Swing the Sickle for the Harvest Is Ripe: Gender and Slavery in Antebellum Georgia (review)

Berry has written a fascinating but slightly disjointed book that touches on several historiographical themes and utilizes a range of methodological techniques. Yet, ultimately, her book is no more than a fine case study; much of its findings will be familiar to those interested in the history of gender, labor, and familial relations under slavery.

Berry seeks to compare and contrast the lives of the enslaved in two counties of Georgia—Wilkes in the upcountry and Glyn in the lowcountry. Her comparative approach highlights well the variety of life experiences during bondage within the state, though many of her conclusions run parallel to those of other scholars who have compared tide-water areas with Piedmont areas. Berry employs an impressive range of quantitative and qualitative evidence, adding depth to our understanding of slavery at both a micro- and macrolevel. She illustrates, for example, the changing slave populations of both counties, and, more specifically, rates of hiring out among individual owners in tabular form. Berry also explores, in great detail, various “micro-studies” of slave owners and their plantations.

The book’s main themes are gender, labor, family, community, and economy, some of which she explores in greater depth than others. The strongest contributions of her book are easily identified—her nuanced consideration of “skilled” labor and her analysis of enslaved “breeding.” Berry argues persuasively that skill was not reserved exclusively for men or for domestic servants. Offering a flexible definition of the term as “doing something well,” she shows how skilled agricultural work crossed gender lines regardless of the type of labor system employed or crop grown.

Berry asserts that breeding was a method used by slaveholders to force slaves into partnerships or multiple relationships without their consent. This argument is controversial, as Berry herself points out in the endnotes. It would have been more convincing if she had included some sense of how prevalent this form of coercion was. She provides a few examples of it (some of them outside Georgia), but she is mute about its scale of occurrence.

Other areas of Berry’s research are more problematical. Certain sections within her chapters are short and/or descriptive, not contributing much to her overall arguments. For example, under the subheading “resistance,” she explores only runaway slaves, considering other forms of resistance elsewhere. She raises questions about the motivations of slaves who married but ventures no explanatory hypotheses. More detailed comparisons between the two counties, as well as between Georgia and other slaveholding regions, would have been beneficial. In general, quantifiable data might have helped to substantiate her arguments. As it stands, some of Berry’s interesting points read like unqualified assertions; they deserve better.

Ultimately, Berry’s book adds a great deal to our understanding of the variety and complexity of slave life and makes a valuable contribution to scholarship both about Georgia and the antebellum South as a whole.