Customer Reviews

Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World

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This brilliant book is the best one-volume account of New World slavery I have seen, or could imagine. Davis has done something rare here. Having mastered this history over a lifetime of distinguished scholarship, he has now distilled his knowledge for a general audience. Too often, the experts won't, or can't, "popularize," and the popularizers are not expert. Davis is a gifted writer--some of the prose in this book is breathtaking--and an unusually lucid thinker. And so he was able to get his vast knowledge into a tight frame.

An earlier reviewer, while acknowledging how "glorious" this book is, complained of digressions. But where that reader saw detours, I found electrifying connections and illuminating comparisons. To survey history is to digress, because there is always more than one thing going on at a time, always more than one current steering events.

Slavery is not a pleasant subject, but it is as important to American history as any subject could be. Here we have the book that allows every sincere reader to acquire a broad understanding of this sordid, crucial story.

I rarely pay much attention to blurbs on the back of a book. But the testimonial to this book by Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson bears repeating, because it is exactly right. This is a "gracefully fashioned masterpiece ... simply indispensable ... the glorious culmination of the definitive series of studies on slavery by one of America's greatest living historians."

If you are over 60 and did not self-educate on slavery,you need to read this book. Believe me, slavery was a barely mentioned topic in elementary school through college. I know this is true for Blacks in the South and probably is true for other races as well.

This book is a must read for those non-academics who want to have a better understanding of slavery in America and the Americas. The sexual exploitation and psychological impact of slavery is generally known. This book, however, allows one to get the full picture of slavery from a global, economic and political perspective. There is nothing better for a painful subject like this than finding a reliable (well documented) and easy to read source by a respected author.

A great gift for your friends, no matter what race!

This is an altogether splendid book. It is skillfully written such that it is difficult to put down; the notes are voluminous, the maps helpful, the range of information brought together and organized successfully impressive, the opinions of the author clearly expressed, and acknowledgement and credit to other historians generous. Despite this, one does wonder for whom the book was written, surely not the hypothetical general reader. Much more information than the lawyerly standard of what everyone knows is frequently called for. To give just one example, on pp. 265-66, a free black is shown worrying about the effects on him of the Fugitive Slave Law. One drops immediately to how Anthony Burns was hauled through the streets of Boston on his way to Virginia. Is one to infer that Burns was a free black erroneously seized or an escaped slave? And although Davis details how important the religious motivation was in abolitionist thought, nowhere was there any explanation of how this Biblically based thinking, which at this time was largely literal, coped with or was able to get around the clear Biblical acceptance of slavery. And one could wish, particularly in view of their extent and comprehension of various aspects of the subject, that the citations in the notes had been compiled into a bibliography. Nevertheless, I would recommend to anyone who is at all interested in slavery, the Civil War, racism, and a host of associated topics, that they do themselves a favour and read Inhuman Bondage.

Readers of "Inhuman Bondage" have the privilege of entering the mind of one of the greatest living scholars of American slavery. In what truly may be his opus, Dr. David Brion Davis writes not simply a book, but composes a symphony. Like all great composers, Davis blends seemingly disparate notes into beautiful harmony.

Wide-ranging, even sprawling in coverage, Davis tells the epic story of the inhuman bondage of human enslavement. Laying the foundation with a captivating and accurate portrayal of the history and philosophy of ancient slavery, the author then moves into the modern era of slavery, first in the "New World" then in America more specifically.

"Inhuman Bondage" masterfully weaves together these larger socio-political realities with the very specific psychological realities of groups (such as the Amistad) and individuals. The clear message resonates: even inhuman treatment cannot dehumanize the human soul. In their rebellion (sometimes overt, other times, by necessity, covert and even internal), enslaved African Americans displayed their full humanity.

For a brilliantly written, in-depth, comprehensive, captivating narrative of new world slavery, look no further than "Inhuman Bondage."

Reviewer: Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care And Spiritual Direction, and Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care And Spiritual Direction.

In under 350 pages, David Brion Davis presents a wealth of information for those exploring the history of slavery for the first time or for readers seeking additional information to supplement past books and articles.

Unfortunately, it reads like a choppy college lecture, with the flow of material marred oftentimes by the circular exploration of material. A topic may be introduced, then discussed in depth later and then reintroduced for concluding remarks many pages later.

Davis utilizes numerous resources from contemporary historians and it is appreciated that he introduces the author and the work to the reader while quoting from the material.

Inhuman Bondage is an important work in the growing number of books covering the sordid past that has been "conveniently" ignored or flippantly tossed aside in past historical writings.

By coming to terms with the past and acknowledging the damage it has done is the only way the words from Davis and others will truly have full meaning.

The only point missing from the description of the book that appears above is the fact that "Inhuman Bondage" is eminently readable. If you care about this country, you must care about its history. And if you care about America's history, you must read this book.

David Brion Davis wrote one of the major works on Slavery with "THe Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution". That was a fairly detailed and tight work on the ideological foundations of modern slavery. His latest work, "Inhuman Bondage" is more sprightly and more disorganized. Chapters tend to meander in time and, to a lesser extent, focus, and Davis does things that I often frown on in scholarly research such as refering to himself in the first person and mentioning other scholars by name in the text (the latter is done copiously). That said, the book still works. It's very readable and, even for someone who knows a lot about slavery, should have some new insights. Most American works on slavery are, naturally, focused on slavery as it existed in the United States. Davis expands his scope beyond the United States, indeed much of the focus of the book is on Carribbean slavery. He also deals with slavery in the ancient and medieval world. Like his previous work this book deals a lot with the philosophical and political underpinnings of slavery. Davis gives an overview of why slavery became such an important institution in the western world and why it was eventually abolished.

The nineteenth century was one of momentous change, with life-improving technologies such as the railroad, the telegraph, the telephone, electricity, and anesthesia coming into widespread use. In addition to the technological changes, a colossally important moral improvement took place in the 1800s: the death of the institution of slavery in the Western world. David Brion Davis tells the important story of slavery's welcome demise in "Inhuman Bondage."

What makes this very well-researched volume so valuable is that it discusses slavery not just in the United States, but in Britain, the Caribbean, and Latin America as well, and how the changes in the institution in one region affected it in the others. The author even talks about how events like the English Civil War and the London fire of 1666 influenced slavery in the New World. Most people associate slavery with cotton plantations, but Davis relates how diverse slavery was and how in practice it differed from region to region.

Davis tracks the abolitionist movement from the first antislavery documents in Pennsylvania in 1688 through the mid-nineteenth century and discusses how religion, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution affected attitudes toward slavery. He also tells the story of the slave revolts, and shows the methods American slaves used to attempt to maintain a core of dignity and self-respect in the face of their oppression.

The author discusses how slavery affected nineteenth century American politics up through the 1850s and the election of 1860, and shows how Lincoln dealt with the issue over the course of the Civil War.

One need not agree with all of the conclusions that Davis arrives at to appreciate this book that chronicles the ultimate abolition of slavery, one of the greatest moral developments of the modern age.

America's role in the Atlantic slave trade remains a difficult subject to contemplate much less discuss in a constructive, forward-thinking manner, in large part because we are still dealing with its residue. Slavery brought centuries of of pain. Now there has been decades of denial, selective amnesia, and continued misinformation and soft peddling of the facts. With powerful prose and detailed analysis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World goes a long way in exposing the truth of this horrific chapter in global history which must not be forgotten, lest it be repeated. I highly recommend this book.

If one were to read only two books on American history -- "Inhuman Bondage" and Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the US" -- one would have a superb grasp of our American story. One would have to spend years in a university to acquire the knowledge put forth in these two books.

Virgil Jose, Author, "The Examined Life," a murder mystery inspired by real events.