April Thursday 1, 2010 Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation is a plantation on the coast of Georgia that is owned by the state and it represent the history and culture of the Georgia's rice coast, portrayal is straight out of Gone with the Wind. Life of the people who live on the planatation The slave population from 1820 to 1860 were distributed among the black belt and there were a large concentration on Georgia coast. Rice plantations were the biggest, and the fields are still visible. A plantation purchased in 1833 owned by Manigault family, the son was sent to Yale for his education and he took over management in 1852. The family did not want to spend time on the plantation especially in the summer when malaria and yellow fever were prevalent. They would go to Charleston and Joseph Manigault had a house in 1803 built in Charleston. They believed themselves to be paternalistic to their slaves. They made overseas sign a contract that they would attend to the health and care of their slaves. He made a point by calling each slave by their name and giving them their clothing by himself. The number of slaves on the plantation varied and averaged around a hundred. Each one live four to a single room house, 18ft by 18ft. In the winter they operated on the task system so they had one task to complete each day and when completed they could have time to themselves. In that time they would fish or work their own garden or patch their clothes to survive. A standard task was considered to dig a ditch for a full hand slave. A lot of the slaves had been injured in one way or another and was considered half hands. One slave named Ben had frost bite on his hands and was therefore considered a half hand. Each slave was given a single pair of shoes that was to lasts through the winter. Most slaves worked without shoes during the summer. In the summer slaves worked the fields, planting harvest. Etc. They could suffer from cholera and malaria. The sanitary conditions are very poor. For rations they would occasionally be given a little bit of meat, fatback, during harvest time, because then slaves had the most amount of work and could not supplement their diet themselves. Every Christmas each slave got a gift of three pounds of meat and molasses to the children. Mortality rates were very high on this plantation, it was 90% for age 16. You had a 10% chance of surviving to the age of 16. In 1834, a cholera epidemic swept through and about 40 to 100 slaves died from it. The slave population on the plantation would have decreased if the Manigaults have not purchased new slaves. The overall U.S slave populations were raising. Average life span for the family was 56. In a slave, Ned's family tree, the average life span was 22. One woman who had 4 children, none of them survived to adolescents. Average life span for a white person was 42 years old, Slaves would expect to live until age 34. The Gowrie plantation used the whip on a daily basis to make the slaves work. An overseer said on one occasion he whipped a slave for insolence and he gave him 20 strokes of the whip. The threat of being sold and having a family broken up was a constant threat. They were scared to be sold down south. It was also the threat of the Charleston Workhouse, which was a place to administer even more brutal punishment to the slaves. One slave was given 60 lashes and sent to the work house for solitary confinement. They also used enticements to encourage the slaves to work. example For at Christmas, they are awarded with alcohol so they can get drunk and brawl with each other, to make them believe they are unable to care for themselves. A lot of these slaves had real skills, they made valuable antique furniture. Another consideration was that they received some indirect benefits from a successful plantation because if the plantation went into bankruptcy the slaves would be seized.
To fight against slavery, one can disobey in such a way that the planter can't know what you are doing, such as pretending to be sick, or letting the horses go. Some slaves would break tools because the planter has to buy more. Some would also do sloppy work. You can pretend to misunderstand. Slave resistance scale from low risk of breaking tools to high risk of rebellion. Example is Dolly from the Gowrie plantation, who ran away in the evening. A graph of runaways by sex and age and it shows that in south Carolina and Virginia that males between the age of 25-29 would run away, and women had less runaways than men. It is much more difficult to be a single black women in the United States and the men did not have to care for children. The vast majority did not believe that they could make it to a free state. A lot are just running away for a week or two and returning to the plantation for punishment. This was the time when men began to start families and they would leave to see their families. Chart of runaways by month shows that in June in South Carolina and March and April in Virginia had the most runaways. In June of South Carolina, the work is the hardest and disease is prevalent. Virginia is earlier because they are growing tobacco, and the most tedious labor is in the earlier months. Those who rebel have a strong chance of being caught and hung. Three are Gabriel Prosser in Richmond in 1800, then in 1822 in Charleston, Denmark Vesey, and last Nat Turner in 1831 in Southampton County Virginia. Gabriel Prosser wanted slaves and poor whites to join together and overthrow the state government, similar plans to the revolution, but it never got its start because someone betrayed them and they were hung. Denmark Vesey was a conspiracy and the court claimed to have unearthed evidence of a diabolic plot. A bunch of the slaves were executed and others were sent to exile to the Caribbean. They believed that Vesey had planned a revolt until lately when the evidence was reexamined and it was argued that there was never a plot. Nat turner claimed he had seen visions in the sky of black and white figures fighting each other and he believed it was his duty to lead the slaves to freedom. 60 white people died at the hands of the slaves, there were about 80 slaves. It is estimated that well over a hundred slaves were executed as a result. Planters thought that abolitionist were the ones to blame for encouraging the slaves to revolt. Despite that slaves developed a culture on the plantation such as a slave drum found in late 17th, early 18th century Virginia. Most music like the blues, jazz, and rock inspired from Africans. A lot of the coastal islands today still have African names. A west African strip textile would be found in wool blankets made by slaves. The irregular patterning of a quilt reflects African traditions. The vast majority of slaves came from the Congo region of north African and a tradition of making graves by inverted and broken pottery showed up throughout the south in African American cemeteries.