Chapter 3, The Plantation Summary

Contrary to popular belief, the plantation owners did not live richly. Perhaps a few did, but the majority lived a very modest lifestyle and some were even poor. In fact, most slave owners owned fewer than 20 slaves. Only 3,000 slave owners owned more than 100 slaves. The more slaves a white man owned, the more the community respected him. If a white man owned just one or two slaves, the community respected him more than a man who owned none at all. A little known fact is that 75% of the South's population held no slaves, yet the economy depended on the slave trade business.

Life for slaves on the plantation was difficult, to say the least. The slaves' housing quarters, commonly referred to as "slave row," consisted of tiny cabins that were comparable to quarters for animals. One witness recalls, "The...