Group+2+Common+People's+Experiences

Group 2 Common People's Experiences -Jenna Taylor

__Cultivation__
During the colonial time period producing and finding food was very difficult. During the long hot summers, not much precipitation would have fell; the fields were dry and miserable. Therefore, the south was suffering from a drought, the corn, squash and many other crops could not grow. After all the hand planted seeds, the back breaking work that these slaves suffered through, it was such a shame to come to find out that, the weather was to harsh for their food to grow. Everyone had to work, even the children and women; there was a job for everyone and most of these jobs were done by hand. These chores were endless for all slaves. There was no high tech machinery in the colonial time period. The workers only had animal power and what strength and endurance that was left from the work they produced the day before.

__-Cotton Economy__
Before the Civil War had begun, most of the weathly men in american were from the south and most of them were cotton planters. Planters that were wealthy typically had enough money to maximize their income by planting larger proportions of their land in cotton. Cotton was the crop that brought in the highest profit in the long term. Not so weathly farmers, that had smaller farms, had to put into consideration that both animals and people had to eat regardless of the yeild and the price of cotton. Even though farmers and planters usually grew a mixture of cotton and corn, farmers without slaves usually planted a much greater amount of corn and other foods crops.

__Slaves__ The majority of blacks living in the Chesapeake worked on tobacco plantations and large farms. All the Southern Plantations required quite a few slaves. Not only one slave could do all the work, that is why there was many slaves working on one plantation. The harvesting of tobacco is extremely labor intensive, African Americans could not avoid this hard work. No matter what the weather was, or how hot, all the slaves still had to work. Both men and women slaves, worked all year round suffering through back breaking work for up to eighteen hours per day. Each slave had to work just as much as another. Women slaves were required to work and accomplish everything the men could do. Although all slaves had to work, there were different jobs for different slaves, that would basically give the slave a rank. Some of the slaves had different standings; such as the slaves that worked in the house. The slaves that worked in the houses were considered "higher" ranked. They had more privileges and got better food then the slaves that worked outside. Phillis Wheatley, for example, was a house slave; she was probably one of the better treated slaves. She is very famous for what she did, and that was writing poems that got published. Even though she had a short life of 21 years, people can see that she must have been a brilliant girl. Being a slave that wrote poems, an example of how well she was treated. Most slaves were not allowed to learn how to read and write.

__Citations__ -Scott, Carole. "America's Colonial Period." //Colonial Peoples//. Volume 1.50 (1997): Ex: 1. Print. -"Colonial Farmer." (June 2006): n. page. Print -"Women In History." //Phillis Wheatley Biography//. Vol. 8. (9/23/2012): n. page. Print. -Iowa State University,. "American Agricultural History Primer." //Cotton Economy Of The Old South//. Vol. 1. Page: 28. Print.

[]
__Picture 2:__ []

__Picture of Phillis Wheatley:__
[]