Texas Slavery – Life as a Child Slave
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Texas Slavery: Life as a Child Slave
After the first generation of imported slaves began to get older the United States did not need to replenish the demand for slaves. In 1808 when the federal ban on imported slaves was passed the rape of slaves was motivated in order for masters to keep up with the demand for slaves. There were many different situations for breeding slaves whether it was the master raping his own slaves to slaves being forced to have sexual relations with their own family members. In my paper I am going to discuss the different experiences slaves had as children and what it was like for house slaves to raise the masters children plus the colored children.
Slaves had different experiences and upbringings when they were children. Many slaves when they were children played with their masters children. White and colored children were raised like brothers and sisters. There was a table for the white children and another for the colored children. Sometimes the white children would go sit at the other table with the colored children and vice versa. The white and colored children played games like jump rope and wagon also they would pretend like they were plowing in the ground. There was a little plow and an older kid would get in the front and pull the little kids to look like they were plowing. Other things the children did were play with dolls and they would play in the snow when it was winter. The younger kids would play in the mud and make mud cakes all day. They would create ragdolls out of sticks. They would gather in the back yard to sing songs and dance jigs. Games like baseball were played among the older kids and they also had marbles. Depending on your master life as a colored child was not very harsh because the master wanted the children to be cared for so he could make a good profit off of the slave if he were to sell them.
Something that you would not expect to happen is when white people would take in and raise their slaves babies. When the slave would have a baby the masters wife would have one as well. They did this so that the masters wife could nurse the slaves baby so she could still go out and work in the field. A slave usually had their first child when they were nineteen and every two and a half years after that they would be forced to have another one ensuring a production cycle of slaves for the master. Slaves that were raised by their master acted differently than if they were raised by their slave parents. Other slaves would notice if a slave was raised by white people. Many slave children were taken to church with white people. There was benches in the back of the church for the colored people to sit at. Also young slave children would be given to the masters children and would have to obey everything the masters child wanted. They would usually become very close to each other but in reality the slave was not a friend just property to them.
House slaves had many duties. On some accounts house slaves had better lives than the field slaves but this was not always true. House slaves would have better food and they would be given the familys old clothing. House