Brief Summary: The Lifespan Of A Slave

Could you ever imagine being a slave and how their life was like? The lifespan of a slave was usually only 21 to 22 years old. Most slave infants died in the first year of their life. The slaves mothers were not fed very well and so many their babies only weighed less than 5.5 pounds at birth. Most infants were weaned from their mother’s milk at around three or four months old. Around three or four months they ate gruel or porridge made of cornmeal. Around age three they started to eat vegetables, soups, potatoes, molasses, grits, homing, and cornbread. This dailly diet lacked protein, thiamine, and niacin. Because of nutritional deficiencies, this diet caused kids to get diseases much easier. Other results of their poor diets the children

Enslaved women were given to white women as gifts for christmas and wedding gifts from their husbands. The women were outnumbered on the slave trade. For every two men there was one woman slave on the slave trade. But when it comes to the plantation the ratio of men and women were equal. A male slave would usually only live up to 20 or 22 years of age. A male slave's job consisted of tending to the fields, pastures, and gardens. Men slaves were brought to America first then the women. Every year they received two linen shirts,two pairs of pants, one jacket, one pair of socks, one pair of shoes, an overcoat, and a wool hat. The slave owners had someone they called a driver. This is a slave that was convinced by the owner to manage the other slaves. The driver received better privileges for doing this job. The drivers were usually hated by the other slaves because they were able to punish the slaves and got better privileges. There were many different types of plantations where slaves worked. There were sugar plantations, tobacco plantations, and cotton plantations. Slave owners believed that slavery was