What impact did slavery have on African Americans, both free and enslaved, throughout the South?

Slavery in the American South proved to have a devastating impact on African Americans. 

Slaves who were forced to work as field hands began their day before dawn and did not finish until after sunset. Their only break was for a noon meal (which often consisted of barely suitable food). For six days a week, they operated under the constant supervision of their overseers, who would exact swift and painful punishment if they exhibited any...

Slavery in the American South proved to have a devastating impact on African Americans. 

Slaves who were forced to work as field hands began their day before dawn and did not finish until after sunset. Their only break was for a noon meal (which often consisted of barely suitable food). For six days a week, they operated under the constant supervision of their overseers, who would exact swift and painful punishment if they exhibited any behaviors that they did not like.

Families were often separated from each other when wives, husbands, and children were sold off to neighboring—or even very distant—plantations. Life on these plantations involved sleeping on a dirt floor in small slave shacks. 

Domestic slaves lived in slightly better conditions and received superior food, which marked them as higher up within the caste system of the community. However, women living in plantation households were often subject to sexual violence and rape from their white male slave owners. 

Slaves were faced with severe laws that limited their rights; they were not allowed to possess a gun, receive an education, assemble without a white individual present, or enter into a legally binding marriage. 

On top of these physical demands was the psychological and emotional burden of knowing that one belonged to another human being. For many African Americans, the ramifications of this social injustice have lasted until today.

Even free African American individuals were still forced to live under the shadow of slavery as they were subject to discriminatory laws. Despite these restrictions, they typically did their best to establish intellectual and religious autonomy and to speak out against the injustices of slavery.