Imagine, if you will, rising earlier than the sun, eating a mere snack- lacking essentially all nutritional value - and trekking miles to toil in the unforgiving climate of the southern states, and laboring until the sun once again slipped under the horizon. Clad only in the rags your master provided (perhaps years ago), you begin walking in the dark the miles to your home. As described by the writers Jacob Stroyer and Josiah Henson, this home was actually a mere thatched roof, that you built with your own hands, held up by pathetic walls, over a dirt floor and you shared this tiny space with another family. Upon return to home, once again you eat the meager rations you were provided, and fall into bed only to begin again the next day. Day in and day out you faced brutality by your master, unbearable labor, and slow starvation, and watched your family do the same. Such was the life of a slave in the antebellum south: relentless, unforgiving, and tragic.The life of a slave was one plagued by shifting loyalties, struggle for survival, and prayers for a brighter future, if not for oneself at least for children and grandchildren. So, exactly what was it to be a slave? It was exactly that, to be property of another, treated as a commodity that could be replaced if needed, thrown out on a whim, and neglected without a care. Living and breathing creatures, humans, were herded like cattle in and out of the fields and boarded in similar conditions, if not poorer, than the livestock. Slaves had no rights to express their feelings (for their conditions or each other), or even be alive. Slaves faced the total shattering of their culture (for those brought from Africa to the Americas) as well as their families. Slaves finding themselves the victim of the slave raids to the West African Coast were packed onto ships as human cargo. As seen in the writings of countless authors such as John Barbot and James Barbot, Jr., slaves faced unbeara...
