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The overseer typically managed the plantation house and watched over the house slaves on a Southern plantation during the antebellum period in the United States. This overseer was responsible for supervising the day-to-day operations, ensuring the house slaves performed their duties, and reporting to the plantation owner.
Plantation owners demonstrated trust in slaves by assigning them supervisory roles over other slaves, allowing them to handle money or valuable items, and permitting them to work outside the plantation unsupervised. These actions were usually based on the belief that the slaves would not betray their owners due to the fear of punishment or societal conditioning.
Slaves in Delaware worked primarily on farms and in domestic service. Many were also employed in industries such as shipbuilding, lumber mills, and iron works.
In the low country, slaves were classified into different groups based on their skills, work assignments, and proximity to the plantation owner. House slaves, who worked in the main house and had more interaction with the owner, were typically treated better than field slaves. Skilled slaves, such as carpenters or blacksmiths, often had more privileges and higher status compared to unskilled laborers. This hierarchical system among slaves was maintained by the plantation owners to control and divide the enslaved population.
Slaves called a safe house on the Underground Railroad a "station" or a "depot."
House slaves worked in the master's house, performing domestic tasks and often had more privileges compared to field slaves who labored in the fields, enduring harsher conditions. House slaves may have had better living conditions, access to education, and were sometimes treated more leniently by their owners.