In contrast to their white owners, slaves’ possessions were few and simple; often these objects were castoffs from the master’s family. Household servants received monetary gifts at Christmas as well as tips which could be spent on personal possessions such as clothing and furnishing for their living spaces. Skilled slaves could work on their free day (usually Sunday) to earn extra money for themselves and their families. The benefits of close proximity to their masters, like receiving cast-off possessions, were offset by the lack of privacy. Plantation slaves had more privacy by living further away from the white members of the household. However they had less opportunity to earn additional income and were generally not as well clothed as urban slaves. Most urban households had small servant staffs, so the chance of African-American families living on the same site was less than on plantations. However, slaves in Alexandria visited between houses and formed their own community separate from the white one. By the early nineteenth century, Alexandria witnessed the growth of separate black churches and other institutions important to a sense of identity for enslaved African Americans.