o pair of cotton pants.... Each woman gets in the fall six yards of woolen cloth, six yards of cotton drilling and a needle, skein of thread and a half dozen buttons. In the spring six yards of cotton shirting and six yards of cotton cloth similar to that for men's pants, needle, thread and buttons. Each worker gets a stout pair of shoes every fall, and a heavy blanket every third year." (Green, 109-111)Clothes came in two sizes, large and small, and women and men were apparently issued the same kind of shoes. It is said that these shoes burned and blistered in the summer and got stiff as a board in cold weather. On some plantations the same man shod slaves and horses (Olmsted, 67).The housing units of most slaves were family-type cabins, but some lived in large barracks that were filled with slaves of all ages, conditions and size. The cabins had windows but generally they had only wooden shutters and no glass. The window let in flies in summer and cold in winter, but closing the shutters shut out the light. When the shutters were closed against flies and cold, the most reliable source of light was an open fireplace or stove, which was also used for heat and cooking. The need for light and a cooking fire prompted slaves to build fires even at the hottest time of year. Ever-present fires increased the danger of cabins burning down, especially because chimneys were generally made of sticks held together with dried mud. It was a common procedure to put five or six slaves into one room. Everything from births, sickness, and death happened in those rooms (Berkin, 267).Furnishings in slave houses were usually fairly crude. Bedding generally consisted of straw pallets stacked on the floor or occasionally mounted on rough bedsteads. Other furnishings were equally simple--rough-hewn wooden chairs or benches and plank tables.The basic division in the work force on larger plantations was between field slaves, who, as the name implie...
