What did a slaves life look like before the Civil War?

Answer 1

It varied among slave owners. If a slave owner was mean or just didn't like African Americans their lives could be really bad. If a slave owner just wanted slaves for work, then they could be treated nicely and live peacefully with their owner. However most all slaves did work in fields. Women and children would work in the house doing cleaning or answering doors.

Answer 2

The life of a slave was difficult and immorally cruel. It was legal for their masters to beat them, or kill them. Many that have escaped were hunted and brought back to work. Freedom and equality is what they wanted but were never accepted into society because of racism. Many slaves would starve, die of being worked to death, they were brought up to work for whites. Whites were very inconsiderate because apparently to them they did not see that no matter what skin color you are they are still human.

Answer 3

The slaves were treated very poorly. They were paid no money for any of their work. They were also property to their owners, meaning they were not treated like an average human should. Their names were gone, and instead of names they were called of numbers.

Ex.: "John Doe" was a slave, but instead of the masters/owners calling him by "John Doe", they would call him by.... let's say the number "428".

Answer 4

This is like asking what color slaves eyes were. There are lots of different answers, based on where the slave was (Yes, there were slaves north of the Mason Dixon), what their position was (i.e. were they house slaves or field workers), and the general disposition of their handlers and masters. Thomas Jefferson's slaves, and slaves kept by Native Americans, for example, probably had it slightly better than the average southern plantation field worker.

For an excellent discussion of the topic, I would recommend Howard Zinn's timeless classic, "A People's History of the United States". Chapters 2 through 9 all at least touch on the subject, with 2 and 9 themselves being dedicated to it.