Them Dark Days: Slavery in the American Rice Swamps [Paperback]

William Dusinberre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2000

Them Dark Days is a study of the callous, capitalistic nature of the vast rice plantations along the southeastern coast. It is essential reading for anyone whose view of slavery’s horrors might be softened by the current historical emphasis on slave community and family and slave autonomy and empowerment.

Looking at Gowrie and Butler Island plantations in Georgia and Chicora Wood in South Carolina, William Dusinberre considers a wide range of issues related to daily life and work there: health, economics, politics, dissidence, coercion, discipline, paternalism, and privilege. Based on overseers’ letters, slave testimonies, and plantation records, Them Dark Days offers a vivid reconstruction of slavery in action and casts a sharp new light on slave history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most ambitious and important studies on slavery to appear in recent years."--Journal of American History

"[A] vast and multifaceted new interpretation of slavery. Among his most impressive achievements is that he draws from these all-too-familiar sources so much that is fresh, provocative, and fully worthy of our attention. . . . Dusinberre's arguments are compelling.”--American Historical Review

"[This book] will, I believe, take its place among the most important studies of southern slavery we have and are likely to get."--Eugene D. Genovese, African American Review

"William Dusinberre has restored a tragic dimension to slave studies, and has done so with a thoroughness and persuasiveness that no future student of slavery will be able to ignore."--Journal of Southwest Georgia History

"There is no other book quite like Them Dark Days. . . . His scholarship is awesome. Dusinberre has a great deal to say that is fresh and exciting about slavery, and his writing style is always clear and often eloquent. . . . I found Them Dark Days both stimulating and enjoyable."--Charles Joyner, Coastal Carolina College

"The book provides a wealth of information on the antebellum lowcountry rice industry and the families that dominated it."--Agricultural History

"Dusinberre certainly knows how to tell a good story. And if some of his material proves to be familiar to lowcountry scholars, these specialists will nevertheless appreciate his detective work in piecing together a coherent, moving account of the complex negotiations and struggles between tidewater slaves and their masters."--Journal of Southern History

"The best local history of slavery published since Charles Joyner's Down by the Riverside . . . An important corrective to recent scholarship and adds new meaning to the neo-abolitionist interpretation."--History: Reviews of New Books

About the Author

William Dusinberre is Reader Emeritus in American History at the University of Warwick. He is the author of Henry Adams: The Myth of Failure and Civil War Issues in Philadelphia, 1856-1865.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press (April 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820322105
• ISBN-13: 978-0820322100
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,709,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, May 26, 2006

By 

B. Witt (Columbia, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Them Dark Days: Slavery in the American Rice Swamps (Hardcover)

As a student of history (Ok - I'll grant you I have only a dilettante status) I must say this is a book that everyone should read. Dusinberre doesn't spare the grisly details and approaches the subject from a variety of angles. You'll get the view of the charnel house and from planters.

All to better illuminate a ghastly system that put so many into the grinder.

Powerful and well written. If you love the Palmetto State and history in general then I highly recommend this one.