ABSTRACT

Like religion, the slave family in Little Dixie also provided an environment in which slaves were able to forge some control over their own lives. Gaining what little control they could was not an easy task because they faced many challenges in the master slave relationship like owners selling or hiring out members of a slave family. Nevertheless, the slave family was important in Little Dixie during the antebellum period in that it linked generations of slaves and their cumulative experiences, as well as broadened the slave community beyond the local farm. The slaves developed a strong oral tradition in many aspects of their family and religious lives. Members of the family were together nearly every evening and weekend enjoying each other’s company, telling stories, or working on personal chores, which allowed families to become the most powerful transmitter of slave culture. Children learned from their parents the importance of family life and how fragile the slave family could be. Besides religion, the family was perhaps the slaves’ primary escape from the harsh realities of bonded life.