110 Atlantic African, American, and European Backgrounds to Contact, Commerce, and Enslavementdespite the fact that absenteeism started relatively earlier
in that region. A more satisfactory explanation stems from
considering the staple crop requirements. Unlike in areas
where crops like tobacco required meticulous and year-
round care, rice growing in the Lowcountry provided dif-
ferent circumstances. Rice growing did not require direct
supervision but rather a few straightforward steps to ensure
successful growth.
What exactly constituted a task came to be redefi ned
over time and also varied according to the locations and
the work at hand. For example, between 1750 and 1860, in
turning up land the task size was one-quarter of an acre, for
second hoeing the task varied from half an acre to three-
quarters of an acre over the years. When it came to gin-
ning cotton, a task consisted of ginning 90–100 pounds of
cotton. If slaves completed their daily assigned tasks, they
would be allowed to plant crops on the pieces of land that
their masters gave them. Th ey planted corn, rice, beans, and
kept animals as a means of subsistence.
Th e use of the task system defi nitely elicited mixed
reactions from the various players. Th ere are some who
considered it dangerous as it gave too much free time to
the slaves. Th is was considered dangerous because slaves
could then have time to plot rebellions. Th ose who felt it
was not appropriate to use the task system had several is-
sues in mind. One issue was that since the slaves now had
time to plant their own crops and sell them, they proved to
be competition for white farmers.
Soon the white slave owners started using legislation
to curb the spread and strength of slaves’ entrepreneur-
ship. One of the earliest pieces of legislation was passed in
1684, which forbade exchange of any goods between slaves
or between slaves and free men unless their masters con-
sented to it. In essence, slaves were allowed to sell their
products to their masters only. However, subsequent laws
passed showed that earlier ones had proved ineff ective. By
1714, another law that prohibited slaves from planting any
corn or peas or rice was passed. But in 1734, having re-
alized the ineff ectiveness of the former act, slave owners
passed another act stipulating that slaves could not sell any
produce to anyone but their masters.
For many adherents of the task system, there was a
shared belief that if a slave owned property, he was less
likely to run away. Th erefore, since the task system allowed
for time to accumulate wealth, they felt it was the best sys-
tem to use. For others, it was advantageous because they“Th e Epic of Sundiata” has become standard academic
reading in the United States, particularly in college courses
where it has become a seminal tenet of humanities curri-
cula. Specifi cally, the Niane version has become somewhat
canonized as the most popular version, owing in part to
its literary form. Th e inclusion of “Th e Epic of Sundiata”
in American university courses has done much to revise
Eurocentric notions about epic traditions in particular and
African primitivism more generally.
See also: Mali; Oral Culture; Sudanic Empires
Renée M. BaronBibliography
Austen, Ralph, ed. In Search of Sunjata: Th e Mande Oral Epic as
History, Literature, and Performance. Indianapolis: Indiana
University Press, 1999.
Niane, D. T. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. Translated by G. D.
Pickett. London: Longman Group, 1965.
Suso, Bamba, and Banna Kanute. Sunjata. Tr a n s l at e d by G o r d o n
Innes with the assistance of Bakari Sidibe. London: Penguin
Books, 1999.
Task System
Th e task system was one of the two distinct types of labor
that were practiced during the era of slavery in British
North America. In this system, slaves would be assigned a
particular amount of work that came to be called a task to
be completed in a particular day, and then once they were
through with it, they were free to do anything with their
time. Th e task system was primarily practiced in Low-
country South Carolina and Georgia. It evolved between
the late 17th century and the early 18th century. Th e task
system coexisted with the gang system where slaves would
wake up at the crack of dawn and toil together in a group
until sunset.
Several explanations have been provided to explain the
emergence of the task system. First, the absenteeism of the
slave owners may have necessitated the creation of a sys-
tem that required less white supervision. For slave owners
in the Lowcountry South, the prevalence of malaria made
it necessary for them to be absent from their plantations at
certain times of the year. However, this argument by itself
is not completely convincing since it does not explain why
the planters in the Caribbean did not fully adopt the system