The slavery in colonial America started around 1600 with indentured slaves, but after some time, people were often sold and bought unintentional. In 1619, the first African slaves arrived in Virginia and by 1820, almost four Africans for every European had crossed the Atlantic. In the late 1800‘s around 12.5 million slaves had been shipped from Africa, and 10.5 million had arrived in America. Prices of slaves varied a lot over time, and it was expensive to own a slave, but it was gainful. In order to make sure the effectiveness of slaves, most slave owners supplied only the bare minimum of food and shelter needed for the slaves to survive and then forced them to work twenty-four hours a day. Young adult men around the age of twenty-five-years …show more content…
Beriberi, pellagra, tetany, rickets and kwashiorkor were normal diseases among the slaves. Common symptoms amongst slaves also included blindness, bowed legs, skin lesions, abdominal swelling and convulsions. As a result, early childhood death rate of slaves were twice as much as white infants. Therefore, most slave infants died before they were one-year-old. In the 1700s, around half of the people living in the southern colonies were slaves. They were frequently forced to do jobs, and would work under their master’s order all day and night. They worked all kinds of jobs, they could for example be field hands in the tobacco fields or house slaves. House slaves were often treated better than the field slaves, and while field slaves often were whipped, house slaves used to do chores around the house or help their master in his trade shop. Field slaves were usually given one set of clothing that was supposed to last a year. The clothes were pretty similar to any other colonial farmer would use when working. Men would often wear pants and big shirts, while women wore dresses. House slaves often dressed nicer, and some would also wear their master’s old