A groundbreaking study of two cultures in early America.
Black Majority
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Easily the most thorough and the most penetrating case study yet written of the Afro-American population during the slave period. . . . Fascinating and instructive.” (Jack P. Greene )
“Mr. Wood has gone beyond any previous study of the history of slavery in the colonial period. . . . He has given us new perspectives not only on slavery but on human relationships in early America.” (Edmund S. Morgan, author of American Slavery / American Freedom )
“Mr. Wood has gone beyond any previous study of the history of slavery in the colonial period. . . . He has given us new perspectives not only on slavery but on human relationships in early America.” (Edmund S. Morgan, author of American Slavery / American Freedom )
About the Author
Peter H. Wood is professor of American history at Duke University.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Peter H. Wood did a thoroughly researched well written history of African-Americans in South Carolina from 1670 to the Stono Rebellion. I am African-American and read this book for the first time in college; it was assigned to me by a terrific professor, (Thomas R. Hietala). I came to that class with my own concept of what slavery was and what it meant; this book totally challenged me to question my perceptions of slavery. I believed the stereotypic view that Africans were brought here and taught skills here and picked cotton and it was all misery and this book and others he assigned showed me how our modern vision of slavery is very shallow.
This book focuses on the rice growing region of South Carolina and it shows how slavers concentrated on capturing Africans from the rice coast because of their agricultural knowledge and skills; he shed a light on who these African people were before slavery. It explores how the cash crop in South Carolina came to be rice. How South Carolina was established as a colony of Barbados and the slave owners in South Carolina were formerly working class overseers who worked for the royal owners of Sugar Plantations in Barbados and later became land and slave owners in South Carolina; in both places (Barbados and South Carolina) the populations became Black majorities.
It also shows how slavery system in South Carolina evolved for the enslaved from something that was oppressive and informal into something brutal, permanent and hopeless. The evolution of slavery also changed the owners as they became a numerical minority the also became increasingly paranoid, determined to establish brutal absolute authority over the slaves and blinded by their own propaganda.
It seems even more astonishing they began to believe that Africans were better off and happy under a system that enslaved them. The most powerful thing Professor Hietala ever said in our class was "Never forget that slaves always wanted ownership of their own bodies and the power to direct their own lives and destinies; nothing was more important."
At times I think historians forget this when writing about African-American slaves. Wood understands this and he also shows respect for how enslaved Africans not only yearned for their freedom but how they planned and took risks for their freedom. He explores in depth the complexity and challenges of their struggle in choosing to look at the Stono Rebellion and the events that lead up to this big risk.
The story Wood tells begins with the history of these two communities (Barbados overseers who become South Carolina planters and enslaved Africans) continues with the development of the system of slavery in South Carolina and climaxes at the Stono Rebellion. The most fascinating thing about this act of Resistance is how close they came to success. When reading it for the first time I found myself saddened that they did not succeed because their success could have rewritten African-American History by altering the issues that sparked the Civil War and subsequent events; Reconstruction, Jim-Crow and the Civil Rights Movement. In essence their success could have changed my history and had far reaching implications with respect to who I am.
I think it is worth reading because of the history it explores and because Wood is an excellent researcher and writer. He not only uncovers the history but he exposes readers to the lives of enslaved Africans in a new way by portraying them as whole human beings who had a life before slavery. He treats with respect their existence and culture in Africa and acknowledges how it (African culture) influenced the economy and agriculture of South Carolina and by inference the South. It is a brilliant well researched and written work, as a student I came to appreciate that brilliant scholars were not always brilliant writers, Wood excels at both. I recommend it highly to any one interested in learning more about African-American history.
This book focuses on the rice growing region of South Carolina and it shows how slavers concentrated on capturing Africans from the rice coast because of their agricultural knowledge and skills; he shed a light on who these African people were before slavery. It explores how the cash crop in South Carolina came to be rice. How South Carolina was established as a colony of Barbados and the slave owners in South Carolina were formerly working class overseers who worked for the royal owners of Sugar Plantations in Barbados and later became land and slave owners in South Carolina; in both places (Barbados and South Carolina) the populations became Black majorities.
It also shows how slavery system in South Carolina evolved for the enslaved from something that was oppressive and informal into something brutal, permanent and hopeless. The evolution of slavery also changed the owners as they became a numerical minority the also became increasingly paranoid, determined to establish brutal absolute authority over the slaves and blinded by their own propaganda.
It seems even more astonishing they began to believe that Africans were better off and happy under a system that enslaved them. The most powerful thing Professor Hietala ever said in our class was "Never forget that slaves always wanted ownership of their own bodies and the power to direct their own lives and destinies; nothing was more important."
At times I think historians forget this when writing about African-American slaves. Wood understands this and he also shows respect for how enslaved Africans not only yearned for their freedom but how they planned and took risks for their freedom. He explores in depth the complexity and challenges of their struggle in choosing to look at the Stono Rebellion and the events that lead up to this big risk.
The story Wood tells begins with the history of these two communities (Barbados overseers who become South Carolina planters and enslaved Africans) continues with the development of the system of slavery in South Carolina and climaxes at the Stono Rebellion. The most fascinating thing about this act of Resistance is how close they came to success. When reading it for the first time I found myself saddened that they did not succeed because their success could have rewritten African-American History by altering the issues that sparked the Civil War and subsequent events; Reconstruction, Jim-Crow and the Civil Rights Movement. In essence their success could have changed my history and had far reaching implications with respect to who I am.
I think it is worth reading because of the history it explores and because Wood is an excellent researcher and writer. He not only uncovers the history but he exposes readers to the lives of enslaved Africans in a new way by portraying them as whole human beings who had a life before slavery. He treats with respect their existence and culture in Africa and acknowledges how it (African culture) influenced the economy and agriculture of South Carolina and by inference the South. It is a brilliant well researched and written work, as a student I came to appreciate that brilliant scholars were not always brilliant writers, Wood excels at both. I recommend it highly to any one interested in learning more about African-American history.
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Peter H. Wood describes the experience of Blacks in early South Carolina. In the initial stages of colonization, planters welcomed the skills of Africans, encouraging Black initiative in many projects. Some Africans herded cattle and cultivated rice and indigo, as they had in various parts of Africa. Eventually, however, landowners shifted to intensive plantation development. Planters then sought to limit the strikingly independent economic pursuits of enslaved African-Americans. Wood sets the stage for the outbreak of the Stono Rebellion in 1739; he then chronicles the revolt with a combination of magnificent scholarship and tremendous narrative skill.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This study of slavery in early SC is well researched and well written, a social history told in narrative style with a clearly defined chronological structure. Makes a great companion to Philip Morgan's Slave Counterpoint.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670...
I found the writing to be clear and lively. Most important, the facts are reliable and presented in a orderly manner.
Published 2 months ago by David B. Mccoy
4.0 out of 5 stars
School book.
Ok, it was a school book. I do not know what more you want me to say, I had to have it for class.
Published 3 months ago by Jim C.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Black Majority
I could not put this book down, i learned so much about my people that i never learned in any history class in all my years of schooling in America. Read more
Published on January 30, 2011 by Derrick Mercer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensible for an important thread in Black and American history
This book is the beginning of an important thread in African American and Southern History. South Carolina's history was forged by the degree to which it was a slave society on a... Read more
Published on February 20, 2009 by Tony Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent History of Africans in South Carolina
If you have an interest in the history of Africans in America, specially in South Carolina, this is book will be right up your alley. Read more
Published on February 13, 2008 by Big Sistah Patty
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well written....kind of slow
Black mojority is a momagram written to examinne the life of an african american in carolina during the colonial era. Read more
Published on February 20, 2005 by Serenity
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Study of Africans in 18th Century South Carolina
Peter Wood presents a very thorough account of Africans in South Carolina in the 1700s. From the first Africans to arrive on a Spanish expedition in 1526 and the African migrants... Read more
Published on March 10, 2003 by mwreview
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 65
books:
See all 65 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American Hist) by Winthrop D. Jordan on 10 pages
- Black English by J.L. Dillard on 9 pages
- South Carolina (Gousha Fastmap) by Don Wood on 6 pages
- Bases of the Plantation Society (Documentary history of the United States) by Aubrey C. Land on page 37, page 237, and page 283
- Key Issues in the Afro-American Experience, Vol. 1: To 1877 by Martin Kilson on page 61, and page 288
See all 65 books this book cites
- Masters, Slaves, and Subjects: The Culture of Power in the South Carolina Low Country, 1740-1790 by Robert Olwell on 12 pages
- Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century by April Lee Hatfield on 7 pages
- Suspect Relations: Sex, Race, and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina by Kirsten Fischer on 7 pages
- By the Work of Their Hands: Studies in Afro-American Folklife by John M. Vlach on 7 pages
- Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas (Harvard Historical Studies) by Sally E. Hadden on 6 pages
See all 100 books citing this book
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