Weathering different storms : regional agriculture and slave families in the non-cotton South, 1800-1860

Abstract

The history of American slave family life has been circumscribed by two shortcomings. First, historians have long disagreed over the extent of slave agency in the development of slave families. Second, historians have tended to overemphasize the experiences of enslaved people in the cotton South, and rarely studied slave families from a comparative perspective.

This study addresses both of these issues by examaning, from a comparative perspective, the boundaries and opportunities for slave family life in three distinct agricultural regions of the American South: Fairfax County, Virginia; Georgetown District, South Carolina; and St. James Parish, Louisiana.