Urban Slave Misconceptions

Men and women in urban areas had difficulties finding a companion when their duties did not allow them to venture outside of the house. As suggested by slave owners, slaves were not inhumane; however, slaves certainly yearned for the same human needs as any other person, even the basic needs of love. Thomas Jones, born a slave in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, eloquently described his desire for a wife and family that he too could come home to at the end of a long workday in the city:

When slaves in the city did find love, they were under the same obligation as those on farms and plantations, to obtain permission from their slave owners if they wanted to marry. Henry Box Brown, enslaved in Richmond, Virginia, described the extenuating circumstances that he had to deal with before he could take his fiancé as his wife:

A few slaves managed to defy slavery’s odds and lived in long sustainable marriages to the extent that slavery allowed. However, the majority of marriages ended not in divorce, but rather occurred when a spouse

This misconception is derived from the slave owner protecting their public persona as considerate slave holders. Frederick Douglass, a former slave in Virginia, provided a brief portrayal of the urban slave holder’s attitudes:

The treatment that urban slaves received gave some slaves the false perception that they were better than those enslaved on plantations as Abby Mishow, a former slave in Charleston, South Carolina, indicated:

On the contrary, behind closed doors some slave owners in urban areas subjected their slaves to the same cruel and neglectful treatment as they did to those enslaved on farms and plantations. Mattie Jackson, a former slave in St. Louis, Missouri, asserted that while her mother and siblings had fared well upon being sold, her circumstances were not the