Before the Civil War, slavery was very common in the South. They were not treated as human beings, but as property and that led to exploitation and oppression of the slaves. Unfortunately, slaves were an integral part of the growth of America which is why they were so common. The use of slaves in the South were a lot more ordinary than in the North, mostly due to the need of work that had to be done on plantations. 

During this time period, slaves were more oppressed than ever. They had no control over their own lives or their children's lives because there were strict rules in place to ensure that the slaves would fear their owners, and to ensure that fear, the owners would use a means of violence to keep them in place . This collection shows the difficulties they had to go through along with the hard work they had to do in order to survive. It also shows the different types of work that they did and the rules that they were forced to follow. All of these pictures, letters, items and drawings represent their forced subjection to the American South and they show the discomfort of a slaves life.