Children led a very different lifestyle on a plantation than children do today. There were many days when a child did not see his or her parents at all. They had maids and nurses who looked after them day and night. How would this lifestyle affect your life? Would you like this kind of life, not seeing your parents?
During the day some children had chores while others had none. The children that had no chores were usually younger and had few responsibilities. They led carefree lives of endless days of playing and romping around the plantation. The older children were taught to start acting like ladies and gentlemen at an early age and how to run the plantation. The boys were taught how to keep track of the slaves and how well the plantation had done that year. These teachings were done by the father or the owner of the plantation. A young girl was taught how to run the main house and prepare for parties and balls. The children would need this information to run their own plantations or maybe even the one where they grew up. Maids and nurses looked after the children during the day even if the parents were home. Parents did not view their children as important until they had lived through the hardships in a child's life. As you can see it was different from our lives today.
Children had difficult lives; they had to live through all the diseases that were spreading at the time. This does not mean that adults never got sick. It was just more common for a child to get sick because they were not as strong as their parents. There was no cure for these diseases at the time so most were fatal. The most common diseases were yellow fever, malaria, typhoid, cholera and you also had to watch out for those snakebites. Many children died in the period from birth to the age of ten. Thick netting was placed around their beds at night to keep away the mosquitoes, which caused malaria. Typhoid was a disease that spread just like a common cold. Cholera was spread by infected drinking water. Yellow fever was common in the warm, wet weather of the south. Sometimes a whole family would go through a typhoid epidemic or a malaria epidemic. Snakebites were common when a child when tramping outside with no shoes! A child could die in a matter of days after getting a disease or bite. This was a time when doctors did not have the technology of today so the poor children and adults could not be cured of these sicknesses.
If you look at your life today and think, "Wow there are a lot of differences between their lives and ours". Yes, that is true, but there are also similarities. They got an education just like you except they had tutors. But they only went to school if they were older boys! Can you think of other similarities? It was a scary time to live back then, but wouldn't it be exciting too?
An adult had many responsibilities as well as many pleasures. They threw grand parties and wore elaborate clothing. These are some of the things that made this period of time interesting. I think adults were not as close to their children as they are today. An example of this is that during the late 1700's and 1800's the parents had slaves to take care of their children.
A woman's and a man's life on a plantation greatly differed, from the clothes they wore to their jobs on the plantation. The woman ran the main house and instructed the slaves on what to do. Women had to be early risers to make sure that the house slaves did not skip their morning chores. They also planned all social events in the main house. The men ran the fields and the field workers (slaves). Some typical crops grown on plantations were indigo, cotton, sugar cane and tobacco. The men also took care of what was produced and the income it brought. Some families had to work the fields because they could not afford many slaves. Together the Master and Mistress made the plantation work and without one of them it would be quite a difficult life.
Social events were a very important part of life in the plantation era. This is how friends and family learned what was going on in the outside world. The men had a separate room in the main house called "The Men's Room" where they would drink, smoke, and talk about politics after the dinner. The women would go to "The Parlor" and drink tea while chatting about the latest news. Parties and balls were another part of their social life. The Master and Mistress of the plantation tried to throw the most lavish parties to show off their wealth. At a party or ball they may have a dinner as well as many desserts prepared by the slaves. The women wore large and fancy dresses while the men wore tuxedos or nice suits. The people on the plantations greatly enjoyed their social life, and guess what, some parties lasted from 6-10 days!
Adult's lives were very exciting but tiring too. Your parents probably work too, right? Well in the 1800's adults worked to but it was all practically done in the house. Adults had their leisure time which they enjoyed just like your parents do. An adult's life was probably a very interesting experience.