The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South"The plantation was a battlefield where slaves fought masters for physical and psychological survival. Although unlettered, unarmed, and outnumbered, slaves fought in various ways to preserve their manhood." This impressive and original study views the institution of slavery from a new perspective- that of the slaves themselves. The author challenges the timeworn stereotype of the slave as a passive and docile creature who lacked drive, purpose, and responsibility. He traces the development of the slave's personality traits, analyzes the patterns of resistance within the slave community, and proves conclusively that the slave had a rich cultural and family life that was deliberately kept hidden from the eyes of his white masters. Unlike the many accounts that deal with slavery from the outside, this book ventures inside the slave quarters to re-capture the slave's family life, music, religion, and folklore. Using a variety of sources, including the memoirs of former slaves, the author examines the ways that blacks became enslaved, their process of acculturation in the American South, and their deep ties to their African heritage. He shows how the slave was able to control parts of his own life while often wearing the mask of submissiveness required by the harsh realities of the plantation regime. The author draws upon psychological and sociological insights to reinterpret master-slave relationships. He includes the planter's viewpoint and the traveler's impression to create a dimensional portrait of plantation life that effectively separates mythology from historical reality. -- from Book Jacket. |
Contents
Culture | 41 |
The Slave Family | 77 |
Rebels and Runaways 104 | 130 |
Copyright | |
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African cultural American Journal Anderson antebellum Aptheker army asserted Austin Steward autobiographies Benjamin Latrobe black autobiographers Bondage Boston cabins Charles Ball concentration camp conjurer cruel dances DeBow's Review declared deference docile escape father fear Figure flogged Frederick Douglass freedom frequently Fugitive Slave Georgia Grimes Henry Bibb Henry Box Brown Henry Clay Bruce historians Historical Quarterly inmates institution Jacob Stroyer James John Josiah Henson Journal of Negro Journal of Sociology kind labor lash lived London Louisiana Lunsford Lane maroons master Mississippi Moses Roper mother Narrative Negro History Noah Davis Olaudah overseer parents patterns plantation planters poor whites prisoners punishment quarters rebels refused religious resist Revolts ritual role runaway Sambo self-esteem Seminole servants singing slave personality slaveholders Slavery Social songs South Carolina Southern spirituals spite submissive survival tion total institutions Vassa Virginia W. W. Brown white man's wife William Webb William Wells Brown women wrote York