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Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Blassingame, John W., 1940-2000. Slave community. New York, Oxford University Press, 1972 (OCoLC)560762906 |
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Document Type: | Book |
All Authors / Contributors: |
John W Blassingame |
ISBN: | 0195015797 9780195015799 |
OCLC Number: | 488430 |
Description: | xv, 262 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm |
Contents: | Enslavement, acculturation, and African survivals -- Culture -- The slave family -- Rebels and runaways -- Plantation stereotypes and roles -- Plantation realities -- Slave personality types. |
Responsibility: | John W. Blassingame. |
Abstract:
"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.
The personality and culture of the plantation slave are investigated from black autobiographies and other historical sources.
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Related Subjects:(16)
- Slavery -- Southern States.
- Plantation life -- Southern States.
- Slavery.
- Enslavement
- Vie dans les plantations -- États-Unis (Sud)
- Esclavage -- États-Unis (Sud)
- Plantation life.
- Southern States.
- Sklaverei
- USA -- Südstaaten
- Slavernij.
- Plantages.
- Dagelijks leven.
- Sklaverei -- USA
- Historia Geral (Escravidao)
- Slaves -- Southern States.
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