Earn Money From Home

Mindy asked:

July 31, 1847
Dear Diary,
Even though we did not get a lot of food today, I still enjoyed having it. To me getting a bit of food to munch on is better than nothing, especially with all the work that is expected of us. For meals we are usually only given a minuscule amount of corn meal and maybe some pork if we were lucky. We don’t eat inside the master’s house, but instead, in our own shacks. Our master allows us to keep our own gardens that we tend to in our leisure time, which is only on Sundays. We grow just vegetables in there; our master calls it a truck patch. Sometimes he gives us a chance to go fish or hunt for small animals. Whatever we find, we are allowed to keep for ourselves as food. August 1st, marks the beginning of the harvest season, which is the worst time of the year for slaves. Tomorrow is the start of what will be weeks of pure torture. During the harvest season we must work at least 18 hours a day Monday through Saturday. We get up before the sunrise and go to bed at midnight. Also rather than getting Sunday off like we used to, we would have to work 9 hours on that day. Furthermore, the master gets more strict and requires us to pick more cotton, so he could earn more money. As I am eating in my shack, I glance over and see a slave coming from my master’s beautiful house. Her long, dark hair cascaded down her back, unlike mine. She was a wearing a lovely lime-green gown that flowed in the wind as she was led by her master into the wagon. I assumed that she was going with him to run an errand. It is unusual for me to see a house slave outside. They usually stay indoors and are kept away from us field slave. I envy those slaves who work in the house. They get the chance to live in a spacious home and are given old clothes from the master’s family that are absolutely gorgeous. In addition, they get much better food than us such as the leftover from the master’s meal. I’m not exactly sure what their duties are, but I would give anything to become a house slave.