At the end of the workday and on Sundays and Christmas, most enslaved people had a few hours to tend to personal needs. They often spent this time doing their own household chores or working in their own gardens.
Many masters allowed their slaves to raise chickens, vegetables, and tobacco during their spare time, and sometimes they were allowed to sell these things to earn a small amount of money. Packing tobacco into a hogshead, American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.
When they could, slaves spent their evenings and limited free time visiting friends or family who might live nearby, telling stories, singing, and dancing. Many of these activities combined familiar African traditions with British customs learned in the New World. Some musical instruments used by enslaved people were similar to those used in Africa. The banjo, made out of a hollow gourd, and the drum were two instruments that slaves made and used to create music.
In Virginia, teaching enslaved people to read and write was generally not encouraged. Black Virginians kept some parts of their African religions as well. Contrary to the overwhelming image of the grand Southern plantation worked by hundreds of slaves, most agricultural units in the South up until about two decades before the Civil War were small farms with 20 to 30 slaves each.
Ploughing cotton detail. Georgia Division of Archives and History. Office of Secretary of State. Slave cottage near Bardstown, Kentucky. Many held on to the religious traditions they had brought with them from Africa. Christian missionaries feared and misunderstood these traditions, and wanted to convert the slaves, who they considered "heathens".
Anglicans were the first group to try to convert slaves in North Carolina, but didn't achieve much success. The early colonial slaves were reluctant to give up their familiar and meaningful traditions, and saw no reason to adopt the religion of those who enslaved them. By the early s, slaves were converting to Christianity in increasingly large numbers. Protestant groups like the Baptists and Methodists were more successful at recruiting new members than the Anglicans had been.
They approached African Americans on a more equal footing, and held joint revivals for whites and blacks. Slaveholders were uneasy with this religious fervor.
They worried that converting to Christianity would encourage their slaves to think of themselves as spiritual equals and demand better treatment or even freedom.
Slave owners also resented the time slaves spent at religious services as time not spent working. Despite these objections from their masters, many slaves enthusiastically participated in religious services, which provided them some relief from work, time for fellowship with other slaves, and a way to express their spiritual faith.
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