Customer Reviews

Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South

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Prof. Stevenson's book does not attempt to capture the essence of the entire American south or of the entire history of American slavery. Instead, she attempts a historical reproduction of the lives of American Black women and American white women, two collective voices which are all too often forgotten in the sexualized debate over race relations and slavery. Rather than seeing that debate as a battle between Black men and White men Stevenson's work is meant to compliment the works of earlier researchers, notably Blassingame, Genovese, Herskovitz, and Jones to provide a complete and concerted picture of slave life for all involved: black and white, male and female. By providing the evidence of primary sources she lets the dead speak for themselves about their conditions rather than creating academic hyperbole in an Ivory (or Ebony) Tower. Any dismissive criticisms of political correctness or sanitized objectivity directed against this amazing accomplishment miss the point entirely. Stevenson is being academically precise, intellectually faithful, and ethically professional in detailing these stories that would have otherwise been smeared in the miasma of American history. In distinguishing heterosexual relationships from homosexual, which are increasingly coming to light as more and more evidence of the truth of slavery is exposed, her book signals a change in historical materials that seek to be more comprehensive in examing past lives. Her book is a necessary element in the ongoing narrative of American history.

I began reading this novel hoping to gain new insights into social life in the American South. Instead, I discovered a moderately interesting social analysis of the South that focuses a bit much on the psychological aspects of southern life without telling me why they were unique to the time period. For instance, Stevenson devotes an entire chapter to the challenges of marriage and the conflict between financial success and the marital bond. She doesn't always say what makes this problem unique to the South. I also noticed a creeping political correctness in her writing (e.g. "heterosexual" marriages among slaves) that she doesn't justify with historical evidence. This book served as a reminder of inequality, but maybe used too modern a standard to criticize a not-so-modern society.