FIELD SLAVES BACK TO LIFE Field slaves had a very hard life. Their job was to work in the big fields. In the South, many plantations grew cotton. Cotton is a very thorny bush. Women and men had to work from sun up to sun down picking cotton. Sometimes their hands were bleeding and they still had to keep working. They had an overseer. Overseers were often mean and they whipped slaves if they thought they did not work hard. Field hands were dressed very poorly. They were usually given only one set of clothes for winter and one for summer. They ate what master gave them. Master would give slaves food and they would make interesting dishes from anything they could find. One interesting dish was cotton seed and cornmeal cake. This dish was made by boiling cotton seeds until they were mushy. Than, cotton seeds were mixed with cornmeal and baked. The field slaves usually lived in one room cabins. The whole family lived in that room. They slept on straw filled mattresses. In the winter the cabin would get smoky from the fireplace and the roofs were often leaking.