Intro to the blog

In this blog, you will find out about slavery in the south, and many different aspects of it. You will learn about slave punishment, slave clothing, slave work hours, slaves way of resisting, and a lot more. There is also a lot of pictures to go with some of the facts pointed out. You will learn more then you expected when your done reading this blog.

Slave Auctions Pictures

This is typically what a slave auction would look like

This is a poster that would be hung up for slave auctions

Slave Auctions

Once in the Americas, slaves were sold, by auction, to the person that bid the most money for them. It was here that family members would find themselves split up, because a bidder may not want to buy the whole family, only the strongest, healthiest member. Slave Auctions were advertised when it was known that a slave ship was due to arrive. Posters would be displayed around the town. When the slave ship docked all the slaves would be taken off the ship and placed in a pen. There they would be washed and their skin covered with grease, or sometimes tar, to make them look more healthy. This was done so that they would fetch as much money as possible. They would also be branded with a hot iron to identify them as slaves. There were two main types of slave Auction:
1. Those that sold to the highest bidder
2. Grab and go Auctions

"Sold! to the highest bidder"
The slaves would be brought from the pen, in turn, to stand on a raised platform so that they could be seen by the buyers. Before the bidding began, those that wished to, could come up onto the platform to inspect the slaves closely. The slaves had to endure being poked, prodded and forced to open their mouths for the buyers.
The auctioneer would decide a price to start the bidding. This would be higher for fit, young slaves and lower for older, very young or sickly slaves. Potential buyers would then bid against each other. The person who bid the most would then own that slave.

The 'Grab and Go' Auction
All people who wanted to buy a slave on the day of the auction would pay the trader an agreed amount of money. The trader would then give them a ticket for each slave that they had bought. At the sound of a drum roll, the door to the slave pen would be opened and the buyers would rush in and grab the slave or slaves that they wanted. The buyers then checked their slaves out by returning their ticket or tickets to the slave trader.
The slave auction was a terrible ordeal for the slaves, they did not understand the language and had no idea what was happening.

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad wasn't a real railroad and it wasn't necessarily underground. It really was a system that helped slaves escape to freedom in areas such as the northern states and Canada in the 1800's. This system was called the Underground Railroad because of the secret way slaves escaped. It was in 14 northern states but was mainly in Indiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the New England states. The slaves would hide during the day and moved almost always at night. To make sure no one found out about it, the people who aided the slaves and the fugitives would use many railroad words as code words. Although some slaves settled in the North, others didn't because they could be captured and would be returned to being a slave. Instead these slaves would go to Canada. The line between freedom and slavery was called the Mason Dixon Line. It is located on the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Slaves Free Time

Although the life of most plantation slaves consisted mainly of work, slaves however did find ways of enjoying themselves. Few masters worked their slaves so hard that they were given no leisure whatsoever. Slaves usually had Saturday nights and Sundays off. On some plantations, slaves had even more free time: occasional evenings, some Saturday afternoons, and all day Saturday during the slack seasons. And almost all slaves had a few days off at Christmas. Saturday evening was party time on many plantations. Slaves looked forward all week to Saturday. They would gather to dance, sing, and generally have fun after the long chores of the week were over. Most weeks the parties would be low-key and informal, but they were still parties and it meant no work for the slaves

More slavery vocabulary

Active Resistance- The act of resisting in a way that everyone (slave owners) knows. Obvious, or out in the open
Passive Resistance- The act of resisting in a way that almost no one (slave owners) knows about, sneaky, hidden
Petite Maroonage- running away for short periods of time, to meet loved ones, and in hopes of changing the relationship between them and their current slave owner
Grand Maroonage- a slave running away to freedom

Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

These are pictures of Harriet Tubman (left) and slaves in the underground railroad(right)