Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study [Paperback]

Orlando Patterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1985 | ISBN-10: 067481083X | ISBN-13: 978-0674810839

This is the first full-scale comparative study of the nature of slavery. In a work of prodigious scholarship and enormous breadth, which draws on the tribal, ancient, premodern, and modern worlds, Orlando Patterson discusses the internal dynamics of slavery in sixty-six societies over time. These include Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, China, Korea, the Islamic kingdoms, Africa, the Caribbean islands, and the American South. Slavery is shown to be a parasitic relationship between master and slave, invariably entailing the violent domination of a natally alienated, or socially dead, person. The phenomenon of slavery as an institution, the author argues, is a single process of recruitment, incorporation on the margin of society, and eventual manumission or death.

Distinctions abound in this work. Beyond the reconceptualization of the basic master-slave relationship and the redefinition of slavery as an institution with universal attributes, Patterson rejects the legalistic Roman concept that places the "slave as property" at the core of the system. Rather, he emphasizes the centrality of sociological, symbolic, and ideological factors interwoven within the slavery system. Along the whole continuum of slavery, the cultural milieu is stressed, as well as political and psychological elements. Materialistic and racial factors are deemphasized. The author is thus able, for example, to deal with "elite" slaves, or even eunuchs, in the same framework of understanding as fieldhands; to uncover previously hidden principles of inheritance of slave and free status; and to show the tight relationship between slavery and freedom.

Interdisciplinary in its methods, this study employs qualitative and quantitative techniques from all the social sciences to demonstrate the universality of structures and processes in slave systems and to reveal cross-cultural variations in the slave trade and in slavery, in rates of manumission, and in the status of freedmen. Slavery and Social Death lays out a vast new corpus of research that underpins an original and provocative thesis.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is clearly a major and important work, one which will be widely discussed, cited, and used. I anticipate that it will be considered among the landmarks in the study of slavery, and will be read by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists--as well as many other scholars and students. It will be of concern to readers interested in just about any time and place, and not only to those with a specific interest in slavery. It covers an enormous range of materials in history, the social sciences, and the humanities, with unusually broad geographic and chronological scope. The materials are very well handled using a variety of methods, the questions asked are interesting and important, and the entire discussion is of highest quality.
--Stanley Engerman, coauthor with Robert Fogel of Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery

Densely packed, closely argued, and highly controversial in its dissent from much of the scholarly conventional wisdom about the function and structure of slavery worldwide. (Boston Globe )

There can be no doubt that this rich and learned book will reinvigorate debates that have tended to become too empirical and specialized. Patterson has helped to set out the direction for the next decades of interdisciplinary scholarship.
--David Brion Davis (New York Review of Books )

Review

This is clearly a major and important work, one which will be widely discussed, cited, and used. I anticipate that it will be considered among the landmarks in the study of slavery, and will be read by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists--as well as many other scholars and students. It will be of concern to readers interested in just about any time and place, and not only to those with a specific interest in slavery. It covers an enormous range of materials in history, the social sciences, and the humanities, with unusually broad geographic and chronological scope. The materials are very well handled using a variety of methods, the questions asked are interesting and important, and the entire discussion is of highest quality. (Stanley Engerman, coauthor with Robert Fogel of Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 511 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 15, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067481083X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674810839
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine compartive study of slave societies June 14, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Patterson's book is one of the best books on slavery as an universal phenomena. There is simply no parallel to this vaunted study. That is, he reveals lucidly that slavery was an important factor among all civilizations, tribals groups among the pre Christian Europeans, Africans, and the Near and Far Easteners. Also, Patterson is one of the few to note that skin color was not the deciding factor of a slave. Wars, ransom, meagre economic circumstances all contributed to one's enslavement. Among the early African slaves in America, their hair symbolized their enslaved status. What he does not mention, though, is the fact that to understand the fullest implications of Nazi German racial laws, one must seek to understand the enslavement of the Slavs by the Germans.

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Natal alienation June 22, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Patterson's book is groundbreaking for many reasons. That is, unlike other scholars of slavery, Patterson does not solely restrict himself to describing slaves and the institutions of slavery by juridical terms (eg Moses Finley). What is crucial to understanding the station of slaves in all societies, African: the various tribal slave systems, European: Roman,Greek,French,Dutch and English;Asian: Jewish, Islam,Indian, Korean etc is that the slave is defined by the absence of power. The slave is compelled to forgo his or her rights and concede to the domination of the owner. The slave is powerless before his or her master.This absence of power on the part of the slave was common to all slave societies, least of all the American slave society who had embraced the Aristotlean notions of slavery and discarded the Romans' who saw slavery as an outcome of fate.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great promise, so-so results January 24, 2011

By William D. Hickox

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Patterson's book must be one of the most ambitious studies of slavery ever published. Patterson, a sociology professor, examined dozens of slave cultures across time and place in an effort to determine what tied them all together. He also sought an explanation for why this seemingly inhuman system of bondage, far from being a "peculiar institution," was highly effective and nearly universal throughout history. Patterson's ambition did not end there. His research led him to argue that slavery was an essential element in the growth of democracy and property rights, "the most profoundly cherished ideals and beliefs in the Western tradition." According to Patterson, this was because "those who most denied freedom, as well as those to whom it was most denied, were the very persons most alive to it." To put it bluntly: no slavery, no freedom.

Patterson explains this seeming paradox through the concept of natal alienation and its offspring, social death. Masters asserted their domination by robbing slaves of "ties of birth in both ascending and descending generations," leaving them in a state of natal alienation. Patterson also points to violent coercion, which was a staple of all slave societies. He cites Plato and Judge Thomas Ruffin to show that slaves were disgraced by their acceptance of this treatment, leading to social death in the eyes of humanity. The slave, having no history, family, or dignity, was not considered a person but an extension of his master. Ultimately, Patterson argues, "slavery is the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonored persons." Slaves, more than they are workers or property, are despised outsiders.

Whatever one may think of Patterson's conclusions, the hard work that led to them cannot be overlooked.... His "global analysis of the institution of slavery" relies upon George P. Murdock's 1960s anthropological sample of 186 world cultures, sixty-six of which are identified as slaveholding societies. Patterson gathered information on each culture and built a table of forty-three questions (such as "How was the status of children determined?") in order to identify trends. Whenever a new study of slavery was published, Patterson entered its findings into his burgeoning database. He also drew upon a vast array of sources to determine the proportion of slaves in every major slave society. One is also struck by his wide range of published sources in a variety of languages.

Patterson, having jumped headfirst into the quantitative history trend of the 1970s, criticizes Eugene Genovese's characterization of the antebellum South as precapitalistic by citing the discredited statistical work of Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman. Patterson defends his quantitative approach by calling it "a supplementary analytical device." He "fully immersed" himself in published sources in order to achieve an "essentially illustrative and humanistic analysis." Patterson saw statistics as an important complement to traditional history.

Yet Patterson's 111 pages of endnotes do not really convey the sense of fullness he intended. Michael Fellman, in a remarkably scathing review, points out that Patterson quotes far more masters than he does slaves. This is problematic because Patterson's thesis rests as much upon the slave's psychology as it does that of the master. In fact, one searches in vain through his notes for evidence of much in-depth primary source research (which he acknowledges in the preface). Patterson, as shown in this passage, prefers to speak for the slave: "Freedom--life--is a double negation; for his condition is already a negation of life, and the reclamation of that life must therefore be the negation of this negation." (His source appears to be Georg Hegel, who was obviously no slave.) Fellman's charges of "insensitivity to slave culture" and "intellectual pretentiousness" are harsh but understandable.

The dangers of Patterson's generalization approach are evident in his examination of American slavery. To his credit, and as a counterpoint to the large scholarship uncovering and even celebrating slaves' agency, Patterson reminds us that American slavery was no less brutal and restrictive than it was in many other slave societies. But he ignores several aspects of U.S. slavery which set it apart. One of these is the chattel principle. Unlike most theorists, Patterson discounts the importance of slaves as property, arguing that ownership of people is not a remarkable phenomenon. He provocatively equates the sale of a professional athlete to another team with the selling of a slave to another master, conceding that the athlete would feel "amazed and distressed ... to learn that his sale implied anything slavelike about him." And well he should, for the characterization is inapt. An athlete is fined for not fulfilling the terms of his sale; for the slave, punishment is generally far worse. Here, Patterson contradicts himself, having earlier established coercive force as a crucial aspect of slavery.

Patterson's concepts of natal alienation and social death are also not borne out by the evidence of slave life in America. The closing of the international slave trade in 1808 led to a reliance upon slave fertility in order to maintain the bonded population. African-American slaves established large, closely-knit family networks on their own and adjoining farms, and the interactions between masters and slaves in determining the fate of loved ones at the market indicates the strength of these natal ties. The ranking system, in which older and more experienced slaves held authority over the rest, would argue for a thriving social scene, not social death. Indeed, how does social death account for the phenomena of the task system and slave revolts? Masters did not hold all of the cards in the American South, which prompts the American specialist to ask whether they did anywhere else. In attempting to apply his theories to any and all slave societies, Patterson overstretched himself. Read more ›

4.0 out of 5 stars Needed it for a class, arrived on time and in excellent (new) condition January 23, 2013

By Francisca

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I only gave it four stars because I have not read it yet but as always it arrived on time and in the condition that was described. I am happy!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Research December 12, 2012

By Lbrook19

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was an excellent tool that I used for my research project in college. Patterson describes intensely interesting subjects and scales many periods of slavery through common themes! Interesting book! Can't wait to finish it!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great! October 1, 2011

By thelma

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I am very happy with this purchase. Clean text, book was in great condition overall. It was fit for the price.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Work on Slavery May 30, 2011

By J. Smallridge

Format:Paperback

Quite simply, no other book on the history of slavery or its impacts has ever been written. This is a profound look at bondage and what it means to, not only break those bonds, but to live with them and retain humanity.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Analyzes The Internal Dynamics Of Slavery In Sixty-Six Societies January 2, 2009

By Aung Htun

Format:Paperback

"In a work of prodigious scholarship and enormous breadth, which draws on the tribal, ancient, premodern, and modern worlds, Orlando Patterson ANALYZES THE INTERNAL DYNAMICS OF SLAVERY IN SIXTY-SIX SOCIETIES over time.

These include Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, China, Korea, the Islamic kingdoms, Africa, the Caribbean islands, and the American South....."
[from the back cover of book]