New Studies in the History of American Slavery (review)

This collection of ten essays by historians is based on presentations at two conferences, one at the University of Washington in 2002 and one at Rutgers University in 2003. Several are based on prior publications—articles or books—and the others on forthcoming books. According to the editor's introduction, "Three intellectual trends—the cultural turn, the dramatically increased attention to women and gender, and the historicization of race—have influenced the chapters in this volume" (12). This, the editors argue, permits them to "explore the paradoxical qualities in bond peoples lives" since "we cannot understand slavery in all its complexity through an either/or framework" (3). Several of the articles fulfill this promise in part, and all of them are of high quality. Most would be familiar in terms of sources used and issues discussed to earlier scholars working on slavery, and this contributes to their value. While the substance may differ somewhat, the spirit of the presentation resembles that seen in Stampp's 1956 book, The Peculiar Institution. The value of the essays might have been enhanced if more was said about U.S. slavery in comparative perspective, so that we can better understand what is different, if anything, about the African Americans in the areas studied. If the points about the uses of complexities were applied to masters' behavior and interests, and they were given more attention than merely the occasional cameos as heavies, the book would provide a better context for understanding slave agency in this system of seemingly skewed power relations. It would also permit a more detailed and richer analysis of slavery.

This volume is primarily concerned with slavery in the South in the late antebellum period, the exceptions being Herman L. Bennett's piece on seventeenth-century Mexico, Christopher L. Brown's analysis of the politics of the "rise and fall of the British Atlantic planter class," Jennifer L. Morgan's well-illustrated survey of traveler descriptions of African women in the eighteenth century, and Vincent Brown's analysis of the power of the spiritual and supernatural in Jamaica slave society.

The ten essays are divided into three sections. The first, "Gender and Slavery," includes, in addition to Jennifer Morgan's long essay, an interesting piece on African American midwives by Sharla M. Feet, following the lines of the study of recent times by Gertrude Fraser. The third essay, by one of the co-editors, Stephanie M. H. Camp, focuses on the role of the body and of dress in female resistance on slave plantations. Of possible interest for a discussion of cultural interactions is the citing of a song sung by female slaves, "Buffalo Gals," later made famous by Donna Reed in It's a Wonderful Life.

The second section, "Race, Identity, and Community," also includes three essays, all shorter than those in the first and last sections. Bennett's discussion concerns cultural adjustments due to the slave trade and how the "persons of African descent used the social system's flexibility to claim social and cultural space for themselves" (139). Thus, he argues, there were some African continuities within the slave Creole population. Barbara Krauthamer describes the incorporation into Creek society of runaway female African American slaves, some to be enslaved in Creek society and some to be considered free. In either case, she argues, the outcome was preferred to being enslaved by whites. In a short article, based on other writings, Dylan C. Penningroth explores the implications of slave property, including its role in disputes among slaves, for understanding the system. His principal source of property was data drawn from the Southern Claims Commission.

The third section, "The Politics of Culture in Slavery," includes four essays on differing topics. Vincent Brown examines obeah in Jamaica and the role it played in slave societies and in black-white relations. Philip Troutman draws upon letters written or dictated by slaves who were sold...