Notes on northern slavery

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

In New York most.slaveholdings were small and contained only from one to five slaves. Because of the small size of the holdings, enslaved family members were usually owned by separate masters and forced to live apart. Slavery created artificial black demographic conditions in New York: a small overall black population, low black population density, unbalanced adult.sex ratios, and a random rather than familial distribution of slaves into white households. (Kruger, abstract) Slaves did not work in plantation gangs or live in community with other black slaves. The slaves would have had much less contact with other Africans, but would have been largely integrated into the white community, albeit clearly as inferior and vulnerable members. Large gatherings of slaves were prohibited by the white slaveowners, who feared the.possibility of rebellion and violence. As a result, slaves lived and worked more closely with their masters in the North than in the South.