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The task system is a system of labor under slavery characteristic of the colonial period in the United States, before the ante-bellum period. It is usually regarded as a less brutal regime than the alternative labor regime adopted afterwards in most places in the South. The other form, known as the gang system, was harsher.〔Judith Carney, ''Black Rice,'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001): 98-101〕 The difference between the task labor system and the gang labor system was characterized by the amount of work time required by the slave and also the amount of freedom given to the slave. Under this system, each slave is assigned a specific task to complete for the day. After that task is finished, the slave is then free to do as he or she wishes with the remaining time. Some plantation owners allowed their slaves to produce goods for sale in their free time under the task systems. The gang systems forced the slaves to work until the owner said they were finished and allowed them almost no freedom. 〔 ''Black Rice'' : 99〕 ==Early rice task system== Evidence suggests that the task system, in some places, included a gender dimension. The women laborers played a major role in the work force for rice cultivation in South Carolina. This was a division of labor that transferred directly from West African cultures. Women were responsible for the planting, weeding, harvesting, threshing, and polishing of the rice crop. Men were responsible for building canals and rice fields, flooding and draining fields, and protecting the crops from animals. 〔 Judith Carney, ''Black Rice'', (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001): 108 〕 This gendered division of labor that was already in place in the African tribal systems of rice cultivation before the Atlantic slave trade brought the slaves over to the American colonies. It was an aspect of the constellation of skills and technologies used in traditional African rice cultivation. The slaves used this knowledge to bargain with the plantation owners to gain more control over their work. It gave the plantation owners a greater knowledge of this new and non-indigenous form of farming.〔Judith Carney, ''Black Rice'', (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001) : 78-106〕 "Planters knew that slaves grew rice; they also know which ethnic groups specialized in its cultivation. This knowledge came from their sustained contact with slaves in shaping the Carolina frontier and growing food staples for mutual survival."〔''Black Rice'' : 89〕 The highly developed and knowledgeable skills concerning rice planting possessed by slaves led to their successful ability to use these skills as a bargaining chip in determining the length and conditions of their bondage in the Americas. 〔 Judith Carney, "Black Rice", (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001): 68 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Task system」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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