HIS106Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 35: Offender Profiling, Amanuensis, Venture Smith
Document Summary
Labour and servitude urban slaves and free blacks. Although their options were limited, african slaves and free blacks and mulattos found ways to obtain manumission and navigate their freedom. Manumission: the act of a slave owner freeing their slaves. Urban slavery: not as grueling as plantation work. Better fed and clothes and housed (master wanted them to look better if they were to be seen). Higher life expectancy, more freedom of movement, higher manumission rates. Any kind of slavery was horrible with no exceptions even urban slaves often had terrible living conditions. Treatment depended on the disposition of the master. People of african descent across americas had coping strategies whether slave or free. Elites of colonial society wanted slaves, and the more they had would demonstrate their wealth and social status, as well as to avoid manual work and keep their house neat. They had several domestic slaves for different tasks - often a dowry would include a slave.
