Slave-owners, having the power and authority to define the roles of slaves, ranged from "one-horse farmers" with a few acres of land all the way up to planters with several hundred acres and hundreds of slaves. The richest plantations had special slaves to provide genteel living of an elegant and stylish nature. About half of all slave owners in 1850 owned fewer than five slaves.
In small plantations slaves were utility workers, carrying out duties in several areas inside and outside the master's house. Slaves on average sized plantations were divided into field hands (90%) and house slaves (10%). Whereas some house slaves did the cleaning and butlery (one in charge of the pantry and table service), others were skilled craftsmen who turned out those needed articles plantations used -- things like shoes, bricks, and furniture. The most important was the cook -- so important as to occasionally be allowed to be impertinent without suffering punishment.
Regardless of plantation size, "good" slave servants -- defined as moderately intelligent who learned what to do without constant scolding and then worked unobtrusively -- were rare finds. Thus, they were the least likely to be sold or separated from their families. Tens of thousands of house servants and slaves with special skills worked in towns and cities, having little contact with field hands or other unskilled or common laborers. They were rented out as chimney sweeps, boat pilots, miners, domestics, or factory workers. No Southern colony enterprise was independent of slave labor. "Good" slaves qualified for promotions â€" perhaps promotions from waitress to cook; from chambermaid to nurse; or from footman to valet.
Although far more numerous following the Civil War, some of the retinues (those who make genteel living possible) included specialized house servants as front maids, upstairs chambermaids, butlers, and valets. Some, especially valets and ladies' maids, enjoyed trips away from the household. A half dozen house servants served as coachmen, valets, houseboys, housekeepers, nursemaids, and cooks. These slaves occupied privileged positions on the plantation and formed a specialist class -- typically being condescending to less fortunate field hands. Since at all levels of aristocracy the large plantations were usually located far from villages and farms, much of the necessary equipment had to be made on the plantation.
To this end, skilled laborers, often not necessarily mulattoes, were carpenters, masons, tanners (makers of leather from rawhides), wheel wrights (builders and repairers of wheels), coopers (makers and repairers of wooden barrels and tubs), and blacksmiths (forgers and shapers of iron with an anvil and hammer, as in making, repairing and fitting horseshoes). They also had privileges not accorded slaves who labored with plow and hoe on the fields or harvested the crops of tobacco, cotton, sugar, or rice.
On all plantations, owners deliberately created dissention between their slaves so as to help maintain control. Any slave informer was rewarded (e.g. $5.00) for tattling on any slave who got out of his/her place; who was planning a revolt or an escape; or who knew about any run-away slave's location. The most loyal and most robust field slave was selected by the owner to be foremen of a gang. These BLACK SLAVE BROKERS were typically mean taskmasters, whipping slaves even more cruelty than evil White overseers. Passive and non-reactive slaves were whipped the most. If the foremen failed to carry out orders, he was severely flogged. These "drivers" were the best examples of the oppressed identifying with the enemy (Blassingame, Slave Community, p. 258, 311). Reference: Bailey, "Manhood in Black Americans" â€" Overlookedbooks.com.
website: jablifeskills.com
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.
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