Post #5: House Slaves

Scarlett O'Hara and Mammy of "Gone with the Wind" from ehrensteinland.com

Today's assignment was to read an excerpt on a particular aspect of slavery and to summarize it.


When most people think of slaves they think of hardship and hard work. According to the stories in Spartacus Educational there are differences between the house slaves and the field slaves. While some field slaves believed the house slaves had it easier than they did some house slaves felt they received the same treatment or worse.


Some of the benefits a few of the house slaves had included:

• Better food
• Better clothing
• The opportunity to sleep in later
• Treatment that matched the children of the slave owners

While other house slaves claimed to have been made to wake up early and go to bed after everyone else in the house was asleep. They were also not given better food as one slave owner's wife had spit in all the pots containing any leftover food to ensure the house slaves and their families wouldn't eat any.


Some house slaves fared better than those in the field because many developed emotional relationships with their owners, were given promises of freedom in the future and were sometimes also educated by the slave owner's wives. This could have created conflict among field slaves who may have thought the house slaves were becoming too much like the owners. A downside to having a closer relationship with the master was the close bonds forming into unwanted sexual relationships.