The Big House and Slave Quarters

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Big House and Slave Quarters Arrangement
Slaveholders Justification of the Quality of Housing Built for Slaves
How Slaves Created Privacy and Control over their Spaces
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Thomas Jefferson was the first person to articulate the concept of race in the United States. His words appeared to justify slavery in that while he was promoting freedom and democracy, he supported the system of slavery and exploitation of people who were not white (Pasch, 2019). Moreover, scientists expanded on the ideas about human dissimilarities showing Caucasians as superior and the Blacks inferior furthering the concept of racism. This paper discusses the slave quarters, slaveholders’ justification of the quality of housing, and how slaves created privacy and control within their spaces.

The Big House and Slave Quarters Arrangement

The slaveholders developed permanent architectural dwellings that were called the big house, and the slave house was built from hewn logs, covered with clay or mud of the region, and looked fittingly primitive to whites (Wright, 1981). The cabins were sometimes scattered randomly along the plantation edges. However, many slave owners had the quarters arranged in a village-like grouping at the back of their big house to survey the activities of the slaves on their spaces.

Slaveholders Justification of the Quality of Housing Built for Slaves

The slaveholders justified the quality of housing built for slaves, as the enslaved were dirty, promiscuous, morally and socially undeveloped, resistant to disease, and illiterate. This assumption correlates to the scientific racism that portrayed whites as the superior race and the blacks as inferior. Therefore, slaveholders believed that God created the enslaved to be slaves. Scientific racism increased their perceptions of the difference in the races.

How Slaves Created Privacy and Control over their Spaces

Slaves ensured privacy and control in their spaces in the plantations. First, they would hide their houses behind the outside wall so that the slaveholders would not be able to see their activities. Second, they would hang up their clothes to establish boundaries, and others built partitions from scrap wood. Third, parents designed modified trundle beds to create privacy during lovemaking. Finally, they used a horseshoe or magical objects to bar people from entering their homes. The enslaved created ways in which they had boundaries from one family to the other within the plantations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, slavery had always been pre-existent, but it was not associated with physical appearance. Over time, the whites, convinced that they were more superior, dictated the way the slaves built their homes. They also justified conditions of the slave houses based on inferiority. However, the enslaved created ways of ensuring privacy and control within their side of the plantation from one family to the other.

References

Pasch, S. (2019). Race the power of an Illusion – The stories we tell [Video]. YouTube.

Wright, G. (1981). Building the dream: A social history of housing in America. Pantheon Books, New York.

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The Big House and Slave Quarters

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