The Landscape of Slavery and the Task System

The rice culture in the Low Country contributed to the task system, which developed into a semi-cultural institution.

The task system required that the overseer or driver first assign the slave to a specific area or “task acre” where the crop was to be sown, plowed, or weeded based on the seasonal requirements of the field.

This “task acre” was then subdivided into four equal quadrants, sometimes visibly lined off using wooden stakes and cotton string.

On rice lands, a “task acre” was a square of 220 feet. Each slave was given a daily task rating of full, three-quarters, half, or quarter based partly on his or her physical strength and partly on past performance.

The expected duties of each slave were clearly defined and predictable; a slave rated as “full" would have to complete all work in the entire “task acre” before quitting, while a slave rated as “half” would have to complete two quadrants before the end of the work day.

Image at right and below courtesy of Drayton Papers Collection, National Trust for Historic Preservation.

On most plantations the slaves could work at his or her chosen rate, so that jobs could be completed relatively quickly or perhaps stretched out the entire day.

Slaves that finished early were allowed by the rice planters to grow their own crops, usually in small and large garden plots near the slave quarters.

In these landscapes the slaves planted crops, which included yams, okra, cowpeas, castor beans, sorghum millet, collards and peanuts.

Planters allowed the slaves to work these garden patches on weekends, as the vegetables harvested from them would provide slaves with a family meal.

Many of these crops became extremely important to southern agriculture, spreading north and westward along with the migration of African slaves and the plantation economy westward.