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Slavery In The Nineteenth Century: Different Experience Between Men And Women

In the nineteenth century, people from Africa were imported to the United States to work

as slaves for White people, not only men, but also women. The sense of hatred and disrespect

was common between the slaves and their owners. Slaves have been treated differently in

type of work and punishment depending on their sex. Consequently, There are some major

difference between men and women in type of work they are doing, in rebellion and

resistance to work, and in punishment they receive from their masters. However, women are

thought to be delicate and do more of easy work like washing the dishes and cleaning the

house. Even though men and women slaves affords slavery tough work in similar ways;

however, there are some major differences in how sexes experience slavery, such as men and

women took different types of labor, men and women have different ways to rebel, and men

and women experienced different types of punishment.

First of all, the type of work is different between men and women slaves in the nineteenth

century. Men are stronger and they have a bigger ability to afford tough work which requires

more strength and power. For example, some slaves are good at carpentry, as a result their

job was to collect wood pieces, build ships, and make furniture. What is more, some men 1

slaves were good at agriculture, therefore, their job was farming and collecting the crops

from the farm. Some jobs requires a lot of effort and strength to do which suits med slaves. 2

Frederick Douglass: Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, 1845, P49.1

Frederick Douglass: Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, 1845, P19.2

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For example, in the ports, men slaves were responsible for loading and unloading of goods. 3

Women slaves, on the other hand, have different type of jobs which suits the their abilities.

For example, women work as a shopkeeper and sell stuff in the market. Women slaves were

also working inside the houses, such as cleaning the dishes, washing the clothes, and

cooking. Although farming is mainly for men, women slaves participated in some farming 4

work like dairy. All these differences show that men slaves are doing the hard work which

requires a strength and a big effort while women slaves participated in easy jobs that suits

their abilities.

The type of rebellion or resistance of work is different for men and women slaves.

Sometimes, when the slaves do not want to work for various reasons, they perform some

actions to stop working, these actions differ for men and women slaves. For men slaves, they

resist the work by many different ways. For example, running away from the master is one of

the most common rebellion for men slaves. Another way of men slave rebellion is self-

mutilation, meaning that the slave would cut his hand or leg off so he would not be able to

work anymore. Another way for male slaves to resist work is by breaking their working tools,

which is a good technique, so they would not be able to do their work. Women slaves have 5

a different way to resist the labor. Women slaves usually do not run away from the masters

because they care about their children and they do not want to abandon them. One way

women slaves rebel work is by poisoning their masters’ food during the cooking. Another

Eric Foner, Give me Liberty! An American History, vol. 2, (New York: W.W.Norton &Company, 1999), 3 P45.

Deborah Gray White: Aren't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation Souuth, 1985, 9167.4

Eric Foner, Give me Liberty! An American History, vol. 2, (New York: W.W.Norton &Company, 5 1999) ,p419

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way for female to resist work is by pretending to be sick. This way, the masters would let 6

them rest even thought they are not sick. Since women worked in the kitchen, one of the way

to rebel the work is breaking the kitchen tools to avoid cooking. All these of rebellions to 7

avoid work indicates that the slaves are not happy of what they are doing, and they wanted to

avoid work by any possible way.

Men and women slaves were treated horribly if they committed any mistake, and the

punishment is different for men than women slaves. One of the way male slave was punished

is by not giving them enough food, which make the slaves starve and become very weak and

tired. The masters also don’t give them clothes. Also, male slaves were forced to work even 8

in holidays as a way of punishing them. On the other side, female punishment is different

than male punishment. For example, female slaves could experience sexual abuse as a way to

punish her by the master. Moreover, female slaves were separated from her family and 9

children as a punishment of her sin, which is a very terrible treatment. The masters also did

not provide any medicines to the female slaves whenever they get sick.

In conclusion, male and female slaves experienced different types of work, rebellion, and

punishment. The nature of men work is harder and requires more strength than women’s

work. The resistance of work is different for men and women depending on the work they are

doing. Finally, the punishment is different for men and women, men would be punished by

Eric Foner, Give me Liberty! An American History, vol. 2, (New York: W.W.Norton &Company, 6 1999) ,p419

Deborah Gray White, Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South, W. W. Norton & 7 Company; 1999, P43

Frederick Douglass: Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, 1845, P13.8

Deborah Gray White, Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South, W. W. Norton & 9 Company; 1999, P29

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deprivation from food and women would be punished by sexual violence. It is obvious that

each gender would experience a different kind of slavery.