Life in the Slave Plantations

The State of North Carolina runs a reconstructed slave plantation at Somerset Place, about 25 miles from where we were staying. Entry is free, and guides take conducted tours explaining the plantation under the slavery regime. In 1865 slavery was abolished when the south lost the Civil War, and the slaves were freed. For most, their new liberty brought immediate problems as the southern economy had been practically destroyed by the war so there was little work, and large numbers migrated north.

This is Josiah Collins’ house, embellished over the years by sucessive generations. He started the plantation in 1785 with partners whom he later bought out. The partnership bought 100,000 acres of swampy land and with a workforce of 200 turned it into a prosperous plantation by 1790. 167 out of the 200 were slaves, and of these 54 died in those first 5 years. Work was long and hard, as the table of days and hours worked in later years shows.

They did not work on Sundays and festivals, but on these days they were required to attend church where the sermons reinforced the preordained nature of their miserable lot, but their rewards would be generously reaped in Heaven. There can be few slaves taken in by this misrepresentation of Christian values because runaways were common and even full-scale revolts occasionally occurred.

These houses are reconstructions of the slave quarters. They don’t look too bad as dwellings, until it’s realised that 4 families lived in each house, one family in each of the 4 rooms, maybe 25 or more people altogether. The single room houses held up to 15 souls. Josiah Collins and his descendants weren’t being deliberately repressive, simply providing the minimum comforts and food necessary to achieve the best economic return from their slaves in the same way you would apply principles of good animal husbandry. The Collins’ even had a hospital on site to ensure the better functioning of their “assets”. Of course, some owners treated their slaves particularly harshly because they could get away with it since slaves had no rights in law.
Slavery was a dehumanising experience for those individuals unfortunate enough to either be born into or be kidnapped into it. Pictures from the early days of photography are rare, especially of the underprivileged classes. The photo underneath is of a couple born into slavery on the Collins’ plantation, probably taken on their wedding day and almost certainly after the northern victory, so they were free citizens (just). They pose with great dignity.