Esteban Montejo Part 1
The memoir of Cuban Esteban Montejo, The Autobiography of a Runaway Slave. The book is still in print and available online.
Cuban Esteban Montejo experienced slavery first-hand and observed the many strategies enslaved people used to survive including cultivating community gardens. Cutting the rations allocated to slaves, especially in the sugar producing regions of Louisiana, Brazil, and the Caribbean represented a common strategy masters/employers took to reduce their expenses. Esteban says it was the small gardens "that saved many slaves" from starvation "providing them real nourishment" thus most had a garden plot that they maintained when they had the space to do so. They raised food for their tables and sold what they raised on Sunday market days when they did not have to work for their masters.
