Slave Quarter, South Carolina

On large plantations, several score of African Americans lived in cabins that were often arranged along what slaves called “the street.” The dwellings in this picture were better built than the typical rickety, one-room, dirt-floored slave cabin. During the daylight hours of the workweek, when most men and women labored in the fields, the quarter was mostly empty. At night and on Sundays, it was a busy place. Collection of the New-York Historical Society.