Slave conditions

[subdjoe]

A few threads got me to reading more of Born Into Slavery, The Slave Narratives.  One thing that comes up time and again in describing the living conditions is something like 'We had to chink up the holes in the cabin walls with dirt."  Well, hells bells!  My dad was born in 1921 in back woods KY.  And they had to "chink up the holes in the cabin walls with dirt."  Like as not 80% of the population of the south in the States War era had to do that. And not a few in the north, either.  To a city dweller that might seem the depths of degredaton, but it was a common practice.

Or "We had to carry water from the well a quarter mile away."  They would have had to do that anyway, slave or free, black or white.  A lot of the every day chores, and basic work for that matter, that would have to be done to survive somehow gets spun into something different because they had to do is as a slave. 

I read somewhere that Southern society was more circular than pyrimidal.  Everyone had someone that they could look at and say, Thank God, I'm better off than they are. And something that they could work towards. 

[Ga.windbreak]

Joe I think you are right on all counts. Its amazing to me how people today think that the thinking of 150 years ago was bad/wrong just because it was different than that of today.

Every man is a man of his times, they were no different and neither are we. I truly wonder what people will say of us 150 years from now. Will we be as misjudged as we misjudge our elders? I expect so, lord knows what they'll say about our Southeast Asian war games, my guess is that we'll look pretty stupid to them.

Growing up I was taught to be ashamed of my birthright because of slavery and its mistreatment of Blacks. Of how the morally right Northerners freed the slave and we were bad while they were good. No wonder that race relations have a hard time getting better or that we in the South have an ingrown distrust of the North and the Government.

Only when men can learn the truth and understand both the good and bad of both sides will we no longer need this Forum. Name calling and closed minds will only slow down the exit out of here. IMHO.

[jamesrus]

Im not sure if im old enough for some of you guys to believe me when i say, i know what living in a town like that is like. Im only 36 but the small town i grew up in has been stuck in time for a while. When i was a kid (not so long ago) i remember riding my bike all over town at all hours of the night. Kids were free to roam, and the grown ups looked out for them all as if they were their own. They tended to scraped knees, wasp stings, and hungry bellies just like we were their own. THe screen doors were all unlocked and the windows had box fans in them during the summer nights. Most mens word was taken for the Gospel truth....because if they lied, they soon became shunned by the population.  No one ws afraid to stop and pick up someone walking along the road. If a family was in need everyone pitched in to help whether it was for food, fixin a car, or even repairing a roof. The old folks were respected and reveered. The town would get together for a cemetary cleanup, or a fund raiser for the fire department. Rivals in the local elections were cordial to each other and didnt believe in flinging the poo. I have an old colored lady who still calls me her Baby, because she looked after me when i was little, just like she did for my father and his siblings. She loved us unconditionally just like her own children. Oh and did i say everyone was related in one way or another, it might be through two marriages but they were still cousins.  I remember street dances, and halloween carnivals.....The Art and Folk Festival..........and most of all the tent revivals...Where i would be scared out of my wits by the fire and brimstone preachers shouting at the top of their lungs.  Ahhh the simpler times, when everything was cut and dried. I wish the town could stay the way it was forever, but alas...progress calls, if you can call it that.


Jamesrus

Towboater extreeme


This actually was supposed to go under another area but when i posted it,, it went here for some reaason.

[Arier Blut]

Or "We had to carry water from the well a quarter mile away."  They would have had to do that anyway, slave or free, black or white.  A lot of the every day chores, and basic work for that matter, that would have to be done to survive somehow gets spun into something different because they had to do is as a slave.  

A lot of folks didn't have wells and had to go to the creek. With out houses being used, they knew to keep the wells out of danger of contamination.

 Every major nation throughout history I can think of had slavery. The difference being the other nations tended to eradicate their slaves when they outlived their usefulness.

[subdjoe]

Jamesrus, sounds like you had a pretty good childhood.  And like one of those towns where if you screwed up and got caught doing something stupid/illegal the person who caught you would warm your backside, then march you home, tell your folks, and you would get another dose.  If the cop caught you, you got a talking to by him, a ride home in the cruiser, and a lecture in front of your folks about what would happen if the cop caught you again.  And then your folks would give you another lesson.  I'm 52, and grew up in a town kind of like that in San Diego county.  I don't think it broke 10,000 until I was in my mid-teens.  It wasn't unusual to see a pack of boys on their bikes, or walking,  with fishing poles and/or rifles.  Cops would wave.  Or, if they did stop, it was with a friendly warning to be safe and maybe look at a new rifle a kid had. 

@ Arier - I was thinking about the 'town well' or 'town pump' if by some chance they lived close enough to the town to take advantage of it.   

[Arier Blut]

Yes sir, that struck my mind as well. There were still some community wells into the late 90's here. They had converted them to electric and plumbing to feed the houses. There were also areas that did not have electricity or running water here until the 1960's. A few houses still do not.

I am not at all condoning the murder of slaves, but truth be told they had it better here than virtually any other nation. In no other country will anyone hear the outcry of slaves generations past. Nor would they put up with it. Actually slavery is still rampant in the world today. Slavery of the black race has not been in America in over 12 generations. Yet most act as if it were in the last generation. I will not deny that slaves have been oppressed. Yet with the laws on the books today they have a much better chance of obtaining a job than I, if they simply have the initiative. Most still blame slavery as the reason why they are kept down. Truly it is the mentality of the slave diaries that hold them back.