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The Slave Community   Term Paper ID:42259 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: This paper offers a book review of John W Blassingame s The Slave Community ...... More...

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Paper Abstract: This paper offers a book review of John W. Blassingame’s The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, which provides a unique perspective of the cultural and personal development of the African-American slave on plantations during the period prior to the Civil War, especially as it relates to community and master-slave relations. Paper Introduction: The Slave Community John W Blassingame\'s The Slave Community Plantation Life in theAntebellum South provides a unique perspective of the cultural and personaldevelopment of the African-American slave on plantations during the periodprior to the Civil War His interpretation of the cultural and personaldevelopment of the American slave during the antebellum era contrasts withsome authors who viewed such life as akin to imprisonment Instead Blassingame demonstrates that a certain mutuality in the relationshipbetween plantation master and slave allowed for accommodation andnegotiation since the Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. His interpretation of the cultural and personaldevelopment of the American slave during the antebellum era contrasts withsome authors who viewed such life as akin to imprisonment. In this, the work not only does itssubject justice, but it stands as a forerunner of modern cultural andsocial analyses of different cultures from a non-Western perspective. BibliographyBlassingame, John W. The Slave Community John W. Instead,Blassingame demonstrates that a certain mutuality in the relationshipbetween plantation master and slave allowed for accommodation andnegotiation, since the slave was a necessary economic generating resourcefor the master. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in theAntebellum South. In thissense, a perspective that is not often told of the period - a slaveperspective - helps Blassingame reinterpret conventional views of the mast-slave relationship and plantation life more as prison than community forAmerican slaves. If Blassingame's interpretation of the cultural and personaldevelopment of American slaves during the antebellum period seems like aform of reinterpretation, it is because his work offers insights andunderstanding into the slave community that is grounded a great deal on theautobiographies of antebellum slaves in the nineteenth century. As Blassingamemaintains, despite the master having almost absolute power over the slavefrom a legal perspective, he was "dependent on the slave's labor for hiseconomic survival, the planter ordinarily could not afford to starve,torture, or work him to death."[2] This picture of the master-slaverelationship stands in contrast to many others, including slave narratives,but Blassingame's sources also include the autobiographies of former slavesin addition to planter's autobiographies and travel reports. The author maintains that economicforces and the difficulty in restricting and monitoring others on acontinual basis permitted a certain flexibility, accommodation, andeconomic mutuality within the master-slave relationship. In doing so, he examines slavery fromanother perspective and shows that greater mutuality and accommodation areevident in the master-slave relationship than many individuals believe.The author also demonstrates that power relations in any institutionbetween those in absolute power and those they control does not necessarilyresult in total subordination of the powerless group simply because theyare not powerless as he shows with slaves. Press, (1979), xii.[2] Blassingame, (1979), 271.[3] Ibid, 373.[4] Ibid, 315.[5] Ibid, 61.[6] Ibid, 368. As Blassingame writes of thisphenomenon, From the comparison, it would appear that there is no deterministic relationship between institutional sanctions, roles, and subordinate status and submissiveness...The degree to which the members of institutions are able to avoid becoming abjectly docile is dependent on the kinds of power exercised, the level of surveillance, and the frequency of interaction.[3]In this sense, slaves exhibited more freedom and autonomy over cultural andpersonal development away from the planter's control than under it, sincethese three levels of negotiation were in their favor as plantation labor. Showing economic mutuality, when slaves did steal it was most oftenbelieved it was because they worked for planters who starved them or deniedthem basic needs.[5] Arab tolerance was even blamed for this behavioramong slaves. Press, 1979.-----------------------[1] John W. As Blassingamewrites, the community of American slaves was so entrenched and recognizableat times that slave owners often remarked on them, "Masters frequentlynoted the sense of community in the quarters; they reported that slavesusually shared their few goods, rarely stole from each other, and thestrong helped the weak."[4] Slaves also refused to tell on each other andrespected each other out of character not out of fear, as with the respectoffered masters in most instances. Because the master, despite having total power legallyover the slave, viewed the slave as necessary for making money, Blassingameargues that the slave "gained a sense of worth in the quarters, spent mostof his time free from white surveillance by whites, controlled importantaspects of his life, and did some personally meaningful things on his ownvolition."[1] In this manner, the slave was not totally controlled by themaster or totally subservient to him. Blassingame provides a fascinating section on the parallels betweenthe institution of slavery and other total institutions such asconcentration camps and prisons. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South. In this interpretation lies Blassingame's major theme of Americanslave cultural and personal development in the Antebellum South.Blassingame maintains greater autonomy over both and greater developmentthan most think possible within the relationship of master-slave is evidentfor American slaves during this period. As Blassingame writes of his use of slaveautobiographies, "Since no other large body of material written by blacksis so profoundly introspective, and since no one can know as much aboutblacks as they themselves knew, black autobiographies are crucial for anunderstanding of the slave experience."[6] In this, the author shows hisprescience, for this assertion may seem commonplace in a time of culturaldiversity and greater acceptance, but Blassingame's book was initiallywritten almost four decades ago. Another unique aspect of Blassingame's interpretation of culturaland personal development of American slaves during the antebellum period ishis belief that specifically because of their "community," they were ableto offer a staunch form of resistance to slaveholders, even though theywere classified as property and of inferior status legally. Blassingame's The Slave Community: Plantation Life in theAntebellum South provides a unique perspective of the cultural and personaldevelopment of the African-American slave on plantations during the periodprior to the Civil War. New York: Oxford Univ. New York: Oxford Univ. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.