New York Slave Codes

Slaves were not treated as humans, but like property. Slaves were owned, traded, and sold. There were certain codes, laws, that the slaves had to follow. If the slaves misbehaved or attempted to escape to the north, they would be punished. Some punishments would lead to grotesque wounds and laceration. Either other slaves or family members would have to treat their wounds. The ways of treatment are much different than what the doctors today would treat similar wounds. The diverseness of codes, punishments, and treatments depends on the type of person and their location. In the colony of New York there were strict slave codes. The slave codes in 1776 differ than the codes in prior years. Some examples of the codes in New York are “In New York …show more content…
In some cases there was no action that the slave enacted to deserve a punishment, but the owner wanted to show his dominance toward his male slave so he would not act out or misbehave. For certain actions there were certain punishments that were enacted. For example if a slave stole a pig he/she would have their ear nailed to a post. Stealing a pig was not a common practice, but other actions such as working too slowly were much more common. If a slave were to not meet the standard work rate their master would imply they would get whipped, when a slave got whipped he/she would have a lifetime full of scars.The most common type of punishment was whipping and slashing. If a slave were to attempt to run away and got caught the punishment would be much more severe than if they were to talkback to their master. As mentioned before, talking back to their owners would intend that he/she would have to be whipped or branded. When a slave got branded they would have a letter burnt, branded, into their skin. Sometimes the letter that the slave would be branded with would represent the action that they did to earn the punishment. When a slave did an act multiple times and received the punishment of whipping and they continue to do the act they would get their nose slit. When a slave got their nose slit their master would take a knife and …show more content…
The slaves grew off of their owners, like a vine on a tree. When the owner whips his slave for not working fast enough, the slave begins to work faster. If that growth did not happen, then the amount of slaves waited to be treated would grow and grow. When slaves started to rebel, their owners would come up with more harsh and cruel punishments to attempt to stop the rebellion. The more harsh the punishment the stronger the treatments need to be. Then there would be new slave codes would be enacted and et cetera. All of the acts come into full circle and the chain keeps repeating it self time and time again. All actions that the slaves put forth caused a chain reaction that would only end when slavery was abolished. Every treatment, punishment, slave code all would be enacted because of one act that one slave would put forth. Every act causes another chain