Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105/Section 60/George Carter

Overview

George Carter was a black male who was born into slavery He was born in Norfolk, Virginia in the 1840’s. Carter experienced many significant historical events throughout his life. George lived through the peak of slavery of the United States South, the Spanish American War, and The Civil War. The biography chronologically explores what occurs throughout George Carter’s adulthood.

Childhood and Early Life

Carter grew up in the western side of Virginia in Norfolk County. Geographically there are many rivers, lake, and ponds in the area that George grew up. He was raised on a plantation that produced mostly lumber and tobacco. As George aged and matured he became a house slave for the same family his mother worked for. As he reached his teen’s he was taken to an auction with a plethora of other slaves where he was deemed to small and young to work at a railroad company and was instead sold to continue to be a house slave for a different family. This is when Carter moved from Norfolk County to Savannah, Georgia. He worked for a Doctor by the name of Arnold until his early 20’s. Soon after George entered adulthood he was sold to a captain in the Civil War. He was sent to work as a body guard for one of the higher-ranking confederate soldiers. Carter saw many devastating battles fought between the union and confederacy and extremely disliked his job. Carter tried to desert his owner and was quickly caught and beaten for attempting to escape. He continued to work as his bodyguard until the war ended a few years later.

Late Adulthood

After the end of the civil war Carter soon found himself in a very different position in his life. He began his first paid job working at a waterfront. He was paid somewhere between 50 cents to a dollar in wages. He began a family and had three daughters and married a woman who was not named. He served in both the Spanish American War and World War two. When George wasn’t serving in the military he worked as a logger. George’s daily routine consisted of waking up at dawn, entering the woods, and chopping lumber till sundown. He worked as many as two jobs a time sometimes to support his family.

Social Issues 

Slavery in the United States

Virginia’s economy was heavily dependent on slave labor for multiple centuries. Cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo were a huge part of the southern economy. Throughout the 1800’s, 75 percent the world’s cotton came from the south. The slave trade was a million-dollar industry that the southern states depended on. If the confederacy had successfully split off into their own country, they would be the fourth richest nation in the world at the time. Although many owners were creating lots of revenue, many of the slaves lived in very poor conditions. Many slaves would not eat many times a day. If you were a slave you weren’t allowed to learn to read or write. Slaves were beaten on many different plantations.

Post-Civil War Consequences

The civil war changed the structure of the south forever. This economically draining war left the south in pieces. Many things changed after Civil War ended. The confederate-built government collapsed and the Federal Government had a huge part in deciding who represented parts of the South. Many Jim Crow laws were instituted to combat federal laws preventing racism. Many black people were turned into indentured servants and were still not allowed to vote. Many African-Americans in the south were put in terrible positions with very little money if any. These Black Codes were ways that the south could legally discriminate against black people. Virginia