Most enslaved people at Oak Alley were forced to work as field laborers, enduring the harshest conditions from sunrise to sunset. Sugar cane consumed most of their time, but their labor changed with the seasons and included a wide range of tasks throughout the year. In the early months, they planted sugar cane, corn, and peas, chopped wood, repaired ditches, and maintained canals. During the summer, they weeded fields, cleaned ditches, harvested crops, repaired roads, and cut wood. In the fall, they continued maintaining roads, fences, ponds, and levees while preparing for harvest. The most brutal period was known as “the Grinding,” when sugar cane was harvested. For more than a month, enslaved workers labored up to 18 hours a day cutting cane and hauling it by ox-cart to the mill, where it was processed into sugar, packed into barrels, and shipped to New Orleans.
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