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[105] This reproduction would either be forced between one African slave and another, or between the slave woman and the owner. Slave owners saw slave women in terms of prospective fertility. That way, the number of slaves on a plantation could multiply without having to purchase another African.
Often the purchasers of family members were left with no choice but to maintain, on paper, the owner–slave relationship. In the 1850s, "there were increasing efforts to restrict the right to hold bondsmen on the grounds that slaves should be kept 'as far as possible under the control of white men only. ' " [16]
Between 1766 and 1799, seven dower slaves worked at one time or another as overseers. [47] Slaves were expected to work from sunrise to sunset over a six-day work week that was standard on Virginia plantations. With two hours off for meals, their workdays would range between seven and a half hours to thirteen hours, depending on season.
The reason was that the cheapest slaves to buy were negros novos (newly arrived Africans), since they neither spoke Portuguese nor were acculturated to the slave society in any way; [115] they had to be broken in. [116] Slaves purchased sub-slaves from the same language group. "With the owner's consent, a slave purchased the substitute ...
Slavery was common for the Nahuas, so their language included nouns, for example, for "slave merchant" and for "slave", and a verb for the "selling of people". [69] Their southern neighbors, the Maya , captured and enslaved Spaniards beginning in 1511; [ 70 ] some of the enslaved European women, forced to grind corn, died of overwork.
Slave labor was not free of the perils of war, and Confederates occasionally wrote about slave laborers facing enemy shelling. [59] While slave-owners expected compensation when slaves died in the service of the Confederate Army, most Confederates did not own slaves and preferred a dead black worker than a dead white one.
[4] In 1979, economist Laurence Kotlikoff analyzed a set of New Orleans slave sale prices from the period 1804 to 1862 and concluded "There is no evidence that slave owners valued the integrity of the entire slave family, although some evidence that they valued particular relationships within the family."
Slavery's role in the economy and the power of slave owners slowly diminished while laws gradually improved the rights of slaves. [ 203 ] [ 204 ] [ 205 ] Under the influence of Christianity, views of slavery shifted leading to slaves gaining more rights and independence, and although slavery became rare and was seen as evil by many citizens it ...