The task system is a system of labor under
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
characteristic in the Americas. It is usually regarded as less brutal than other forms of enslaved persons' labor. Under this system, each enslaved person is assigned a specific task to complete for the day. After that task is finished, the enslaved person is then free to do as he or she wishes with the remaining time. The other form, known as the
gang system, was harsher. The gang system forced the enslaved people to work until the planter said they were finished and allowed them almost no freedom. Whether planters organized their enslaved people on the task or gang system had much to do with the type of crops they harvested. Tobacco, rice and sugar cultivation was organized into gangs since those crops required considerable processing and supervision. Coffee, cotton, and pimento were comparatively hardier plants where extensive supervision was unnecessary, leading planters to favor the task system on their plantations.
[ Philip D. Morgan, "Work and Culture: The Task System and the World of Lowcountry Blacks, 1700 to 1880," William and Mary Quarterly 39, no. 4 (October 1982), 568;''Black Rice'' : 99]
See also
*
Gang system
References
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Slavery in North America
Slavery in South America
Slavery in the Caribbean
Slavery in the United States