CHILDREN

             Most children on plantations were illegitimate children of the slaveowners.  Because slaveowners did not view sexual encounters with the slave women as acts of infidelity, sexual abuse and rape were commonplace, and the women would often conceive. (“Interesting Facts about Slavery and Equality”)  Pregnant women would remain overworked until giving birth, and the excessive labor often contributed to the women’s miscarriages.  In the event the woman had the child, she would either go back to work with the child on her back, or have the elderly watch over if there were elderly present.  (“Daily Life of a Plantation Slave”)

            The slaveowners were reluctant to claim the children as their own, so they were often beaten by their biological fathers and brothers.  Some slaveowners viewed this act as conflictual, and traded their illegitimate children.  This was conflictual mainly because slaveowners did not like to think of slaves as humans, they were property.  This was their way of rationalizing the absence of the civil liberties that whites get. (“Interesting Facts about Slavery and Equality”)

          

           If the child’s mother was a slave, that child was automatically a slave.  (“Daily Life of a Plantation Slave”) From birth to six years of age, children would stay home and play.  Upon turning six, they were immediately given duties and were clothed in long shirts.  Some of the common responsibilities from age six to 10 were carrying water, gathering wheat and wood, picking up stones, and picking bugs off plants.  From ages 10 to 12 they became active weeders.  (“Pathways to Freedom: Maryland & the Underground Railroad” and “Antebellum Slavery”)  As soon as they reached 12 years of age, they were given the same work as adults.  They did not have the opportunity to go to school to learn how to read and write. (“Pathways to Freedom: Maryland & the Underground Railroad”)  (Summer M.)
          The labor that was required of slave children from this young age only continued to grow and become more intense and demanding as they approached adulthood.  (Next section:  Labor - the Role of the Slaves)