DOMESTIC SERVANTS

DOMESTIC SERVANTS Although it is true that the overwhelm­ing majority of African American slaves in the antebellum South were "field hands," it should be realized that a considerable number of slaves did not serve their masters as agricultural laborers. On an especially large plantation, for example, a group of slaves invariably were used as "domestic servants" or "house slaves." Serving as "mammies," butlers, cooks, carriage drivers and carpenters, among other capacities, these "domestics" gen­erally received better treatment and benefits in the form of better food, housing and educational opportunities than the typical "field hand."