nobody but my mother.

"Then, one day. . . I was plain' [playing] around de house, Mr. Williams comes up and says:

'Delia, will you let Jim walk down the street with me?'

'All right, Moster [Master],' says my mother. 'And, Jim, you be a good boy.'

"Dat was de last time I ever heard my mother speak, or ever see her. We walks down where de houses grows close together, and pretty soon we comes to de slave market. I ain't ever seed one before and didn't knowd what it was. Mr. Williams say to me to get up on de block. It was about [three feet] high. I gets up like I was told. As soon as I stood straight I got a funny feelin'. I knows somehow what was happenin'. But I just stood there. In a few minutes they told me to get down and turned me over to a man named John Pinchback... my new master." (3)

A Board Wide Enough To Sleep On

Francis Henderson was 19 when he escaped from a slave plantation near Washington, D.C., in 1841. Here he describes life on a typical plantation.

"Our houses were but log huts--the tops partly open--ground floor--[and] rain would come through.... My bed and bedstead consisted of a board wide enough to sleep on--one end on a stool, the other placed near the fire....

"Many a time I have gone along eating a piece of bread and meat, or herring (small fish) broiled on the coals--I never sat down at a table to eat except at harvest time, all the time I was a slave. In harvest time, the cooking is done at the great house, as the hands they have are wanted in the field. This was more like people, and we liked it, for we sat down then at meals. In the summer we had one pair of linen trousers given us--nothing else; every fall, one pair of woolen pantaloons (pants with wide legs), one woolen jacket, and two cotton shirts." (4)

We Are Freein' You

Born in Arkansas, Matilda Hatchett lived on a plantation in South Carolina. Here she describes the arrival of Union soldiers at the end of the Civil War.

"I saw the soldiers when they come through our place. The first start of us noticin' them was this. I was ... up to the white folks' house.... The bridge was half a mile from our house and the Yankee army [Union soldiers from the North] hadn't near finished crossing it when the head of it reached us....

"Ma got scairt and went to bed. Dreckly the lieutenant come on down there and said, 'Auntie, get up from there. We ain't a goin' to do you no hurt. We're after helpin' you. We are freein' you. Aunt Dinah, you can do as you please now. You're free.'" (5)

Sources:

(1.) The Narrative of Lunsford Lane (Boston, 1842)

(2.) "Been Here So Long," American Slave Narratives, The Federal Writers Project, Works Progress Administration 

(3.) "Been Here So Long," American Slave Narratives

(4.) A North-Side View of Slavery by Benjamin Drew (Boston, 1856)

(5.) "Been Here So Long," American Slave Narratives

Web: http://newdeal.feri.org/asn/

RELATED ARTICLE: Your Turn

Think About It

1. Describe life as a slave child in the mid-1800s.

2. Do you think there are children treated similarly today? Explain.