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What happened to slaves once they got too old to work?

They never got too old. They simply got whipped to death or worked to death.

Thats' what i was going to say. You must have hit submit just before I hit reply.

Very few slaves lived to be too old to work in the fields. If they did, they usually got stuck doing other chores that no one else wanted to do, so they were really never too old to work, the kind of work they did would just change after they got too old to work in the fields.

kojikun wrote:They never got too old. They simply got whipped to death or worked to death.

But from a purely heartless stand point that doesn't make sense in even a business perspective. You wouldn't mistreat your own property like that and expect to make a profit. You don't beat your horse, why would you a slave. Unless they're trying to excape.

kojikun wrote:They never got too old. They simply got whipped to death or worked to death.

That wasn't very common, but the poor diet and heavy work load did lead to relatively short lives. You almost never had 60+ year old salves that couldn't work. Though in the free world people that old where not real common either.

Slaves were expensive, they were investments, so you treated them well. Only if they were as cheap as shit, would you treat them badly.

You wouldn't want half you lifes savings whipped to death now, would you?

Simple when they could no longer work in the fields they became cooks or servants in the House, Ever watched the old "histrocitly accurate" Docementrys? When you can't earn your keep out in the field, you'll be dusting the draps in the Estate

Mr Bean wrote:Simple when they could no longer work in the fields they became cooks or servants in the House, Ever watched the old "histrocitly accurate" Docementrys? When you can't earn your keep out in the field, you'll be dusting the draps in the Estate

Isn't that what the pretty looking slaves are for? Or is that just tv and movies.

Mark S wrote:

Mr Bean wrote:Simple when they could no longer work in the fields they became cooks or servants in the House, Ever watched the old "histrocitly accurate" Docementrys? When you can't earn your keep out in the field, you'll be dusting the draps in the Estate

Isn't that what the pretty looking slaves are for? Or is that just tv and movies.

TV and movies, though those ugly fuckers woulda been kept doing the jobs that kept them out of sight.

If they really became to old to work and from that I mean really can not work they would just be given simpler jobs to do that doesn't require you to be young/strong.

In the South they'd sit them down and have them run the cotton gin.

Depended on the slaveholder, really. If he was a nice guy, he'd probably have the slave be a nanny for the kids or have the slave be his personal assistant. A few lucky slaves pretty much became members of their owners' families and didn't want to leave after emancipation. This wasn't typical, though.