Were the lives of slaves on the plantation entirely different from the lives of slaves in southern cities?

Introduction

Slavery was a cultural , political and economic reality of USA in the 17th and 18th century , especially of the southern states where slaves were necessary for large scale plantation farms , particularly the cotton farms that required considerable manual efforts . Slaves indeed provided cheapest form of labor and almost all of the southern states kept large number of slaves (Jewett and Allen , 2004 . Typically Slaves were transported to America from west coast of Africa and were sold to the slavers , or the people who dealt in buying and selling of the slaves

. A cruel trip called `middle passage ' was to be covered by the slaves where they were chained from the holds of the ship for months together . Many slaves died of dysentery , scurvy and unhygienic conditions of the travel . For the fear of revolt against the owners , slaves were not allowed to talk or sing and were punished severely for the same . Little food and continuous fatigue of work forced many to death of starvation (Jewett and Allen , 2004 . The subsequent lives of slaves dependent upon whether they were sold to plantations or employed in cities . This looks into the various aspects of lives of slaves in plantations and cities of southern USA and compares both of them in to complete the picture of slave life in USA in 17th and 18th century

Slave life in Plantation

On reaching America many slaves were sold on board ship at plantation wharfs of prospective buyers . As many of the slaves had a already existing knowledge of agriculture such as production of rice and growing of vegetable Okra and also weaving of baskets to the Southern part (Jewett and Allen , 2004 . Owing a slave was considered a profitable option in the south as it provided a security from uncertainty of economy market . Slavery became the indicator of individual 's personal wealth and property and used in labor or not slaves were considered as a valuable property and on many occasions were liquefied for debts (Jewett and Allen , 2004 . But the majority of slaves were employed in the cultivation of profitable crop of tobacco and during the plantation time even the artisans were supposed to work on the field . The black women were concerned mostly with household activities of sewing , cleaning bearing upbringing of children (Perlo , 1996

On a typical large plantation , the domestic establishment included a cook or cooks , nurse , seamstress , coachmen , housemaids and some-times additional nursemaids , footmen , or chambermaids , while the field establishment contained workers , headworkers and supervisors . However all the slaves did not share the same status , favor and position on the plantations , neither their life had same flow . For example , the house servant stood at the top in the slave hierarchy his life being more pleasant and his work being more agreeable than those of the field workers . House servants enjoyed the same food as their white masters were provided with clothes of the latest style and of good material and usually spoke correct English and were...