Life In Chattel Slavery

Chattel slavery is the labor of people who were seen and treated as possessions. Chattel slaves were not paid and they made their owners wealthy with the labor they provided. They were seen as money making machines without the regard that they were human just like the people who owned them.
The importance of the great slave plantations was that they were the reason the South had a lot of wealth since they took care of the crops that brought money to the South. The social, economic, political, and cultural focus of the slaves lives were based on these plantations. Also, they had a lot of slaves which helped bring them profit as well.
Family life in the plantations did not have equality within the household between husband and wife and was strongly …show more content…
A great amount of these women were against the emancipation of slaves.
The mistresses’ responsibilities toward the slaves were to look after them and the work they did. These women were in charge of giving them food and clothes as well as treating them when they were sick or hurt. The mistresses had to punish the slaves when they did not want to work. They beat the slaves with whips until they would develop cuts.
The limitations southern white women had regarding property was that they were not allowed to own property. The freedom they had was that they were allowed to take slaves from their parents’ houses into their own. Eventually they got the freedom to own property.
The constraints placed upon Southern white women by the slave system were that they did not have ways to earn money and they were not exposed to good education. Women who had not married yet stayed with a family member but were insignificant. There was also no charities to provide for the poor and homeless people but some southern women did not mind …show more content…
The men had to sneak out during night time to see their wives and children. They put themselves in danger of being sold or beaten. After the Civil War a lot of slaves who had lost their significant others when they were sold, journeyed long distances to look for them.
Slave women found happiness but at the same time sadness in having children because the masters owned their children. The burden of slave women mothers was that they had to instill in their children how to carry through their masters control but also how to identify their own value.
Slave masters controlled slave women’s sexuality and reproductive capacity by owning their sexuality and reproductive capacity legally. They enslaved children born from slave women because that made them more money. The masters forced slave women into having sexual relations with them. They would also force them to get pregnant to get more slaves to sell so the masters would benefit from it.
The deliberate breeding practices used by slave masters was that they would choose a slave women from a slave trader so that the women would have sexual relations with a male slave and become pregnant. The masters would choose women young of age and healthy. The women who looked like they could still have children were sold for more money than the other