Sometimes there was enough to eat but sometimes there wasn't.
Most field workers worked most of their lives. They worked when they were young until they die. Some slaves were artisans or craftspeople, blacksmiths, carpenters or draftsmen. Some spent their time as butlers, maids, cook but most of the slave had to work in the fields. The five sable crops of the south were sugar, rice, tobacco, hemp (material to make rope) and cotton. <>.
Slaves had to pick cotton, which was painful. When the basket was full they had to take it to the gin house, where it was weighted and prepared for shipment. How much cotton a slave picked depended on the slave's age, gender, and experience. If they didn't pick the required amount they would be whipped and it would be added to the next day's job. If they picked more than required then they would have to do that everyday. Cotton picking was the hardest part of the process. The hours were long and the slaves always feared they didn't pick enough. Harvesting was the most tiring time of the year for slaves but life on a cotton plantation was always busy no matter what the season was. There were other jobs besides picking cotton. There was knocking down old cotton stalks, building fences, repairing machinery, cutting or hauling wood. <>.
Some slaves found ways of sabotaging the cotton weighing process. Sometimes girls would wet in their baskets or put rocks in the bottom to make the cotton heavier. Other people would go to the gin house early in the morning and carry some cotton into the fields, giving them a head start.
The sugar harvest was more intensive than the cotton harvest. Harvest time on a sugar farm was a time of excitement. Visiting was possible between plantation and slaves were given rewards to hard work. October through December, they had to work hour after hour to bring in crops before they rotted. They had to work day and night.
