large slaveholders typically managed their plantations with help from white overseers—employees who were put in charge of field work. the owners and overseers developed a new system that pushed enslaved people to work harder and harder from sunup to sundown.
below are four events from a typical workday on one plantation. place the events in order.
earlier
enslaved people who did not meet their daily targets were whipped.
each morning, overseers told every enslaved person how much cotton to pick.
overseers weighed the cotton each person had picked that day.
overseers watched enslaved people in the fields, whipping those who fell behind.