Section 4.1: Describe slave
life and the southern

Slaves worked at all sorts of jobs throughout the slaveholding South, but the majority were field hands on relatively large plantations. Men, women, and children served as field hands. The owner decided when slave children would go into the fields, usually between the ages of 10 and 12.

Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, beating, mutilation, branding, and/or imprisonment. Punishment was most often meted out in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but masters or overseers sometimes abused slaves to assert dominance.

Life on Southern Plantations represented a stark contrast of the rich and the poor. Slaves were forced to work as field hands in a grueling labor system, supervised by an overseer and the strict rules of the plantation owners. However, only a small percentage of Southerners were actually wealthy plantation owners.

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