Slave Dwellings and Memory: Spatial Analysis and Slave Cabins on the Seward Plantation, 2022

In most cases, enslavers provided the people they enslaved with the bare minimum in food, clothing, and shelter—only enough to sustain them as laborers. The quality of life for enslaved people was evident in the modest dwellings they called home. According to historian Randolph Campbell:

“Slave houses were usually small log cabins with fireplaces for cooking. Dirt floors were common, and beds attached to the walls were the only standard furnishings. Slave clothing was made of cheap, coarse materials; shoes were stiff and rarely fitted.”1

The slave dwellings at the Seward Plantation (See Images Below) located in Independence, Texas, are among the last existing antebellum habitations in the state. These lodgings bring to light the day-to-day lives of enslaved people by providing us with a view of the places where they slept and gained some sense of privacy. These places also represent the artisanship of enslaved people as they were in most cases the builders. As displayed in the figure to the right the stonework of the steps that were possibly made by Finn.

Access to these spaces conjures deep emotions and reflections on what slavery was and what enslaved people experienced. While visiting the dwellings, undergraduate students at Prairie View A&M University got an opportunity to reflect on what insights they gained about slavery, humanity, and what might have happened in these spaces. When students reflected on this experience, their reflections ranged from describing the surreal to pondering what life was like in these spaces based on what they had read in slave narratives and scholarly works. Nonetheless, being able to occupy the space that an enslaved individual resided in was eye opening.

Footnotes

1 Randolph Campbell, “Slavery,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed July 2023, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slavery.

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