8th Grade Student Social Studies November 2nd 2012 Life as a Slave in the Americas Today, humans work

6 to 9 hours and they are not called to their job in the middle of the night or early in the morning. They do not receive punishments for no reason. They can have fun whenever he/she wants. This is called freedom. A slave lives the opposite life. They work from sunrise to sunset and whenever they are called they have to come to work. Slaves receive punishments for almost everything they do, they can not have fun on weekends they have no control over their life. These hard working slaves were kidnapped from Africa and transferred to America by a ship that sailed over the Atlantic Ocean. When the slaves came to America they were auctioned to their owner. Some slaves had escaped from their owner and if they were found, the slaves always get some bad punishments. Slaves in America had to work whenever their master ordered, in the middle of the night or early in the morning. Slaves had to work from sunrise to sunset. If they did not they were punished. However, slaves were used for all of their lifetime, from birth to death. There were 3 different gang systems that grouped the slaves by age or ability. The rst gang was made of adult slaves with the best physically t bodies. The second gang was made of slaves between age 12-18. The third gang was made of slaves that were very old or really young. Slaves in the gangs had specic jobs such as farming. At every gang level the master wanted to be sure that his slaves were doing their job. To be sure the master chose one trustworthy slave who was called the slave-driver to report to him about slaves everyday. Some slaves were craftsmen or artisans, and if a slave had a skilled job they were classied from others. Enslaved Africans had punishments for every mistake. Sometimes you did not have to make a mistake to get a punishment. Whenever a slaves master wanted to punish his slave he/she did it easily. Domestic slaves often received punishment without making any mistakes. Whenever the owner felt like it he gave punishments. Domestic slaves received punishments; almost all of the domestic slaves were female and they often received physical abuse, some female slaves just had normal punishments and were not abused. Punishments were not limited to small things, if a slave stole something from another they would lose an ear or a hand. If you murdered a person your punishment was death. When enslaved Africans had leisure time on weekends, the activities allowed them to have a break from their hard work. The activities contained many African social activities and some American activities. There were many activities, the most famous and fun was, storytelling. African slaves gathered together on weekends and fascinated each other with some fun African stories. This activity was famous in West Indian and North American slave colonies. Really good story tellers gained power, leaving other slaves behind in the hierarchy. The fun activities of leisure time did not nish here. There were also other favorite activities that involved music, dancing, and drinking. The Christian calendar also brought many celebrations, even though some slaves were not Christian they had to celebrate Christian calendar. The beliefs and traditions of the slaves changed over time, and they tried to keep it alive through their leisure time. Besides their beliefs and traditions changing, their identity changed from an African tradition to Christian. When the slaves changed their religions they also automatically change their traditions. If a slave did not change their traditions and religion they were punished with a chain or they were whipped. Some of the slaves kept their identity alive by telling stories or talking about their traditions. Overall, identity for the Africans changed and became something new when they arrived in the Americas. The new changes, working from sunrise to sunset, being punished, and changing religions meant they had to change what they valued about their sense of self and interaction with others.