The Whip and the Hoe

Abstract

Abstract Spectacular physical punishments such as whipping were at the core of the master-slave relationship but it was the chronic and acute physical demands of forced labor that did the most destructive and lasting damage to enslaved people. Plantation field work caused more extensive damage to enslaved bodies than non-field work. Field work was more debilitating to enslaved women than to their male counterparts. Work on sugar plantations caused more damage to the enslaved than work on cotton plantations. Changes in crops, productivity rates, and work regimes had a compound and cumulative effect on the health of the enslaved.