Slavery at Historic Sotterley

How did the Slaves live?

What was a Slave Cabin used for?

How did Slavery affect Sotterley?

The Slave Cabin was used for slaves to live in. They had a small loft in the slave cabin. They had a ladder to get up to the loft, but they changed to stairs over time. The slave children would usually sleep upstairs, but the parents usually slept downstairs on the dirt floor. There were very few windows. The slaves actually had a fireplace. Outside of the slave cabin, there is a small fenced in area for farming and gardening. The cabin was on the side of a small road. Most slaves worked in the fields. The slaves shared the cabin with other slaves too. It is the only surviving slave cabin at Sotterley! Without the Slave Cabin, the slaves would not have a place to stay.

Want to know more about the Slave Cabin? Read this page to find out more!

Slave Cabin Artifacts

The Slave Cabin at Sotterley is very important. The slaves that used to live at Sotterley left behind a lot of cool artifacts that played a role in the their daily lives. This picture is a fireplace that they had. As you can see it is made of brick which is probably a material for your fireplace at your house. But this fireplace is a fireplace that has a hook so that you can hook a pot on to make dinner. In this fireplace there is no wood but one slab of it. There was many pots and pans but, guess what those were: for making food of the slaves’ master. At Sotterley you will learn that the slaves’ master gave the slaves things to eat, but the slaves had to make it themselves. The master didn’t have to give the slaves food. If you were a slave you would have to like all kinds of food that your master would give you if he was generous enough to even give you any food at all, if you wanted to eat it was whatever your master said it should be.

Slaves were treated horribly. The slave cabin was about the size of a bedroom. But about 4-5 families lived in a slave cabin. The unfair treatment to slaves has left a lot of artifacts around today in exhibits, such as the whips that the slaves masters used to whip the slaves. Another group of artifacts are the tools that the slaves used in the fields, such as the shovels that the slaves used to make holes in the ground to put the seeds. Some slaves worked harder than others. But if you were a slave, that didn’t matter, because you worked hard your whole life and you never ever got paid. An artifact that can be found at the slave cabin at Sotterley is the poker that the slaves used to tame the fire that kept the slaves from freezing to death and getting frost bite on cold winter nights. Some artifacts that most people consider not important, but are very important, because that poker kept the fire controllable. It also kept the fire from burning down the slave cabin, and most people consider the poker that the slaves used not very important. Slaves had a very harsh life. In the slave cabin at Sotterley, there are many artifacts that prove that slavery is wrong.

This is a photo of the trap that they used to catch fish from the lake for food. They make it out of pieces of wooden sticks.

This is a whip that the owners used to whip their slaves, so the slaves would work. Back then, slaves weren’t treated as nicely as we treat people now.

The Slave Cabin at Sotterley

This is a photograph of a slave cabin that the slaves use to live in and sleep in. They are small because the owners didn’t want to waste the land.

This is the floor/ceiling of the upstairs loft that the children slaves use to sleep in. The children only, use to live in the upstairs part of the slave cabin.

These are the stairs that the slave children used to go to the loft, which is where the children slept. The stairs used to be a ladder, but then the slaves made the ladder stairs. Adult slaves sleep with babies on the first floor. Children sleep in the loft.

This is the fireplace where the slaves cooked their meals so they can eat daily like we can except they eat supper at 8 pm. They weren’t like the people who lived normally back then, they were supposed to take care of themselves. It is completely made out of bricks. The slaves had to make there own dishes and they didn't have a lot of dishes, they had like three or four dishes.

This was the slave cabin door. It is big but the cabin is quite small.

The Lifestyle of the Slaves:

Slaves were used for doing work for owners of plantation.
They lived in a small cabin with one wooden bed and a loft.
The slaves used wood cages to catch hogs and animals.
They had to cook their own food.
When they were not in the cabin, they were working in the fields.
The children slept in the loft upstairs.
The slaves worked in the fields and for the plantation owner until they died.
Slaves do not get land and money after working on the farm like indentured servants.
Slaves were only in their cabin when they slept. They did not need the cabin for any other use.
Slaves ate whatever their owner supplied them.
Slaves were whipped and beaten by their owners if they did not do something right.
Slaves made their houses by themselves.
The women mostly worked inside the “Big House”, or the owner's house, and served them by getting things they need and doing things they tell them to.
The men mostly worked on the farm, growing tobacco, corn, beans, squash, and other things on the farm. They also rolled big barrels called “Hogsheads” on “Rolling Road” to get to the ships that used to arrive at Sotterley Creek.
The children picked the bugs off of the tobacco, so the bugs would not eat the tobacco.
Rolling Road was a path that lead from the plantation, where they grow the crops, to the creek. That is where the ships could come into the creek to get the crops for trading purposes.
They would trade all of the crops for other goods at the creek.
Sometimes the slaves would get very sick and no one will help except for other slaves.
The slaves ground corn in a cup to make flour for corn cakes.
Slaves were bought by owners of plantations to work.
The owner of the slaves made slaves work even if they were two years old! If someone was not above two years old then the owner probably would not buy them.
The slaves would have to help each other in the field and in the cabin. Slave children would have to work and do the same job there parents did, even though it was unfair they still had to hard work.
The plantation owner can have a lot of slaves. He/she could put a lot of slaves in one cabin so it gets cramped.
There was usually one slave cabin on a plantation because of the fact that you don't want to waste space.
There was usually four to five families of slaves in one cabin.

This is the slaves’ garden. They used it to grow their own plants. The slaves had to plant, farm, and make their own food.

Did You Know?

Did you know the Slave Cabin had no windows until later years when Sotterley made it a museum?
Did you know that in the slave cabins children had to sleep upstairs by themselves?
Did you know the Slave Cabin was made of wood?
Did you know that it had no stairs, only a ladder, but when the museum opened they replaced it with a staircase?
Did you know they had only a few pots or pans?
Did you know that here was seventeen people in the slave cabin?
Did you know that the house was only a couple meters long and a couple tall?
Did you know that the slave cabin’s walls were very wretched and weathered?
Did you know that the slaves built their own house instead of the Colonists?
Did you know that the children in the Slave Cabin worked almost all the time?
Did you know that the slaves slept on the floor?
Did you know that the Slave Cabin’s fireplace was made of bricks?
Did you know that when the first slaves arrived they had nothing?

Click here to learn more about Slavery at Sotterley Plantation!

Report abuse