Customer Reviews

The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book for my history of American slavery class and I really enjoyed it. It is one of the books I did not sell back to the college when the semester ended. Blassingame focuses on the slave culture and uses such sources as folk songs, fugitive wanted posters, slave interviews and correspondence, diaries, and memoirs (from slaves and slave holders) to bring insight on life on the plantation. The author offers an extensive, well-organized bibliography which, alone, makes this book valuable.

The chapters cover the topics of enslavement and acculturation, the Americanization of the slave and the Africanization of the South, slave culture, family, rebels and runaways, stereotypes and institutional roles (i.e. the "Sambo" role), plantation realities, and slave personality types. This work also includes appendixes on such subjects as African words, numerals, and sentences used by former slaves, and a comparative examination of total institutions. The book is well-written and also offers numerous illustrations.

Blassingame succeeds in sheding light on the real-life culture of the black slave in the Antebellum South: his African heritage, culture, family, acculturation, behavior, religion, and personality. Rather than concentrating solely on the planter - the traditional way of approaching the subject - Blassingame attempts to clarify and distill the essence of slave life through the filter of three eyewitness accounts. Two of them, the planter and the slave, give an insider's view of the plantation while the third witness, the traveler, views the relation between slave and master from the perspective of an outsider. Blassingame then utilizes the raw material of these personal observations to construct a detailed account of the day-to-day life of a slave - providing the reader with an insightful glimpse into the Negro's African heritage, the development of an Americanized culture, the formation of families, acculturation and behavior patterns when not under white supervision, religious preferences and beliefs, and personality traits.
The author makes the assertion that there were several types of slave personalities. Sambo - the submissive half-man, half-child - is the most well-known but was mostly a stereotypical manifestation of planter class racism and insecurity. Yet this caricature is the clearest portrait the southern planter has drawn of the slave, according to Blassingame. Sambo was actually but one of many variations, and was not even the most dominant slave personality. "Such stereotypes," asserts Blassingame, "are so intimately related to the planters' projections, desires, and biases that they tell us little about slave behavior and even less about the slaves' inner life, his thoughts, actions, self-concepts, or personality."
Blassingame also asserts that, because masters were unable or unwilling to impose round-the-clock supervision, their system of control was open at certain points. These systemic "blind spots" presented opportunities for the development autonomous Negro behavior as the slave's quarters, religion, and family helped to foster self-sufficiency. Rather than identifying with and totally submitting to the master, the slaves tenaciously held on to many remnants of African culture while simultaneously gaining a sense of worth among fellow residents of the quarters. This resulting underworld society flourished in defiance of the burdens imposed by enslavement.
In writing this treatise, the author attempted to tap into the feelings and attitudes of the entire plantation community. Since the thoughts and observations of slaves were seldom recorded (the teaching of reading and writing to slaves was illegal), Blassingale tends to lean heavily on observations by whites.
Additionally, the book devotes a lengthy section attempting to determine the basis of the stereotypically feeble-minded, anxiously subservient "Sambo" image. To this end, Blassingame relies on data from Nazi concentration camps to test the hypothesis that, in a system as tightly closed as either the plantation or the concentration camp, the slave's (or prisoner's) position of absolute dependency virtually compels him to view the facility's authority-figure as somehow "good" despite the evil emanating from the master/commandant (because, so goes the theory, the master also supplies everything of value).
There are also some enlightening discussions regarding the nature of slave marriage, family, religion, rebellion, and miscegenation. For example, the slave father was virtually without authority. Unable to protect his wife and children from discipline and abuse at the hands of the master, Negro fathers' resourcefulness in compensating for their institutionally-imposed weakness evokes simultaneous waves of sympathy at their plight and admiration for pluck.
Blassingame has done an excellent job presenting and applying his research. His "holistic" approach to the subject effectively endows the reader with a keen sense of how masters and slaves interacted and provides a comprehensive picture of plantation life that effectively reveals the complexity of the institution - as contrasted with the distorted picture often emerging from those who rely solely on planter records.
He successfully incorporates the primary accounts of plantation owners, slaves, and visitors in the Antebellum South to powerfully illustrate in straightforward manner what plantation life really felt like. He also makes effective use of social science disciplines like anthropology and psychology (especially when examining techniques the plantation owners utilized to maintain control and how the slaves resisted theses efforts). Furthermore, Blassingame resists the temptation to moralize about the living conditions and oftentimes barbarous exploitation of the slaves. Instead, he allows the reader to make up his own mind about the alien word of the antebellum Southern plantation and its "peculiar institution."

A historical analysis of an institution is always a difficult thing to write. Extensive works must be read and analyzed, both primary and secondary in order to find trends within similar institutions. Furthermore, the longer the institution was in existance, the more documentation exists that must be sifted over in an effort to see how the institution has evolved over time.

With the difficulty of the task in mind, John Blassingame has done an excellent presenting his research in "The Slave Community." He successfully has used primary accounts of plantation owners, slaves and visitors of the Antebellum South to illustrate how plantation life really was. I use the term, "illustrate" as opposed to "paint a picture" because it more accurately describes what Blassingame has done in his book. He is straight forward in his approach. His attitude is "this is how it is. Here is how I know."

But more than explain how plantation life was for the slave, he shows how African-American culture assimilated to general European-American culture over the generations. He also makes extensive use of other social science disciplines including anthropology and psychology (especially when examining how plantation owners maintained order on their farms and how the slaves resisted the plantation owners). Furthermore, I admire how Blassingame has respect for his reader. In his forward style, he resists the temptation to moralize about the condition of the slaves and/or the barbarity of the whites. Instead, he has respect enough for his reader to let him make up his own mind about the various aspects of the "peculiar institution." After reading this book, I have a hard time picturing anyone attempting to support the plantation owners.

Blassingame wrote this book in the face of the insurmountable problem that a community can only be fully understood through tapping the thoughts and feelings of its members. Since slaves thoughts and feelings were so seldom recorded, the book tends to be based mostly on observations by whites. Nevertheless, even in observations of how slaves behaved, there is much that is not well understood. As a result, Blassingame devotes a lengthy section of the book trying to determine the degree of basis in fact of the stereotypical image of slave as demure and subservient. Ultimately Blassingame uses the example of Nazi-operated concentrated camps in World War II to reason through analogy to try to arrive at some kind of definitive conclusion.

This portion is not the bulk of the text, but there are several other points of discussion in the book that seem equally inconclusive in this same way. Nevertheless, there are also some very enlightening discussions such as the structure of marriage and the family, religion, slave rebellions, and miscegenation.

I found Blassingame's writing style very easy to read, and the material compelling. Despite my belly-aching on the inconclusiveness of many of the points in the Slave Community, I felt that this was a shortcoming imposed by the subject of the book, and not Blassingame's fault per se, and I still think it deserves four stars.

In this revised and expanded edition, scholar John Blassingame describes not only what facts his researched uncovered, but also how he uncovered those facts. In particular, Blassingame's research emphasizes slave narratives and slave letters.

He explains that both of these types of documentation allow the researcher to enter the inner world of the enslaved person through his or her eyes, rather than simply accepting the plantation owners' views about slave life. His discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of historical resources along with his explanation of how to use internal and external evidence to assess the credibility of such sources offers a fine lesson in historiography.

In his choice of subject areas, Blassingame cuts a wide swath that overviews every core aspect of enslaved life. He begins with an intriguing examination of acculturation by comparing how enslaved Europeans in African, enslaved Africans in South America, and enslaved Africans in North America acculturated. He also explores the important but often neglected issue of the Africanization of the South--how southern Whites acculturated to African American culture.

Having laid this foundation, two moving chapters ensue. Blassingame documents slave family life with all its harrowing, horrible obstacles. Yet he also demonstrates the resilience and love of enslaved African American families. Next Blassingame addresses the many obstacles to rebellion and escape, putting to rest the notion that the lack of runaways in any way suggested acceptance of enslavement.

His final three chapters explore roles, realities, and personality types. At times his use of now-outdated sociological and psychological theory clouds the issues for modern readers. However, once sifted through and sorted out, these chapters continue to offer fresh information, if not always fresh insights.

Overall no researcher can afford to ignore Blassingame's contribution. Though many have critiqued some of his conclusions, all seem to quote him repeatedly.

Reviewer: Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction." He has also authored "Soul Physicians" and "Spiritual Friends."

By being the first scholar to utilize the African-American voice in his social and cultural history The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (1979), John W. Blassingame challenges traditional scholarly interpretations that have resulted in various archetypes of both the master and, especially, the slave. All were individuals with agency. Rather than studying United States slavery in isolation, Blassingame thoroughly traces the trajectory of slavery in Africa (both of white and black slaves) and Latin America, making for a much fuller interpretation and backdrop. Furthermore, historiographically, The Slave Community is the first that explores "the life experiences of American slaves" (xi).

Blassingame raises several new and important points. Significantly, he does not use any theory of paternalism. These arguments and the resulting interpretations rest on controversial evidence, such as WPA interviews, freedom narratives (i.e., slave narratives), and psychological theory. Most importantly, Blassingame argues that slaves were not all singularly submissive or dangerous, as the Sambo and Nat tropes have dictated. Slaves resisted by practicing magic, running away, and occasionally creating maroon societies. He also argues that in order to understand slavery and the slaves, scholars must study the church because it was the second most important social institution next to the plantation. In a sharp contrast with Latin American slavery, religious institutions were the most important factor in the Southern slave's integration with the broader society. Also differing from most Latin American countries, the United States forbade the importation of slaves in 1808, thus allowing slaves a family life. Similar to poor whites, slave families functioned as an "important buffer, a refuge from the rigors of slavery" (191). Consequently, Blassingame argues, slaves created various cultures; therefore, "slaves were not solely dependent on the white man's cultural frames of reference for their ideals and values" (147). "Culture" is by far the strongest and most enjoyable chapter due to its inclusion and analysis of songs slaves sang. Slaves continued African folk tales, dances, instruments (e.g., drums), and styles (e.g., simultaneous rhythms).

Despite the strength of these new arguments, The Slave Community does have noticeable weaknesses. First, in a few places Blassingame contradicts himself or, at the very least, lacks specific quantitative evidence, as the adjectives "many," "most," "majority," and "all" are overused. For example, he says that "a majority of the slaves, at one time, had one or two masters whom they considered kindly men" (265); "most masters were neither pitiless fiends nor saints in their relationships with slaves" (265); "many of the slaves despaired of resisting abuse, lived in deadly fear of all whites" (293); "poor whites...were viewed by the slave as lower in the scale of humanity than he was" (306); and "most slaves hated and were suspicious of all whites" (314). The condition of childhood is another example. Second, his general use of the pronoun "he" aside, Blassingame fails to recognize women as equally important actors when compared to men. He says, "in their proverbs the Africans emphasized woman's inferiority" (177); in American they were "ignorant mothers" (181). According to today's contemporary interpretation, most African societies were matriarchies and women were highly regarded. When he discusses maroon societies, Blassingame does not allow the possibility that women also became maroons. Furthermore, he asserts, "Africans retained enough manhood to rebel" (47) and "slaves fought in various ways to preserve their manhood" (284). What about womanhood? And, he discusses women (and not men) as being objects of lust for the opposite sex. Third, The Slave Community has a few organizational and editorial weaknesses. Although it is beyond Blassingame's scope to discuss the conditions and community of slaves in non-plantation situations, he leaves readers with the impression that slaves only worked and lived in the plantation system. Again, despite the strength of his background and comparative information, in its entirety this book lacks a clear, unified focus, especially as it takes about one-hundred pages before Blassingame gets to the true essence of his thesis. On a similar note, beginning with "Plantation Stereotypes and Institutional Roles" the prose sometimes become redundant, especially as concerns the important connection of slavery and religion.

Despite the problems in The Slave Community, it is an important revisionist contribution to the historiography of slavery, especially for the life experiences of slaves in the plantation "total institution." On a general note, it has many interesting factoids. Although lacking full descriptions, the sixty-five images that illustrate this text add another layer of meaning to Blassingame's arguments. He is most successful at revealing that slavery and its consequences vary by time and place. Altogether, Blassingame sets new precedents and raises many questions, in fact more than he answers.

The Slave Community is probably the most esential book ever written by major US author, John Blassingame. It is one of the top definitive books on the subject of what life was like on the slave plantations. With many sketches,drawings, etc. it is proving invaluable in our project of tracing the secular roots of the Blues.

Delivered on time and in great condition-barring 2 or 3 short written entries.

'Mississippi' Max Haymes (author of Railroadin' Some-railroads in the early blues Music Mentor Books. York. 2006. Available online at Amazon.)

I'm passionately enthralled with Blassingame's writing. This book provides a new perspective which complicates the familiar narrative of American slavery. His research is thorough and his languages is clear. It is difficult for anyone to read this book and not walk away feeling as though they've entered into a deeper understanding of years past. As far as I'm concerned, it's quintessential for anyone looking for a better understanding of early America and more generally, social history.

This book has helped me in my independent study of slavery and family research. It gives a very good insight from the slaves perspective. Other books I have read, the insight comes from the owners prospective. A companion book to this one is "Tewlve Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup.

This is a very helpful book if you want to know how slaves lived their lives. It reinforces a lot of the information you learn in school, but also clearifies some things that have been disputed. Overall, it was a good book, and would be great for a report.