Bruce calls the plantation a prison because he was kept busy from sunrise to sunset without being allowed to speak to anyone. To try to stay awake while working, Bruce would put tobacco in his eyes. Bruce only got 30 minutes for breakfast and 30 minutes for dinner.

1. Name: _______________________________________ Date: __________
Henry Clay Bruce, Twenty-Nine Years a Slave (1895)
In January, 1846, with my older brothers I was hired to Judge
Applegate, who conducted a tobacco factory at Keytesville, Missouri.
I was then about ten years old. At Judge Applegate's I was kept busy
every minute from sunrise to sunset, without being allowed to speak a
word to anyone. I was too young then to be kept in such close
confinement. It was so prison-like to be compelled to sit during the
entire year under a large bench or table filled with tobacco, and tie
lugs all day long except during the thirty minutes allowed for breakfast
and the same time allowed for dinner. I often fell asleep. I could not
keep awake even by putting tobacco in my eyes. I was punished by
the overseer, a Mr. Blankenship, every time he caught me napping,
which was quite often during the first few months.
Why does Bruce call the plantation a prison?
What did Bruce do to try to stay awake?
How long did Bruce get to eat?
Francis Fredric, Fifty Years of Slavery (1863)
My master had about 100 slaves, engaged chiefly in the cultivation of
tobacco, this and wheat being the staple produce of Virginia at that
time. The slaves had to work very hard in digging the ground with
what is termed a grub hoe. The slaves leave their huts quite early in
the morning, and work until late at night, especially in the spring and
fall. I have known them very often, when my master has been away
drinking, to work all night long, husking Indian corn to put into cribs.
What did the slaves on Frederic’s plantation harvest?

2. What do the slaves do when they work all night long?
From Wikipedia: Slaves did just about all the physical labor on a
tobacco plantation. Growing tobacco is very labor-intensive. The
seeds are tiny, and are sprouted in seed beds. Once they are up a
little bit they have to be transplanted to the fields. After they grow a
little they have to be "suckered" - the top part has to be pinched off so
they will be bushy. They have to be hoed, to keep the soil loose, and
weeded. They they had to be harvested, by hand. Once harvested,
they had to be cured. This usually involved pushing a sharp stick
through the base of the stalk of plants, so a number were on the stick,
hanging upside down. Then the sticks were hung up in a curing barn.
Meanwhile, a "cooper", who was a person who made barrels, was
making large "hogshead" barrels to hold the cured plants. These
barrels were packed with about 1000 pounds of tobacco. Then these
had to be rolled onto a ship at the plantation dock. There was lots of
work to be done.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_did_slaves_do_on_tobacco_plantations#ixzz1cD16QMOd
List the jobs required to grow tobacco
What’s a hogshead?
Who made the hogshead?
How much tobacco was loaded into the hogshead?