These slaves had (and still have) very hard lives. They work from about 5am-5pm (sometimes later if there's light) harvesting, planting, and maintaining the sugar cane crops. At night, when they return to their Batey (which is located in the middle of the sugar cane fields and miles from the nearest town), they suffer with no electricity or running water. Their houses are nothing more than shacks, built of scrap wood. The "hard working" slaves get to sleep in concert bunkers that look like jail cells. These bunkers have nothing in them and the floors are usually wet and stink. There are no sewers in the Bateys, so people dig a hole in the field and use that as their toilet.

Eventually the Dominican government outlawed slavery. This made the sugar cane landowners very angry because they were now forced to pay the Haitian workers. As a result, the landowners began paying the Haitian workers less than a dollar a day (this continues today). So, according to the law, the Haitians are now "paid employees", however in reality they are still slaves. Most people are born, live, and die without ever leaving their Batey and the sugar cane field they work in each day. Most Haitians living in the Bateys have no education, dreams, or knowledge of the rest of the world.