The gang system allowed continuous work at the same pace throughout the day.
As an example, the planting gang in the McDuffie plantation was split into three classes (as quoted by Metzer): The first class had to go ahead and create small holes with about 18 to 25 cm (7 to 10 in) distance to each other.
[1] In the United States, the gang system developed in the nineteenth century and is characteristic of the ante-bellum period (c. 1820–1865).
[2] Rice plantations in Carolina, for example, never adopted a gang system of labor.
The idea of a gang system is that enslaved workers would work all day (traditionally, from sunrise to sunset) under the supervision of an overseer.