Female Slaves And Their Famili

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that her grandmother and mother had often stayed up late sewing clothes for the children, saying, "Dey done it 'cause dey wanted to. Dey wuz workin' for deyselves den." (Jones, 29) Ironically, this work caring for themselves and their families also benifitted the slave owners, since healthy slaves meant that the masters could get more work out of them, and thus make more money when the crops were harvested.
The family was important to most slave women, and they had ways of making sure that they stayed together, though these weren't foolproof. A woman assigned to the Big House when the rest of her family was on the fields could rebel, thus making "a mistress's life miserable by literally doing nothing." This would often cause the mistress to send the woman to the fields, which is what she wanted anyway, so she could be with her family. (25) Another way a young female slave could make it possible for herself to stay with her family was by getting pregnant at an early age. Masters ...

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