ABSTRACT
Agricultural endeavours were a central component of the slave's independent economic production. During the late antebellum period slaves on Louisiana sugar plantations organized extensive and integrated economic systems, accumulating and disposing of capital and property within internal economies they themselves administered. Some of the purchases slaves made represented an investment in their economic activities, including various implements and tools, such as shovels, saddles, bridles and bits, wire, twine, fishing hooks and line, mud boots and mitts. Although the internal economy operated within the constraints imposed by chattel bondage, the opportunity for independent economic activity gave slaves a degree of control and independence at variance with the basic tenets of servitude. The processes by which slaves controlled their independent economies doubtless proved cathartic. Although involvement had potentially deleterious effects, such as overwork and physical stress, slaves found independent production rewarding.
