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  • Institutional Slavery: Slaveholding Churches, Schools, Colleges, and Businesses in Virginia, 1680–1860 by Jennifer Oast
  • Sara Hyde
Institutional Slavery: Slaveholding Churches, Schools, Colleges, and Businesses in Virginia, 1680–1860. By Jennifer Oast. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pp. xii, 264. $99.99, ISBN 978-1-107-10527-0.)

Jennifer Oast's Institutional Slavery: Slaveholding Churches, Schools, Colleges, and Businesses in Virginia, 1680–1860 offers a much-needed exploration into an important aspect of southern slavery that often escapes historiographical attention. The author examines slaveholding by institutions such as churches, schools, and businesses in Virginia from 1680 until the Civil War. By examining these institutional slaveholders and the slaves they owned and hired, Oast helps craft a fuller portrait of southern slavery that includes the unique and precarious lives of slaves employed by religious, educational, corporate, and state entities. The author upends the historical proslavery argument by showcasing how slaves living under the command of institutions were entirely without the benefit of the paternalistic mastery that sometimes limited the cruelty of the slave system.

Oast begins by tracing ownership and hiring of slaves by religious institutions, including Anglican, Episcopal, and Presbyterian churches in Virginia, offering exceptional insight into this sort of institutional slaveholding. The author uses the "careful records" of Briery Presbyterian Church in Prince Edward County coupled with census returns to piece together an impressively full portrait of the slaves owned by the church, whom the church hired out annually, and the white southerners who hired them (p. 11). Oast's thoughtful reconstruction of these slaves' lives allows her to elucidate the heart-wrenching rhythm of the annual lease that often separated hired-out slaves from beloved family members. The author's analysis of surviving records reveals that the thirty-five slaves owned by Briery Presbyterian Church in the 1840s "were all part of an extended family, descended from slaves purchased by the congregation in the eighteenth century" (p. 108). The author demonstrates that these slaves suffered an especially heinous condition because they were hired out annually; the practice offered no continuity and ensured separation from family members as well as suffering at the hands of hirers who had no vested interest in the long-term well-being of the slaves.

The author also examines slaveholding by educational institutions, including free schools, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Virginia, among others. Oast reveals a paradoxical existence for slaves who worked on college campuses. While they often suffered at the hands of "too many 'masters,'" they also sometimes enjoyed opportunities to earn income by doing extra work for students beyond their official duties for the college (p. 173).

Oast's examination of industrial slavery in Virginia accords with the historiographical consensus that skilled slaves enjoyed a level of control over their [End Page 935] own lives not available to most slaves engaged in agriculture. The author's analysis of slaves used in coal mining, gold mining, and tobacco manufacturing adds further proof of an "incentive culture" in such industries (p. 231). According to Oast, "The consent of the slaves themselves to do skilled industrial work was advantageous if the work was to be done well and efficiently. Positive incentives like pay for extra work encouraged many slaves to see industrial work as an opportunity to be sought after" (p. 229).

The author reaches the conclusion that while all slaves suffered from insecurity, this problem "was exacerbated in the lives of slaves owned by institutions" (p. 233). She also stresses institutional slaveholding's "paradoxical effect on white society" (p. 236). While it broadened the spectrum of white people who benefited from slavery, it also deprived slaves of a paternalistic master, a rationale that was central to antebellum white southerners' proslavery arguments.

Institutional Slavery offers a significant contribution to our understanding of American slavery. The author's careful research, astute analysis, and weighty conclusions advance awareness of less revealed aspects of the peculiar institution and its impact on both black and white southerners before the Civil War.

Sara Hyde
River Parishes Community College
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