Limitations of Freedom - Essay Example

This answer will consist of the advantages first, then the disadvantages of being a field slave or house servant. House servants had several advantages. They generally had to do house chores, which were hard, but not dangerous. These chores included, but not limited to, cleaning, dusting, washing, cooking, childcare, and planting gardens for the household’s use. A household servant might have the advantage of eating better than a field slave. They were required to remain cleaner than a field slave.

In the wintertime, a house servant was protected somewhat more than a field hand from the weather. Yet, they also had chores outside, such as gathering wood, drawing water, and shoveling snow, but it was not constantly like a field hand. The biggest advantage for a house servant was the opportunity to learn (Kelley and Lewis, 142). When watching young white children, they could play school. Other ways to learn would be if a progressive master allowed a favorite slave the right to read. In the fields, slaves had no opportunity to learn anything but fieldwork or trades.

Field slaves had the advantage of being away from whites continuously. Although a white overseer would be in place, but an overseer could supervise hundreds of slaves or have many acres to cover in a day. The best advantage of being a field slave was the opportunity to learn a trade. Field slaves were counted on to fulfill not only all planting, but the maintenance on a farm or in a household. Masonry, carpenters, animal caretaker, and other trades were open to the field slaves. The disadvantages to both types of slaves outnumber the advantages.

One disadvantage was house servants came into closer contact with whites. Kelley and Lewis explain “This meant everything from assignment to petty jobs to insults, spontaneous angry whippings, and sexual assaults”