North
South
Working/Living conditions of enslaved people
Life Beyond work
Controlling Enslaved People
100

What were some transportation options in the North?

Mainly steamboats and trains 

100

What were some transportation options in the South?

Lots of water travel such as riverboats and they also used railroads but not so much

100

When did enslaved people start working and when did they stop working for the day?

They worked from dawn to late at night

100

What were Saturdays nights like?

On some plantations, Saturday nights were a time for social events that often combined required work activities, like corn-husking or pea-shelling parties.

100

What were some ways the platation owners and the overseers controlled the enslaved people?

Some enslavers beat or whipped enslaved people as a way of controlling them. However, most enslavers avoided brutal beatings because injured enslaved people could not work and lash marks reduced their resale value.

200

What was the geography like in the North? (weather, land, etc.)

All the Northern states experienced four distinct seasons, from freezing winters to hot, humid summers

 The jagged New England coast, had hundreds of bays and inlets that were perfect for harbors. Shipbuilding, fishing, and commerce flourished in this area.

200

What was the geography like in the South? (weather, land etc.)

The Southern states enjoyed mild winters and long, hot summers.

Along the coast, the plains were dotted with swamps and marshes that were ideal for growing rice and sugarcane, which thrived in the warm, soggy soil.

Colonizers who ventured into this rugged backcountry carved farms and orchards out of rolling hills and mountain hollows.

200

When it got dark when the slaves were working what were some of the things they had to do before they went back to there huts?

Water to carry, wood to split, pigs to feed, cotton to clean and other chores that needed to be done

200

What were Sundays like?

Sunday was a day for religion and recreation, and many enslaved people spent the day going to church, eating, hunting, fishing, dancing, singing, telling tales, playing games, and visiting with friends

All of these activities helped African Americans stay hopeful till some of them could escape slavery.

200

What was a "slave breaker?"

Such men were experts at turning independent, spirited African Americans into humble, obedient enslaved people.

300

What was the society like in the North?

There was free Black African Americans, poor white people, and not many wealthy white people

300

What was the society like in the South?

Poor White people, who did not own land or enslave people made up about one-third of the South’s population.

A minority of Black people in the South were free. These free Black people were often forced to wear special badges, pay extra taxes, and live separately from White people.

300

What kind of "houses" did the enslaved people lived in?

They lived in log huts

300

What would the enslaved women do on the weekends?

Enslaved women had little free time to gather together and talk, quilting bees gave these women the rare opportunity to freely express themselves using needle and cloth.

300

What was another way they controlled enslaved people

Enslavers preferred to control the people they enslaved by making enslaved people feel totally dependent on them.

400

What was the economy like in the North?

The economy was crafts-people, seamstresses, industrialists, laborers, and farming

400

What was the economy like in the South?

The South's economy was based on agriculture. Many White Southerners were agrarians who favored a way of life based on farming. This was especially true of rich plantation owners, who did not have to do the hard work of growing crops themselves.

After the cotton gin was invented cotton quickly became the most important crop in the South.

400

What were the enslaved peoples "houses" like?

They had neither bedsteads, nor furniture of any description. 

There beds were collections of straw and old rags, thrown down in the corners. 

Some of the enslaved people didn't have beds so they would sleep on the hard dirt floor

400

Did enslavers let the enslaved people do fun stuff over the weekends?

Enslaved people worked all week in fields that seemed to stretch “from one end of the earth to the other.” But, from Saturday night through Sunday, enslavers sometimes let enslaved people choose what they wanted to do.

400

What was the last way enslavers kept enslaved people under control

They also kept enslaved people as ignorant as possible about the world beyond the plantation.