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A presentation of what a female does and the daily life

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The typical life of a female house slave in Mississippi.

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How they were treated and what they did to them.

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How they were treated and what they did to them.

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Janayla

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house slaves: an overviewhouse slave was a term used to refer to those enslaved africans relegated to performing domestic work on american slave plantations. typically slave labor on the plantation was divided into two broad categories: house servants and field hands. the process of turning a person into a house servant or field hand was called "seasoning." the goal of seasoning was to socialize the enslaved into disciplined

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obedient workers. the practice itself was coercive and extremely violent.

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House Slaves: An Overview | Encyclopedia.com

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House Slaves: An OverviewHouse slave was a term used to refer to those enslaved Africans relegated to performing domestic work on American slave plantations. Typically slave labor on the plantation was divided into two broad categories: house servants and field hands. The process of turning a person into a house servant or field hand was called "seasoning."

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Website

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In many different cultures and countries around the world, skin color plays a huge role in the concept of beauty. Lighter skin is often preferable to darker skin. The effects of the African American self-hate toward each other because of one's skin color is rather eye opening and sad, to say the least. This is a very hot and taboo subject among the African American community. As a culture that came from years of oppression and hatred inflicted by slave owners, forced to think that because of their color, they were inferior, blacks have somehow reverted back to having this sort of mindset which is, in fact, hurting them as a whole. With no thanks to the media and its influence on what is seen as beautiful, Black America is tearing itself apart when it focuses on such a shallow aspect of a person that they can't control. What a person makes of themselves and all of their aspirations should be what they're judged on - not their skin color. African Americans should stop using skin color to discriminate against each other because it hinders the progression of the entire black community.

Frequent sightings of dark skinned people portrayed negatively in the media is heavily exploited, while light skinned and non-black individuals are portrayed more positively.These kind of prejudgements negatively impact the African American community and prevents the culture from moving forward. Hundreds of years after slavery, the actions of several people in the black community still show that the culture, as a whole, needs to stop and think about the negative connotations they are associating themselves with. Sometimes people make statements such as, "You're pretty for someone who's dark-skinned " or "pretty for a black girl". Phrases such as the ones above are in no shape or form, a compliment. When someone says the above statement they are implying that because of a darker persons complexion, they're automatically supposed to be ugly. Subtle jabs like this can take their toll on the self esteem of a person.

Growing up as a child in a place where being ridiculed and made fun of because your skin is of a darker complexion is one thing that most Americans couldn't even imagine. In an interview with Essence Magazine, actress Viola Davis discusses how, as a child, she too felt the pain of being called an assortment of derogatory terms and shares how after a while, she began to believe that she in fact, was ugly (essence.com). Imagine seeing a little girl who had all of her self confidence ripped from her before she entered the 6th grade. That was the norm for Davis back during her childhood. According to the author of "Exploring the Impact of Skin Tone on Family Dynamics and Race-Related Outcomes," Evidence suggests that racial socialization helps foster the adjustment of children in the face of race-related adversity and serves to protect youth from negative mental health consequences (Hughes, 2006). What many people fail to realize is that children are still developing and in prepubescent kids especially, criticism such as being called ugly and being told you will amount to nothing, can have a substantial effect on the sanity of someone so young. That child is left with that idea stuck in the back of their head throughout life and this idea can be the base of all of the future problems the person has with their self image as an adult.

The Clark Doll Experiment, administered by Kenneth and Mamie Clark, was an experiment that dealt with race and how children perceive it at a young age. The results that came from it were indeed astonishing yet, heartbreaking to say the least.

In the experiment Clark showed black children between the ages of six and nine two dolls, one white and one black, and then asked these questions in this order:

"Show me the doll that you like best or that you'd like to play with,"

"Show me the doll that is the 'nice' doll,"

"Show me the doll that looks 'bad',"

"Give me the doll that looks like a white child,"

"Give me the doll that looks like a coloured child,"

"Give me the doll that looks like a Negro child,"

"Give me the doll that looks like you."

The questionnaire concluded with 44 percent of the black children choosing the white doll as being the doll that looked like them. This study gained a lot of attention because of the fact that young black children were disassociating themselves with their true race. A question that the case leaves lingering in the air is "what made the children choose the white doll instead of the one that was more close to them?"

In American culture, whiteness and more of a European "look" is considered the norm, and as a result, blackness is associated with lesser status. When looking at some celebrities, for instance Nicki Minaj, there has been a drastic change to her appearance since she first came on to the scene. As her popularity arose, she began to seem more increasingly "light". It is clear to the reader that she has altered her appearance. Now why is this you ask? Predictions can be made that in order for her to move up the ladder in the music world, she had to gain crossover appeal by changing her appearance to fit the pop demographic that her managers wanted her to meet. Although she may not agree with some of the ideas her team are putting together to make up her image, it has since propelled her to superstardom.

Even today,some people who are lighter-skinned consider themselves superior to (and more attractive than) darker-skinned Americans. Filmmaker, Spike Lee, commented on this problem in the movie School Daze, where he exposed the problems between light and dark skinned individuals attending a historically black college. One famous scene from the movie involves two groups of women, one group light skinned, and the other dark skinned, as they argue in a hair salon about which group has good hair. Both groups of women use many derogatory words to describe each which shows how ignorance is still apparent even within one's own race. Because of such ignorance, the movie received a lot of criticism after its premiere. Before Lee shed light on the subject, it was a topic that was swept under the table but because of his influence, the problem was brought to national attention.

A 2006, University of Georgia study showed that employers prefer light skinned black men to dark skinned men, regardless of their qualifications. They found that a "light-skinned male could have only a Bachelor's degree and typical work experience and still be preferred over a dark-skinned male with an MBA and past managerial positions"(Harrison 2006). On the other hand, however, in the corporate world, it is assumed that "relative to their lighter-skinned counterparts, darker skinned Blacks have lower levels of education, income, and job status" (Turner 1995). Since this stereotype is in place, "Corporate America" can be seen as nothing more than an imagination in the eyes of a dark person, as if they know that the job wouldn't be inviting to people such as them. So how did black culture become so infused with self hatred? Dark skinned slaves working in the field hated the light skin slaves working in the master's house because of the fact that he chose to "spoil" their lighter counterparts. According to "Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America - an Anthology," One of the most popular methods of teaching this divisive behavior was created by Willie Lynch, a British slave owner in the West Indies, who came to United States to advise American slave owners how to keep their slaves restrained. The darker slaves were forced to work in the fields and received no privileges. This is what began the division within the black community. As history shows, although light skinned blacks were of a higher rank than their black counterparts, they still received scraps at the end of the day (Boyd). This idea is still intact to this day when lighter skinned individuals seem to feel more inferior to darker toned people, but when you ask a Caucasian, or anyone outside of the African American race, what the light skinned individuals would be listed under its always the same response. Black. After slavery, educational institutions, clubs and other activities were reserved only for light skinned black people. In some instances, only those who were lighter than a brown paper bag (paper bag test) would be considered light enough to attend a college or an exclusive club (Boyd).

Sometimes magazines will lighten the skin of black women, just as L'oreal lightened Beyonce's Skin in a controversial makeup ad that made her appear as if she were, indeed, white. The idea of a more eurocentric look comes in to play again as we dig more into America's perception of western beauty. Characteristics of Eurocentric beauty include: white skin, a narrow nose, blonde or brown long straight hair, and thin lips. For some reason, if you don't fulfill these beauty standards, you are considered to be less attractive. Many questions can be raised because of this; who's the decider of what qualifies as beautiful? As cliched as it may sound, beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder, despite what some people may think.

For some, the views and the opinions of others are too much to bare and consider procedures and different cosmetic products as a way to achieve the ever popular "eurocentric" look that they aspire to have. Although this may sound fine and dandy, the procedures and products bring more risks than they do good. Skin bleaching creams have become hot commodity in the black market beauty world. In a world where the only thing that is seen as beautiful is light skin, can others be to blame for the society that they are a product of? These toxic creams strip the skin of its melanin. Although the person achieves the look they intended to reach, their skin is now weak because of the components said products are composed of. On the other hand, everyone is entitled to self happiness, but the real question is are they ready to face all of the possible repercussions of skin bleaching? That is left for the person to decide.

This is a topic that won't ever die because people refuse to stop being ignorant, which is evident by Twitter hashtags like #teamlightskin or #teamdarkskin, where people feud and try to prove who's better based on skin color. Even when various YouTube searches on the topic are pulled up, thousands of results of people - some who try to diffuse the topic, while others add their foolish input. The fact that this topic still remains relevant is ridiculous.

According to "The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order," Dark-skin discrimination occurs within as well as across races (Turner). This idea is known to be true in an assortment of different cultures, most notably in the caste system set in India. The caste system is in place to form a structured society for the people of India based on one's skin color. The lighter a person is, the more power that person holds, while the darker they are makes them more prone to living a harder life. Although life shouldn't be that way for any human being, the darker toned Indians, often called the "untouchables," are subject to hard labor throughout their lives.

To conclude, in many different cultures and countries around the world, skin color plays a huge role in the concept of beauty. Although light skin may be more preferable, those with darker skin still find their way in society. No matter what adversity they may have faced getting there, they eventually find solace in knowing that they're on a road to success.The African American community must join together to show that they are more than just a skin, they are people. Although this may be a rather taboo subject, it needs to be brought to the forefront so it can finally be put to rest. The culture must move past those years of oppression and look to the future and what it has to offer. If the culture continues it current ways, then the oppression will always be there; the cycle must stop and the time has been long overdue. Even though the media has made steps in the right direction to show darker African Americans in a better light, the process must be stepped up a couple of notches to get real results. To reiterate, the color of the skin that you were born with should be just that. What a person makes of themselves and all of their aspirations should be what they're judged on, not their skin color. It doesn't matter where an African American falls on the spectrum of color because at the end of the day, they're still black.

Annotated Bibliography:

Hochschild JL, Weaver V. The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order. Social

Forces. 2007;86(2):643-670. Scholarly article which focuses on African Americans role in society. The article speaks on poverty, racial profiling, and the mental effect all of these can contribute to the sanity of a person.Presents a lot of reliable data and is an easy read.

BlackYouthPrjoect. "Viola Davis: 'I Have Never Felt Pretty'." Black Youth Project.Oct.-Nov.

2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.Viola Davis, Award winning actress discusses how she too, suffered from self esteem issues growing up in a predominantly white area as child. The interview gets an in depth look into her childhood as she talks about growing up in an abusive setting and even goes as far to say that because she was called ugly often, she ended up embracing the term.This article is an interesting and definitely worthwhile read.

Starr, Terrell J. "Light Skinned Blacks Preferred Over Dark-Skinned Ones." The Beer Barrel. 21

Dec. 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. Article that speaks on how lighter africans are preferred over darker african americans in the business field.

Exploring the impact of skin tone on family dynamics and race-related outcomes.

Landor, Antoinette M.; Simons, Leslie Gordon; Simons, Ronald L.; Brody, Gene H.;

Bryant,Chalandra M.; Gibbons, Frederick X.; Granberg, Ellen M.; Melby, Janet N.Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 27(5), Oct 2013, Article which speaks on the self esteem of African americans Following their turbulent history.Speaks on westernized perceptions and how African Americans with self esteem strive to imitate said westernized look.

Boyd, Herb, Robert L. Allen, and Tom Feelings. Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in america. New York: One World, 1995. Print. The article deals with Black men and how they have gotten a bad reputation because of past run ins the community has had with authority in the past. Due to those past discrepancies, Black men are always skeptical of the police department.

School Daze. Dir. Spike Lee. Columbia Pictures, 1988. DVD.

This movie sheds light on an emerging epidemic at the time. The effects of separating light individuals from dark ones found to be rather explosive to say the least. The movie focused on this subject and received mixed reactions From it audience due to some of the rather racist scenes throughout the film.The film has since become a cult favorite now that the issue of light skin vs. dark skin in the African American community has been publicized.

"The Clark Doll Experiment." Abagond. N.p., 29 May 2009. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Scholarly article that focused on African American children and how they felt about being black during the civil rights movement. The experiment called for two dolls, one black , and the other white and the child is asked an assortment of questions regarding which doll is better. The end result is what made the case so explosive and gained notoriety because of the results they received.

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Dark Skin Vs: Light Skin: The Battle of Colorism In The Black Community

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In many different cultures and countries around the world, skin color plays a huge role in the concept of beauty. Lighter skin is often preferable to darker skin. The effects of the African American self-hate toward each other because of one's skin color is rather eye opening and sad, to say the least.

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By Allison Samuels
Talk about words that sting to the core. Harry Reid's recent comments about President Barack Obama's light skin and acceptable non-"Negro" vocabulary and speech brought back a rush of memories that I'm sure most African-Americans would like to forget.

Since the days of slavery, skin color has been used as a tool of separation and preferential treatment within the black community. The residue of the "house" versus "field Negro" divide has long remained with us, even as we celebrated black pride in the '70s and hip-hop culture in the '80s. House slaves were usually products of a relationship between a master and a female slave, so they tended to have lighter skin. The boss's offspring would more than likely receive the special favor of doing work inside the house out of the hot sun. They'd eat better, often get taught to read and write, and enjoyed many of the liberties of nonslaves. Slaves with darker skin were usually stuck toiling in the fields. The anger over that old distinction has never quite gone away in African-American culture.

And Reid's recent controversial and disturbing statements prove that no matter how hard we as African-Americans try to move past a racial stigma that's haunted us for far too long, mainstream America just won't let us let it go.

Ironically, I first encountered the light skin/dark skin debate while attending Clark Atlanta University, a historically black college. Prior to that, black was pretty much black in my hometown of Augusta, Ga. But in the big city, skin color─and all of its perks and disadvantages─became painfully obvious, even to an 18-year-old girl. Our class presidents were often of a lighter hue and the campus beauty queens were without doubt those with fairer skin, straighter hair and finer features. Was this what I came to a black college for?

It turns out it was. I learned that we as blacks had internalized all those misinformed ideals about color from the mainstream population. I learned the politics of hue and the assumption that lighter means better, more polished, and a more privileged background. I learned that no matter my accomplishments, my dark brown skin would be my resume in certain areas of life. It was a painful lesson─one made all the worse by the fact that many of the people harboring these feelings were exactly the same shade of brown I was. But I also learned that since those feelings were imposed on us by others, we won't change until the society overall does.

That's exactly why I don't want President Obama to speak out on this matter. What can he can say about an issue that has plagued this country and African-Americans for hundreds of years? How many people would he anger─no matter how he worded his opinion? Race is a subject on which President Obama just can't win. Unfortunately he'll be forgiving slights like Reid's for as long as he's in office. Do we really want him to comment every time? No. I want my president to focus on terror threats and health care─not social stereotypes that he can do little to squash. Being the first African-American president really ought to be enough.

Many have said that Reid's statement represents a time long gone, but I beg to differ. Look around at African-Americans on commercials, television shows, and movies and you'll see that the mainstream still employs the attitude that lighter and brighter is better. Even the major news shows seem to hire those with more Eurocentric features. Those same images only reinforce the pain to those of us who don't have that look and feel ignored. They often also result in unfair resentment toward those who do.

Reid's comments also go a long way toward explaining why the likes of the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are too often dismissed by the mainstream─no matter how much validity their statements have. Their church-inspired cadence reminds the dominant society of a blackness they are uncomfortable with, and thus they are ignored. Dark skin and a certain way of speaking most often equals "ghetto" and is therefore unacceptable. On the other hand, as Reid himself suggested, Barack Obama was the preferable choice if an African-American were to hold the highest office. His perfect speech and clean-cut look made the mainstream comfortable. There was no ruffling of feathers by being different and certainly not by looking different.

Those antiquated ideas about skin tone are just one reason I took so much interest in writing about first lady Michelle Obama. Though I took my share of heat for it, I felt strongly that her dark brown skin and impeccable work-and-education resume would and could do wonders for those still stuck in the time warp of colorism. There were those who thought a dark brown African-American woman wasn't attractive enough or capable of captivating the national scene. How she's already proved them wrong.

And there is problem in a nutshell. When we only surround ourselves with people who look like us or remind us of ourselves, we miss the opportunity to erase the negative and mostly wrong impressions of those who don't. Sadly in the long run, Reid's comments will be forgotten. The president has accepted his apology (what else could he do?), and the news shows will eventually find something else to focus on. But for brown-skinned people like me, Reid's words will continue to haunt in ways most people will never fully understand.

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The Ugly Roots of the Light Skin/Dark Skin Divide

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Transcendental Graphics-Getty Images By Allison Samuels Talk about words that sting to the core. Harry Reid's recent comments about President Barack Obama's light skin and acceptable non-"Negro" vocabulary and speech brought back a rush of memories that I'm sure most African-Americans would like to forget.

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Joshua

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Historical photos 1800s African American Slave Familes.

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house slaves: an overviewhouse slave was a term used to refer to those enslaved africans relegated to performing domestic work on american slave plantations. typically slave labor on the plantation was divided into two broad categories: house servants and field hands. the process of turning a person into a house servant or field hand was called "seasoning." the goal of seasoning was to socialize the enslaved into disciplined

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obedient workers. the practice itself was coercive and extremely violent.

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House Slaves: An Overview | Encyclopedia.com

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House Slaves: An OverviewHouse slave was a term used to refer to those enslaved Africans relegated to performing domestic work on American slave plantations. Typically slave labor on the plantation was divided into two broad categories: house servants and field hands. The process of turning a person into a house servant or field hand was called "seasoning."

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Andrew

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Malcolm X - THE HOUSE NEGRO AND THE FIELD NEGRO (2009 animation)

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Andrew

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This week, we have a submission from blogger and News & Notes contributor Jasmyne Cannick. She writes about the age-old complexion tensions in the black community.

The "Light Skin Libra Birthday Bash," which was to take place at Detroit's Club APT, was the brainchild of a self described "dark-skinned" African-American Detroit DJ and party promoter. The party was intended to let "light-skinned" black women into a downtown club for free. In his defense, Ulysses "DJ Lish" Barnes, said that he had plans for "Sexy Chocolate" and "Sexy Caramel" parties too. The good news is that the parties have been canceled after much criticism and calls for boycotts and lawsuits.

There are no words for some of the ignorant (insert four letter word that starts with an s, rhymes with hit), that we do to ourselves. But let me give it a try.

History has shown that black people with lighter skin were treated better. In the days of slavery, the dark-skinned blacks worked in the fields while light-skinned blacks worked in the house, hence the terms "field Negroes" and "house Negroes." It got so bad, that not only did the slave owners, who were often responsible for the lighter shade of brown his slaves had, give lighter-skinned blacks more respect, but so did the dark-skinned blacks.

This evolved into generations of blacks both consciously and subconsciously teaching themselves that one is better than the other which eventually led to a billion dollar fake hair industry.

This was best illustrated in Spike Lee's 1988 film "School Daze" in the scene played out in a beauty parlor between the "jiggaboos," otherwise known as the darker-skinned blacks with nappy hair, and the "wannabe's," the lighter-skinned blacks with straight often times weaved hair.

But who could forget the film version of Alice Walker's novel "The Color Purple," in which Mister asked for Nettie who was "chocolate" colored with long hair but was given Celie, who was dark-skinned with nappy and short coarse hair instead. This was followed by a grown up Celie dealing with the harsh realities of beauty and Mista's in-house mistress, Shug Avery.

Then you had black sororities and fraternities who used the "brown paper bag test" to deny entrance to anyone darker than the bag.

There continues to be black children who prefer to play with dolls that are white with blond hair and blue eyes. Some black children actually identify with these dolls over dolls of their own race, which could explain the 2003 case between two Georgia Applebee's restaurant employees.

At the time, Dwight Burch, a dark-skinned waiter, was an Applebee's restaurant employee. He filed a lawsuit against Applebee's and his light-skinned African-American manager alleging that during his employment, the manager repeatedly referred to him as a "black monkey" and a "tar baby" and told Burch to bleach his skin. Burch claimed he was fired after he refused to do so. His case settled for $40,000.

But what about decades of rap music videos where the preferred "ho" is a lighter shade of brown? And the fact that only recently we're seeing advertisements that highlight black women who chose to wear their hair in its natural state and are dark-skinned, even in our own magazines.

Remember actress Jennifer Beals' famous, "I thought I would never get in. I thought they only took geniuses. But I was lucky, because I'm a minority. I'm not Black, and I'm not White, so I could mark 'other' on my application, and I guess it's hard for them to fill that quota," quote on how she got into Yale University.

Beals, whose father was black, seldom identifies with the black community despite being nominated for an NAACP Image Award. And then there was singer Prince, who despite having black parents, listed in his press bio at one time that he was Italian, among other things, when he made it in the business.

More recently there was the University of Georgia's 2006 controversial study on skin tone which confirmed that light-skinned blacks are often more likely to be considered for jobs over dark-skinned blacks.

Wrap it all together and what you get a classic example of Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary's P.T.S.S., otherwise known as post-traumatic slave syndrome.

You know, I can't think of one time that I witnessed or heard of white children taunting each other for being paler than the next, but I can think of numerous occasions where I have seen black children teasing each other for being "too black."

And while our lighter skin shades can be attributed to the Massuh's preference for his female black slaves over his own wife, we can't blame the Massuh for us continuing to feed into the hype that light is good and dark is bad.

Over the weekend, I attended Los Angeles' Taste of Soul Festival. I observed for quite some time the activity at a booth selling hair extensions. Black women, young and old, light and dark, crowded the booth to touch and feel the long straight flowing hair extensions that were guaranteed not to shed to "nap up." This while nearby booths, offering free diabetes, obesity, and HIV/AIDS tests went virtually unnoticed. Go figure.

While the party in Detroit is sad, it's the manifestation of generations of blacks still buying into the slave "house Negro" and "field Negro" mentality given to us by the Massuh. Don't you think there are enough forces out there trying to divide us without us giving them a helping hand?

You know, it's funny I never heard of lighter prison sentences for lighter blacks. Black is black no matter how light or how dark your skin is.

And on a side note, I find it completely baffling that while some of us (Lil' Kim) are out there trying to lengthen, lighten, and straighten our hair, bleach our skin, and even resort to plastic surgery to change our nose, on the flipside they're busy with botox, breast and butt implants, and tanning salons. -- Jasmyne Cannick

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Blogger Jasmyne Cannick weighs in on the age-old complexion tensions in the black community.

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Light skin Slave

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By Janayla

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By Janayla

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House slaves usually lived better than field slaves. They usually had better food and were sometimes given the family's cast-off clothing. William Wells Brown, a slave from Lexington, Kentucky, explained in his autobiography, Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave (1847): "I was a house servant - a situation preferable to that of a field hand, as I was better fed, better clothed, and not obliged to rise at the ringing of the bell, but about half an hour after."

Not all slave-owners took this view, Harriet Jacobs, a house slave from Edenton, North Carolina, reports that on Sunday her mistress "would station herself in the kitchen, and wait till it was dished, and then spit in all the kettles and pans" to make sure that the slaves did not eat what was left over. Jacobs adds: "She did this to prevent the cook and her children from eking out their meager fare with the remains of the gravy and other scrapings. The slaves could get nothing to eat except what she chose to give them. Provisions were weighed out by the pound and ounce, three times a day. I can assure you she gave them no chance to eat wheat bread from her flour barrel. She knew how many biscuits a quart of flour would make, and exactly what size they ought to be."

Their living accommodation was also better than those of other slaves. In some cases the slaves were treated like the slave-owners children. However, Lewis Clarke believed that some house slaves were worse off than field slaves: "There were four house-slaves in this family, including myself, and though we had not, in all respects, so hard work as the field hands, yet in many things our condition was much worse. We were constantly exposed to the whims and passions of every member of the family; from the least to the greatest their anger was wreaked upon us. Nor was our life an easy one, in the hours of our toil or in the amount of labor performed. We were always required to sit up until all the family had retired; then we must be up at early dawn in summer, and before day in winter."

When this happened close bonds of affection and friendship usually developed. Even though it was illegal, some house slaves were educated by the women in the family. Trusted house slaves who had provided good service over a long period of time were sometimes promised their freedom when their master's died. However, there are many cases where this promise was not kept.

Gad Heuman and James Walvin, the authors of (2003): "The domestic life of whites was dominated by slave domestics. Visitors, again, were struck by the huge numbers of black servants working in and around the homes of white people in the slave colonies. Nannies and nurses, cooks, and washers, gardeners and cleaners, each and every conceivable domestic role was undertaken by slaves. Overwhelmingly women, slave domestics faced different problems from their contemporaries in the fields. Though perhaps better-off materially, domestic slaves often had uncomfortable relations with their white owners. They faced all the potential aggravations of close proximity, from sexual threats through to white women's dissatisfaction and anger."

There were four house-slaves in this family, including myself, and though we had not, in all respects, so hard work as the field hands, yet in many things our condition was much worse. We were constantly exposed to the whims and passions of every member of the family; from the least to the greatest their anger was wreaked upon us. Nor was our life an easy one, in the hours of our toil or in the amount of labor performed. We were always required to sit up until all the family had retired; then we must be up at early dawn in summer, and before day in winter. If we failed, through weariness or for any other reason, to appear at the first morning summons, we were sure to have our hearing quickened by a severe chastisement. Such horror has seized me, lest I might not hear the first shrill call, that I have often in dreams fancied I heard that unwelcome call, and have leaped from my couch and walked through the house and out of it before I awoke. I have gone and called the other slaves, in my sleep, and asked them if they did not hear master call. Never, while I live, will the remembrance of those long, bitter nights of fear pass from my mind.

Mrs. Flint, like many southern women, was totally deficient in energy. She had not strength to superintend her household affairs; but her nerves were so strong, that she could sit in her easy chair and see a woman whipped, till the blood trickled from every stroke of the lash. She was a member of the church; but partaking of the Lord's supper did not seem to put her in a Christian frame of mind. If dinner was not served at the exact time on that particular Sunday, she would station herself in the kitchen, and wait till it was dished, and then spit in all the kettles and pans that had been used for cooking. She did this to prevent the cook and her children from eking out their meager fare with the remains of the gravy and other scrapings. The slaves could get nothing to eat except what she chose to give them. Provisions were weighed out by the pound and ounce, three times a day. I can assure you she gave them no chance to eat wheat bread from her flour barrel. She knew how many biscuits a quart of flour would make, and exactly what size they ought to be.

When eight years of age, I was taken to the "great house," or the family mansion of my master, to serve as an errand boy, where I had to stand in the presence of my master's family all the day, and a part of the night, ready to do any thing which they commanded me to perform. My master's family consisted of himself and wife, and seven children.

Mrs. Helm was a very industrious woman, and generally busy in her household affairs - sewing, knitting, and looking after the servants; but she was a great scold, - continually finding fault with some of the servants, and frequently punishing the young slaves herself, by striking them over the head with a heavy iron key, until the blood ran; or else whipping them with a cowhide, which she always kept by her side when sitting in her room. The older servants she would cause to be punished by having them severely whipped by a man, which she never failed to do for every trifling fault. I have felt the weight of some of her heaviest keys on my own head, and for the slightest offences. No slave could possibly escape being punished - I care not how attentive they might be, nor how industrious - punished they must be, and punished they certainly were.

Mrs. Helm appeared to be uneasy unless some of the servants were under the lash. She came into the kitchen one morning and my mother, who was cook, had just put on the dinner. Mrs. Helm took out her white cambric handkerchief, and rubbed it on the inside of the pot, and it crocked it! That was enough to invoke the wrath of my master, who came forth immediately with his horse-whip, with which he whipped my poor mother most unmercifully-far more severely than I ever knew him to whip a horse.

During the time that Mr. Cook was overseer, I was a house servant - a situation preferable to that of a field hand, as I was better fed, better clothed, and not obliged to rise at the ringing of the bell, but about half an hour after. I have often laid and heard the crack of the whip, and the screams of the slave. My mother was a field hand, and one morning was ten or fifteen minutes behind the others in getting into the field. As soon as she reached the spot where they were at work, the overseer commenced whipping her. She cried, "Oh! pray - Oh! pray - Oh! pray" - these are generally the words of slaves, when imploring mercy at the hands of their oppressors. I heard her voice, and knew it, and jumped out of my bunk, and went to the door. Though the field was some distance from the house, I could hear every crack of the whip, and every groan and cry of my poor mother. I remained at the door, not daring to venture any further. The cold chills ran over me, and I wept aloud. After giving her ten lashes, the sound of the whip ceased, and I returned to my bed, and found no consolation but in my tears. Experience has taught me that nothing can be more heart-rending than for one to see a dear and beloved mother or sister tortured, and to hear their cries, and not be able to render them assistance. But such is the position which an American slave occupies.

Mrs. Williams was a kind-hearted good woman, and she treated all her slaves well. She had only one daughter, Miss Betsey, for whom I was purchased, and who was about my own age. I was made quite a pet of by Miss Betsey, and loved her very much. She used to lead me about by the hand, and call me her little *******. This was the happiest period of my life; for I was too young to understand rightly my condition as a slave, and too thoughtless and full of spirits to look forward to the days of toil and sorrow. My mother was a household slave in the same family. I was under her own care, and my little brothers and sisters were my play-fellows and companions.

My mother had several fine children after she came to Mrs. Williams, - three girls and two boys. The tasks given out to us children were light, and we used to play together with Miss Betsey, with as much freedom almost as if she had been our sister.

My master, however, was a very harsh, selfish man; and we always dreaded his return from sea. His wife was herself much afraid of him; and, during his stay at home, seldom dared to show her usual kindness to the slaves. He often left her, in the most distressed circumstances, to reside in other female society, at some place in the West Indies of which I have forgot the name. My poor mistress bore his ill-treatment with great patience, and all her slaves loved and pitied her. I was truly attached to her, and, next to my own mother, loved her better than any creature in the world. My obedience to her commands was cheerfully given: it sprung solely from the affection I felt for her, and not from fear of the power which the white people's law had given her over me.

(6) Malcolm X, speech (9th November, 1963)

If you're afraid of black nationalism, you're afraid of revolution. And if you love revolution, you love black nationalism. To understand this, you have to go back to what the young brother here referred to as the house Negro and the field Negro back during slavery. There were two kinds of slaves, the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes - they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good because they ate his food - what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved the master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master's house - quicker than the master would. If the master said, "We got a good house here," the house Negro would say, "Yeah, we got a good house here." Whenever the master said "we," he said "we." That's how you can tell a house Negro.

If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master, more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, "Let's run away, let's escape, let's separate," the house Negro would look at you and say, "Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?" That was that house Negro. In those days he was called a "house *******." And that's what we call them today, because we've still got some house ******* running around here.

This modern house Negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He'll pay three times as much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about "I'm the only Negro out here." "I'm the only one on my job." "I'm the only one in this school." You're nothing but a house Negro. And if someone comes to you right now and says, "Let's separate," you say the same thing that the house Negro said on the plantation. "What you mean, separate? From America, this good white man? Where you going to get a better job than you get here?" I mean, this is what you say. "I ain't left nothing in Africa," that's what you say. Why, you left your mind in Africa.

On that same plantation, there was the field Negro. The field Negroes - those were the masses. There were always more Negroes in the field than there were Negroes in the house. The Negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the house they ate high up on the hog. The Negro in the field didn't get anything but what was left of the insides of the hog.

The field Negro was beaten from morning to night; he lived in a shack, in a hut; he wore old, castoff clothes. He hated his master. I say he hated his master. He was intelligent. That house Negro loved his master, but that field Negro - remember, they were in the majority, and they hated the master. When the house caught on fire, he didn't try to put it out; that field Negro prayed for a wind, for a breeze. When the master got sick, the field Negro prayed that he'd die. If someone came to the field Negro and said, "Let's separate, let's run," he didn't say, "Where we going?" He'd say, "Any place is better than here."

Slave work involved much more than mere labouring in the fields. Indeed, slaves undertook the most varied of working tasks, from the simplest of labours through to the most skilled of crafts, everywhere in the Americas. Each of the major American export crops required its own particular skills, in cultivation, cropping, processing and transportion. And each slave settlement required that range of artisans whose abilities made possible the functioning of local economic and social life. Carpenters and masons, factory foremen, distillers, nurses and transport slaves all added their skills and working experiences to the well-being of local slave society. The domestic life of whites was dominated by slave domestics. Visitors, again, were struck by the huge numbers of black servants working in and around the homes of white people in the slave colonies. Nannies and nurses, cooks, and washers, gardeners and cleaners, each and every conceivable domestic role was undertaken by slaves. Overwhelmingly women, slave domestics faced different problems from their contemporaries in the fields. Though perhaps better-off materially, domestic slaves often had uncomfortable relations with their white owners. They faced all the potential aggravations of close proximity, from sexual threats through to white women's dissatisfaction and anger. But it is surely a sign of the domestic slaves' superior station that a standard threat and punishment was to dispatch troublesome domestics to field work. Female domestic slaves generally wanted their daughters to follow them, rather than be trained up for manual labour outside.

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House slaves usually lived better than field slaves. They usually had better food and were sometimes given the family's cast-off clothing. Not all slave-owners took this view, Harriet Jacobs, a house slave from Edenton, North Carolina, reports that on Sunday her mistress "would station herself in the kitchen, and wait till it was dished, and then spit in all the kettles and pans" to make sure that the slaves did not eat what was left over."