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• 1 media/Slaves quarters in the cellar of the old knickerbocker mansion.jpeg 2021-10-28T02:45:38+00:00 Earth- Survival-Brief View into Quarter Life and Culture 27 plain 2021-12-18T02:42:35+00:00

   

  Life

  Enslaved people had to do a better job of prioritizing problems. As the sale was always possible and could come at a moment's notice, enslaved people, for the most part, learned to appreciate their space and place with others as long as they could.

  This is not to say that all enslaved people did or got along all the time. There was undoubtedly intra-slave community conflict. Being enslaved did not reduce the possibility of petty and large community problems. The slave condition also exaggerated issues. 

  Nevertheless, because Slavery bound all slaves to the possibility of sale or death [physical or social], they had more incentive to focus on cherishing individuals and finding ways to reconcile problems.  
  
  

  Home

  To the enslaved, home served as the grand refresher—the storehouse of slave resilience. At home, a slave gained more control over their life. In the home, one can truly gain a sense of the slave adaptation to the institution of Slavery. 

  Slavery was physically but also psychologically complicated, and sometimes the home, family, community, and community worship could only do so much.

  Some struggled to cope, and others found other coping ways that were not as productive to themselves or the community. On the other hand, some turned to things such as alcohol, fighting, or gambling. 

  Slavery was a recurring situation that held no grand goals for the slave but held work and death before them always as they built the dreams of others. It was frustrating that slaves did not have the opportunity to actualize their own potential as a people and build a world as they saw fit. 

  The Quarters

  What helped to ease the mind of the enslaved was the time that the enslaved people had to themselves or in the quarters. Although the entire plantation was a contested space, the quarters served as a space that attempted to reverse and throw off the plantation ideals, where enslaved people were humiliated and demeaned. In the quarters where slave culture took precedence, the slave had greater chances of being imbued with positivity and dignity and valued creativity. The quarters were also where the slave ideals were lifted up and expressed. In the quarters, slaves "spent these moments doing everything conducive to instilling and preserving a positive self-image and a healthy psyche." 

  Night (slave quarters) 

  Enslaved people worked from can't see in the morning until can't see at night. Without electricity, darkness played a larger role in the activities enslaved people could perform at night. Nevertheless, the night did not always end the day's labor, as duties such as repairing tools, fences or store houses and preparing food for the next day were often carried out at night. 

  The labor of love commenced at night with family duties—preparing a meal for the family, walking miles to see family, checking on a sick friend, or taking food to runaways hidden away in a local hiding spot. 

  It entailed time away from the white presence; the nighttime was unique for enslaved people who worked in the fields or returned to the slave quarters after laboring somewhere else for the day. 

  At night, enslaved people found their rhythm. After the evening meal, the community often spent time together around the quarters. Many gathered around fires to talk, update each other on the news, turn down pots to sing, tell and listen to stories about the history of their people, famous runaways and maroon communities, or tales of Brer Rabbit or the BoogeyMan. 

  These movements helped to make a people and a culture. Through routine, similar goals, and proximity in all matters, from labor to leisure, what was forged with direct, organic, and coincidental happenings was a life enslaved people made their own. 

  At night, the enslaved personality came alive. It was where it was replenished and rejuvenated. To this, Allen Parker noted, "For the Night was the Slaves' Holiday." 

  As we realize the enslaved people looked forward to the time they had to themselves, it is important to note that work slows and breaking tools were not simply signs of resisting labor demands and hard work, as blacks worked hard. These signs of resistance were also ways to conserve energy to spend it with the people they loved, the people they desired to be around, doing the things they enjoyed, and labor for the direct benefit of the people they loved. 
  

  Night was also therapeutic and meditative. The night reminded them that there was a life beyond laboring for someone else. It gave them rest and restoration. African Americans were a "Night People." At night, their territory expanded, their mobility increased, they moved about in ways slaveholders could only imagine, and that too, terrified whites who feared insurrection would come like a thief in the night. Yet, notwithstanding this fear, "no one ever seemed to find an adequate answer to the problem of restraining the movement of slaves." 

  Not to over idealize the night, it cannot be overlooked that enslaved people would have been tired and drained after every day of labor, particularly during harvest season. It was common for parents to stay up like James Curry's mother to patch clothes and only get a few hours of sleep. "Parents would often have to work for their children at home, after each day's protracted toil, till the middle of the night, and then snatch a few hours' sleep, to get strength for the heavy burdens of the next day." But it needs to be said that enslaved people lived beyond the light of the sun and spent a lot of time under the light of the moon. 

  Culture 

  Slave culture was not prefect. Some enslaved people could not use the mental and physical aids to help their mind. Lerone Bennet Jr remarked, as a result some enslaved persons fell to the attack of slavery on their mind and bodies. And, for many others, they pined-away [waste away in sadness and depression and longing for someone or something]. "Seeing no way out and facing the certainty of death without martyrdom or monuments, masked their feelings and went through the motions of obeisance [deferential respect]."