A Life of Slavery

A Life of Slavery. Wanderer Memory Trail. I worked from early morning to late night, with no rest. I did what I had to do to survive., African captives with the knowledge, skills, and strength to work on a plantation were sold at a high price., Most Wanderer survivors were bought and put to work as personal servants, field hands or craftsmen. Many enslaved people, here in the American South, labored in the fields to grow cash crops, predominately cotton and rice, for wealthy white planters. Those who had the ability to cultivate these crops were highly prized., Field workers were given an amount of work to accomplish each day., Once their long workday was done, they were then allowed to hunt and fish, raise animals, grow vegetables, and cook for their own. It was a life of bondage, forced labor with no pay, meager housing, and harsh punishment., The Rice Coast , Rice was cultivated in Western Africa centuries before it was introduced to the New World., When British colonial planters in the American South discovered that rice would grow in that region, they bought people from the African Rice Coast for their skills and knowledge., Georgia’s first staple crop was the most important commercial agricultural commodity in the coastal areas from the mid-1800s until the early twentieth century.