Slaves in the Southern colonies worked on rice, tobacco, and sugar cane crops. The working day was from day break to late evening. At night they would sleep on benches, or on the ground, with an old light blanket that allowed the ground's dampness to filter into their bones. They ate the scraps from the masters house the found in the garbage. Those who were older were worked until they died. Owners of slaves visited the slave markets regularly to check the prices for selling and/or buying slaves just off the slave ships or those being sold to break up families of slaves. Some had crude huts to sleep in, but most slept in the open. If the slave slowed down his work too noticeably he was whipped as a lesson to other slaves. Sunday was usually a day the field hands didn't work.
