William Kauffman Scarborough has produced a work of incomparable scope and depth, offering the challenge to see afresh one of the most powerful groups in American history—the wealthiest southern planters who owned 250 or more slaves in the census years of 1850 and 1860. The identification and tabulation in every slaveholding state of these lords of economic, social, and political influence reveals a highly learned class of men who set the tone for southern society while also involving themselves in the wider world of capitalism. Scarborough examines the demographics of elite families, the educational philosophy and religiosity of the nabobs, gender relations in the Big House, slave management methods, responses to secession, and adjustment to the travails of Reconstruction and an alien postwar world.
Every town or city is filled with houses of all shapes and sizes, but we don't often stop to think about how they are built. Readers will learn all about the construction process, from foundations to roofs.
Focusing on the master-slave relationship in Louisiana's antebellum sugarcane country, The Sugar Masters explores how a modern, capitalist mind-set among planters meshed with old-style paternalistic attitudes to create one of the South's most insidiously oppressive labor systems. As author Richard Follett vividly demonstrates, the agricultural paradise of Louisiana's thriving sugarcane fields came at an unconscionable cost to slaves. Thanks to technological and business innovations, sugar planters stood as models of capitalist entrepreneurship by midcentury. But above all, labor management was the secret to their impressive success. Follett explains how in exchange for increased productivity and efficiency they offered their slaves a range of incentives, such as greater autonomy, improved accommodations, and even financial remuneration. These material gains, however, were only short term. According to Follett, many of Louisiana's sugar elite presented their incentives with a "facade of paternal reciprocity" that seemingly bound the slaves' interests to the apparent goodwill of the masters, but in fact, the owners sought to control every aspect of the slaves's lives, from reproduction to discretionary income. Slaves responded to this display of paternalism by trying to enhance their rights under bondage, but the constant bargaining process invariably led to compromises on their part, and the grueling production pace never relented. The only respite from their masters' demands lay in fashioning their own society, including outlets for religion, leisure, and trade. Until recently, scholars have viewed planters as either paternalistic lords who eschewed marketplace values or as entrepreneurs driven to business success. Follett offers a new view of the sugar masters as embracing both the capitalist market and a social ideology based on hierarchy, honor, and paternalism. His stunning synthesis of empirical research, demographics study, and social and cultural history sets a new standard for this subject.
“Eyewitness testimonies to the culture and commerce of slavery . . . coupled with smart commentary” from an acclaimed historian. “Essential.”(Kirkus Reviews) In this important book, Noel Rae integrates firsthand accounts into a narrative history that brings the reader face to face with slavery’s everyday reality. From the travel journals of sixteenth-century Spanish settlers who offered religious instruction and “protection” in exchange for farm labor, to the diaries of Reverend Cotton Mather, to Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted’s travelogue about the “cotton states,” to an 1880 speech given by Frederick Douglass, Rae provides a comprehensive portrait of the antebellum history of the nation. Most significant are the testimonies from former slaves themselves, ranging from the famous Solomon Northup to the virtually unknown Mary Reynolds, who was sold away from her mother as child. Drawing on thousands of original sources, The Great Stain tells of a society based on the exploitation of labor and fallacies of racial superiority. Meticulously researched, this is a work of history that is profoundly relevant to our world today. “Noel Rae expertly assembles the most consequential accounts from the era of the American slave trade. . . . A vivid and comprehensive picture.” —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America “Uniquely immediate, multivoiced, specific, arresting, and illuminating.” —Booklist “Many histories have been written of slavery in America, but far too few have let the participants, and particularly the victims, speak so directly for themselves. Rae has helped to fill that historical vacuum in this important work, and the voices are intense, eloquent, and haunting.” —National Book Review
(Book). The guitar, particularly in its electric form, is the most influential instrument of the past 60 years. Guitar Masters spotlights the players who made it that way: the visionary talents and living legends who developed the sound and style of the electric guitar as we know and love it. This book traces the life stories and assesses the musical legacies of such superstar guitarists as Jeff Beck and Keith Richards as well as anonymous but influential sidemen and behind-the-scenes stalwarts such as James Burton. Veteran music journalist Alan di Perna draws on three decades' worth of experience as a writer and interviewer to extract the essence of what makes these gifted guitarists so influential and unique. Their stories are as diverse as they are inspiring. Yet what all these guitar masters share is an unshakable dedication to their craft and a deeply intuitive connection with their chosen instrument. Whether you're a fan, a player, or a master in your own right, Guitar Masters will give you new insights into the lives and music of the players to whom we owe our very notion of what a guitar sounds like and its extraordinary power to move people like no other instrument.
From the award-winning author of All the Broken Pieces and Serafina's Promise comes a breathtaking new novel that is her most transcendent and widely accessible work to date. The day Grace is called from the slave cabins to work in the Big House, Mama makes her promise to keep her eyes down. Uncle Jim warns her to keep her thoughts tucked private in her mind or they could bring a whole lot of trouble and pain. But the more Grace sees of the heartless Master and hateful Missus, the more a rightiness voice clamors in her head-asking how come white folks can own other people, sell them on the auction block, and separate families forever. When that voice escapes without warning, it sets off a terrible chain of events that prove Uncle Jim's words true. Suddenly, Grace and her family must flee deep into the woods, where they brave deadly animals, slave patrollers, and the uncertainty of ever finding freedom. With candor and compassion, Ann E. Burg sheds light on a startling chapter of American history--the remarkable story of runaways who sought sanctuary in the Great Dismal Swamp--and creates a powerful testament to the right of every human to be free.
What measures success or failure when you come from the workhouse? Mules; Masters & Mud is about what happened to our two cotton mill apprentices, the Quarry Bank runaways, during the Industrial Revolution. It tells their story as qualified young mule spinners with future hopes, and later when they are full grown. By the start of the Victorian period the fates and their ambitions would have collided. Serious events and incidents, personal and national, including the Peterloo Massacre, were about to impinge upon the lives of Thomas Priestley and Joseph Sefton. What would cause a qualified mule spinner to give up his comparatively safe job and risk failure, ridicule or destitution? Ambitious and determined working class individuals like Tommy and Joe had to carefully step through a pathway involving love and loyalty; persecution and prejudice, from within the social hierarchy of the times.
This unique collection consists of the most influential narratives of former slaves, including numerous recorded testimonies, life stories and original photos of former slaves long after Civil War: Recorded Life Stories of Former Slaves from 17 different US States Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 12 Years a Slave (Solomon Northup) The Underground Railroad Harriet Jacobs: The Moses of Her People Up From Slavery (Booker T. Washington) The Willie Lynch Letter: The Making of Slave! The Confessions of Nat Turner Narrative of Sojourner Truth The History of Mary Prince Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (William & Ellen Craft) Thirty Years a Slave (Louis Hughes) Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Behind The Scenes: 30 Years a Slave & 4 Years in the White House (Elizabeth Keckley) Father Henson's Story of His Own Life (Josiah Henson) Fifty Years in Chains (Charles Ball) Twenty-Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman (Austin Steward) Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave The Story of Mattie J. Jackson (L. S. Thompson) A Slave Girl's Story (Kate Drumgoold) From the Darkness Cometh the Light (Lucy A. Delaney) Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy, a Slave in the United States of America Narrative of Joanna Life of Henry Box Brown, Who Escaped in a 3x2 Feet Box Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley Buried Alive Sketches of the Life of Joseph Mountain Documents: The History of the Abolition of African Slave-Trade History of American Abolitionism from 1787-1861 Pictures of Slavery in Church and State Report of the Proceedings at the Examination of Charles G. Davis, Esq., on the Charge of Aiding and Abetting in the Rescue of a Fugitive Slave Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act Emancipation Proclamation Gettysburg Address XIII Amendment Civil Rights Act of 1866 XIV Amendment ...
Exhibiting a clear, straightforward style, his many works are marked by a comprehensiveness and a catholicity of view. There is hardly an element of southern thought or society, hardly a major movement of any kind or an event of any significance that has escaped his penetrating thought and discerning analysis. This volume of Eaton's selected writings forms a rich and provocative mosaic of southern life from the years of Thomas Jefferson to the close of the Civil War. These selections, perceptively edited by Albert D. Kinvan, 'show the wide range of Eaton's interests, including the impact of slavery, the influence of religion, and the art of politics, and they demonstrate the depth of his insight into the civilization of the Old South.
