Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865

Midori Takagi

University of Virginia Press, Jun 29, 2000 - Social Science - 200 pages

RICHMOND WAS NOT only the capital of Virginia and of the Confederacy; it was also one of the most industrialized cities south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Boasting ironworks, tobacco processing plants, and flour mills, the city by 1860 drew half of its male workforce from the local slave population. Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction examines this unusual urban labor system from 1782 until the end of the Civil War. Many urban bondsmen and women were hired to businesses rather than working directly for their owners. As a result, they frequently had the opportunity to negotiate their own contracts, to live alone, and to keep a portion of their wages in cash. Working conditions in industrial Richmond enabled African-American men and women to build a community organized around family networks, black churches, segregated neighborhoods, secret societies, and aid organizations. Through these institutions, Takagi demonstrates, slaves were able to educate themselves and to develop their political awareness. They also came to expect a degree of control over their labor and lives. Richmond's urban slave system offered blacks a level of economic and emotional support not usually available to plantation slaves. Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction offers a valuable portrait of urban slavery in an individual city that raises questions about the adaptability of slavery as an institution to an urban setting and, more importantly, the ways in which slaves were able to turn urban working conditions to their own advantage.

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Review: Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy

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It wasn't what I expected, but then I didn't realize that the author was a law professor. This is much more of an analysis of historical interpretation and a legal argument than a history. That said, it was a surprisingly interesting and quick read.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Inauspicious Beginnings: 9
• The Road to Industrialization and the Rise of Urban Slavery 18001840: 16
• Behind the Urban Big Hou se: 37
• Maturation of the Urban Industrial Slave System 18401860: 71
• Formation of an Independent Slave Community: 96
• The War Years 18611865: 124
• Epilogue: 145
• Notes: 149
• Bibliography: 168
• Index: 180

About the author

Midori Takagi is Assistant Professor of History at Fairhaven College, Western Washington University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865; Carter G. Woodson Institute Series
• Author: Midori Takagi
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 2000
• ISBN: 0813929172, 9780813929170
• Length: 200 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies