ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 pertains to slavery and the antebellum period. During the antebellum era slavery had a major impact upon the mindset of the people that proved critical to the existence of colonization. It is responsible for an evolving hierarchy between light-skinned and dark-skinned black slaves. Those who were light-skinned were more often the sons and daughters of slave and white male slave master. They usually worked in the master’s house and otherwise in close proximity. They ate better food, wore better clothes and experienced a higher overall slave status. In ranking house negroes were then considered superior and above their darker-skinned counterpart. This was due to the fact of their having white blood. They were called house negroes. Counterpart slaves were dark-skinned slaves who worked in the fields and detested the master. They were called field negroes. The interactions between the house negro and the field negro were influenced by the skin color hierarchy.
