Plantation owner often hired overseers to manage the slaves in the fields.An overseer could whip a slave for many reasons not working hard enough,for showing up late to the fields,or trying torun away.Men, Women, and even children could fall victim to an overseer’s cruel punishment.
Our folks had get up at four o’ clock in the morning and feed the stock first.By the it was light enough to see they had to be in the fields where they hoed the cotton and the corn as well as the other crops.Between ten and elven o’ clock everybody left the field and went to the house where they worked until it was to dark to see.On the southern plantations, a group of slave cabins was usually set apart from the owners “big house”. One family typically lived in each small wooden cabin. Most cabins were only one or two rooms,with leaky roofs,drafty walls,and dirt floors.Despite the conditions,slaves found privacy and community within the slave quarters.
it was hard beig a slave and I, Jeremy lived in kentucky where I worked in the fields.
I did not like it there because I was beat.Then I finaly decided to run away from those pour treating people. I knew i had to go soon sense they they were meaner then usual. The day I was going to run away I was working in the fields and then I ran into the woods.I didn’t know if I was going to get caught so I baried myself with leafs and thats where I stayed until the morning.In the morning I knew I was going to get caught if I didn’t leave Kentucky so I did. When I was walking this person told me to come with him. I wondered if he was working for my owner and out to get me but then I found out that he was also a slave.He took me to a place called the “underground railroad”. I asked him how he knew I was a slave he said I was on the newspaper I stayed there for five days. Then I started to live a normal life.