A group of “contrabands” in Cumberland Landing, Virginia. In 1861, Union soldiers refused to send slaves who came to Fort Monroe back to their owners. (Library of Congress)

June 14, 2011

If you were a slave child 150 years ago, your life would be hard. How hard? Harder if you worked on a huge plantation in the Deep South rather than on a smaller one in Virginia or Maryland. Harder if you worked in the fields rather than in the house. And hardest if your owner used cruel punishments or broke up your family by selling off a parent or sibling.

Let’s pretend you’re a house servant in southeastern Virginia. You are busy with chores at least from dawn till dusk, but it’s easier than field work. At night you sleep on a mat somewhere in the Big House instead of in a slave cabin with your mother and siblings. (Your father doesn’t live with your family because he belongs to the owner of a nearby plantation.)