The African-American Family in Slavery and Emancipation

ISBN-13: 9780521812764 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 382 str.

Wilma A. Dunaway (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State U

Opis

Wilma Dunaway contends that studies of the U.S. slave family are flawed by the neglect of small plantations and export zones and the exaggeration of slave agency. Using data on population trends and slave narratives, Dunaway identifies several profit-maximizing strategies that owners implemented to disrupt and endanger African-American families. These effective strategies include forced labor migrations, structural interference in marriages and childcare, sexual exploitation of women, shortfalls in provision of basic survival needs, and ecological risks. This book is unique in its examination of new threats to family persistence that emerged during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Recenzje

'… a hugely impressive achievement … go[es] a long way towards redressing the balance between 'agency' and 'coerciveness' in American slave studies.' History

Spis treści

Introduction; 1. Slave trading and forced labor migrations; 2. Family diasporas and parenthood lost; 3. Malnutrition, ecological risks, and slave mortality; 4. Reproductive exploitation and child mortality; 5. Slave household subsistence and women's work; 6. The impacts of Civil War on slave families; 7. The risks of emancipation for black families; 8. Reconstruction threats to black family survival; Theoretical reprise.