Slavery In The 19th Century

When one views slave labor, a vision usually comes to mind. Most people when they view slave labor from a 19th Century perspective, view it as a large Southern style plantation where the main house has servants and the fields have slaves toiling over cash crops such as cotton or tobacco with a master overseeing the progress of the slaves. On occasion, this would be the ideal for some parts of the Southern countryside, such as societal functions, and the economy, but one must not overlook how slaves also played a role in the development of industries and factories. While it is true that the North had many factories and grew quicker than the South, the South also tried to keep up with
competition
Because of this, and white workers who felt that slaves performing the same labor as them was demeaning kept black industrial workers at a minimum.
Slaves, no matter where they worked, were always given the minimal amount of food, clothing, and shelter to live on. Slaves in urban settings though were more likely to have a better diet because they were in the areas of commerce and trade.17 Slaves in urban settings not only could have the chance of a better diet, but also live close or among free blacks and whites who opposed slavery, attend black churches, and have the chance to educate themselves. Rebellions too, were common amongst city dwelling slaves. Nat
Turner’s Rebellion in 1831 for example, was one of those rebellions. Slaves that were involved were from urban, rural, and coastal areas: some of the slaves involved were former slaves or slave artisans-slaves who had been hired out for work.18Slaves intermingled with the white working population and just like their white working counterparts, also came into contact with exiles from various parts of the world such as
England, France, Ireland, and the West Indies – people who had left their home
J.H. Ingraham found in 1835 that, in the South, “slaves are trained to every kind of manual labor. The blacks, cabinet-maker, carpenter, builder, wheelwright [sic]- all have one or more, slaves laboring at their trades. The negro is a third arm to every working man, who can possibly save money to purchase one.”33 Slaves not only toiled in factories to help in the industrialization of the south, but also built many of the roads, canals, and railroads used to ship goods from factories to other parts of the region and to ports for trade. A total of about twenty thousands slaves alone worked on southern railroads during the antebellum period.34Many others, such as Frederick Douglas, worked in shipyards helping to bring in goods for import or for export to other countries. Some also worked