Stolen Childhood, Second Edition: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America

3. “ Us ain’t never idle”: The Work of Enslaved Children and Youth

71 3 “Us ain’t never idle” The Work of Enslaved Children and Youth From the time that I can remember anything, almost every day of my life has been occupied in some kind of labor. Booker T. Washington The rigors of a field, less tolerable than the field of battle, awaited me. Frederick Douglass A slave’s life followed an identifiable progression of stages. However, slave-owners truncated segments of the cycle to satisfy themselves, and one of the greatest disruptions was the quantum leap from childhood into the world of work. Frederick Douglass remembered that when he was a youngster, “We were worked in all weather. It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow hail, or snow, too hard for us to work in the field. Work, work, work, was scarcely more the order of the day than of the night.” Work can be rightly called the thief of the childhood of youthful bondservants.1 Persons who owned or hired children used them initially to assist older workers, but as they grew older, children became experienced substitutes for aging laborers and finally replaced them. “The rigors of a field,” remembered Douglass, whose owner subjected him to the watchful eye of a severe taskmaster, “less tolerable than the field of battle , awaited me.” Whether he was toiling in the open field or laboring elsewhere with the overseer, Douglass learned to work satisfactorily or convince the taskmaster that his attempts were genuine. A child’s entry 72 Stolen Childhood into the labor force made an impact upon the wider community since it meant an additional hand performing chores. Enslaved youngsters accomplished many jobs that any adult could complete, even if it took two or more children to do so.2 This chapter focuses on the efforts of enslaved children and youth as laborers in nineteenth-century America. Any study of slaves must examine their work since the expropriation of labor from young and old bondservantswastheoverarchingreasonformaintainingtheinstitution ofslavery.Whenreferringtochildren’sentryintotheworkplace,aSouth Carolina overseer said that light chores made them “acquire habits of perseverance and industry.” Perseverance and industry were essential to the satisfactory performance of work demanded by others, and regularized work left little time for a child to make mischief.3 ThecommentsbythisSouthCarolinianabouttheslaveholdingclass suggest that nonspecific “light chores” could be completed by boys or girls who were too immature chronologically or physically to assume jobs that required careful attention to processes over long periods of time. Regardless of their ages and levels of maturity, the extent to which they adjusted to authority and their attitudes about work were linked to the conditions under which they toiled and the treatment they received . Entrance into the world of work was a life altering experience for many girls and boys. Once they entered the work force, children were subjected to punishment from the individuals who owned, hired, or apprenticed them. In addition, as they perfected skills and the “habits of perseverance and industry,” they were more vulnerable to separation from loved ones through sale, hire, or indenture.4 Throughout history children have worked to help support themselves and their parents. But the difference for enslaved youngsters was that their parents did not benefit directly from their efforts and made few, if any, decisions about their own work and that of their offspring. Instead, owners benefited from their toil. They often preferred young slaves so they could reap the rewards of their labor indefinitely. Arguments against child labor did not assume national dimensions until near the turn of the twentieth century. Even then, the reformers’ concern was to regulate child labor rather than abolish it. Had the arguments taken place before 1865, enslaved children would not have figured importantly, “Us ain’t never idle” 73 for they had no legal rights. Also, the majority of them worked in agricultural pursuits, domestic, or personal services, occupations that defy external regulation.5 To be sure, exceptions in children’s work existed as illustrated in a studyrelatedtoAfricanAmericanboyswhoperformedachore,cleaning chimneys, directly connected to heating homes and other facilities in early nineteenth-century New York City. An examination of the chimney cleaning business by scholars Paul Gilje and Howard Rock focuses on the serious attempts by local authorities to pressure the supervisors or masters of the chimney sweeps to adhere to the laws. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the study gives attention to young black boys, enslaved and emancipated, whose health and...