Click2History - Underground Railroad - Slave Homes - Chapter 5

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>UNDERGROUND RAILROAD</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 5 - SLAVE HOMES</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">When they arrived on southern plantations, slaves did not share the comforts of their owners, and their homes did not remotely resemble their masters homes.</p><ul> <li>Slaves gather by rank at the <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3a40000/3a46000/3a46700/3a46770r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>front</b></a> and <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3a40000/3a46000/3a46700/3a46771r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>rear</b></a> of the Stirrup Branch Plantation in Bishopville, South Carolina.</li><br><br> <li>Some slave owners expressed patronizing <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3b30000/3b36000/3b36100/3b36116r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>concerns</b></a> about their human "possessions."</li></ul> <blockquote><blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>These poor creatures are a sacred legacy from my ancestors and while a dollar is left me, nothing shall be spared to increase their comfort and happiness.</i></b></font></blockquote></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">The average slave owner spent few dollars to "increase" the "comfort and happiness" of the average slave, as these Library of Congress pictures demonstrate:</p><ul> <li><a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3a10000/3a18000/3a18400/3a18408r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Cabins</b></a>, in Savannah, Georgia, where slaves were raised for market.</li><br><br> <li><a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3b10000/3b15000/3b15200/3b15289r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Plantation view</b></a> at Port Royal Island, South Carolina.</li><br><br> <li>Slaves, <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3g00000/3g02000/3g02000/3g02041r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>at home</b></a> in Spotsylvania, Virginia.</li><br><br> <li><a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/ppmsc/00000/00057r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Five generations</b></a> of enslaved African-Americans on Smiths Plantation, Port Royal Island, South Carolina. </li><br><br> <li>African-American <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3a20000/3a22000/3a22500/3a22593r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>church</b></a> at Smiths Plantation.</li><br><br> <li>A <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c20000/3c20000/3c20400/3c20433v.jpg" target="_blank"><b>slave cabin</b></a> near the Long Bridge at Chicahominy River, Virginia.</li><br><br> <li>Jonathan Eastman Johnson painted an <a target="_blank" href="images/idealistic_scene.jpg"><b>idealistic scene</b></a> of black slaves <a target="_blank" href="images/eastman_1859_interacting.gif"><b>interacting</b></a> with white owners in "My Old Kentucky Home." In real life, few slaves lived so well.</li></ul> <p align="justify">Slaves were brought to America to work the southern plantations. Lets briefly look at that aspect of their lives.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="underground_railroad_ch4.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="underground_railroad_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="underground_railroad_ch6.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>