20 July, 2013

On controlling slaves

Vampire_Seraphin comments on did slaves get days off?: Frederick Douglass records in his account that on some plantations slaves were not forced to work around Christmas. He felt that this was a sort of safety valve used by the slave owners to release built up tension. Nothing altruistic about it. I highly doubt it was a practice employed by all owners, but some slaves appear to in fact have had some time to themselves.