After slavery was abolished in the North, it became a peculiar institution of the South, which meant that it was an institution unique of southern society. Slavery was a system of labor in which the slaves suffered very difficult life conditions, violent punishments, and injustices. Most slaves lived on plantations or farms. Most slaves were field workers, while a small percentage worked on the industry. Usually, the slaves who worked in urban areas had more autonomy than those who worked in rural areas. While the conditions of the slaves who worked in the sugar plantations of Southern Louisiana were the worst in the South, slaves who produced labor in the rice fields, even though their working conditions were particularly harsh, had more independence