Quality+of+Slave+Labor+and+Racism

JML: Most large plantation slave labor forces were very organized and productive, illustrating that the owners were competent managers and that the slaves were good laborers. Many plantation owners divided up slave labor into teams so that farming tasks were accomplished efficiently. They made the agriculture processes work similar to assembly line style work, for example one slave would plow, another broke up clods of earth, the next dug seed holes, then one would plant the seed and the last would cover it, which made the plantation more efficient and was therefore a good form of management. Most owners also utilized as many of their slaves as they could, regardless of flaws, such as being mentally impaired, and put slaves in jobs best suited to them. The majority of the slaves worked because they were able and really had little else to do, and this helped increase production and so was a good economic move. The majority of plantation holders had the most able bodied men do the tasks that required the most strength and had mainly women be the caregivers and cooks, tasks that the slaves were suited for which was good for those involved. This allowed for nearly all slaves to work and this increased production and efficiency and so was a wise business move. Some plantation masters also punished poor behavior and rewarded good, such as with small prizes for whoever picked the most cotton, which created incentive for the slaves to work their hardest. Though their forms of punishment were immoral, and the concept of only giving money to slaves if they performed extremely well is also wrong because all workers should be paid, it was economically wise of the plantation owners because it increased production.

Because plantations with slaves were prosperous, some slaves were obviously skilled workers. They did their jobs well and efficiently and so were good workers. Some slaves were even given management positions, such as drivers or overseers, which also demonstrates that they were competent workers. If the racist beliefs of the day were true, if slaves really were less skilled than white men, then the slave owning plantations would not have been successful nor would slaves have had the opportunity to hold administration roles. Clearly, since the plantations were prosperous, and because some slaves held authoritative positions, slaves were good laborers. checked