House slaves usually lived better
than slaves who worked on the fields, and had more luxuries than most. In the
autobiography Narrative of William W.
Brown, A Fugitive Slave (1847) he explains how different it was being a
house slave compared to the rough life of a field slave, he explains how house
servants had far better food and decent clothing. Harriet Jacobs, another house
slave from North Carolina explains how not all slave owners were so generous to
their house servants. His owner’s mistress would stand in the kitchen while the
servants would clean and wash the dishes and pots and then after they were
finished doing everything she would spit in all the kettles and pans to ensure
that none of the slaves ate any of the food that was left over. Jacobs adds on saying that she would make sure
that the slaves could get nothing to eat except what she chose to give them and
weighed down the slaves by the pound and ounce three times a day to make sure
nobody broke her rule. The mistress gave them no chance at all to eat without
her permission. She knew exactly how
many biscuits a quart of flour would make and the exact size they each should
weigh so nobody could eat any wheat bread from her flour barrel. Although this
particular house slave didn’t have privileges, most house servants and their
living accommodation was better than other slaves, in some cases the servants
were treated like the slave- owners children. Another house slave, Lewis
Clarke, also believed that some house slaves were worse off than field slaves
because in his case him and his family were constantly exposed and dealt with
the hardships of the slave-owners and their families. The families would always
throw all their anger out on the servants and all house slaves had far more
rules and duties than any other slave, they faced more because they were always
around the slave-owners. The more compassionate owners would sometimes even
begin a friendship with the house slaves and although it was illegal, they
would educate the house slaves usually from the women of the family. From the
all the good that came out of serving as a house slave, freedom was promised
and later granted.
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