544 pages / 6.12 x 9.25 inches / no illustrations
African-American Studies | History / United States - Southern History | Social Studies / Slavery Studies
In the first-ever comprehensive analysis of violence among enslaved people in the antebellum South, Jeff Forret challenges persistent notions of slave communities as sites of unwavering harmony and solidarity. Though existing scholarship shows that intraracial black violence did not reach high levels until after Reconstruction, contemporary records bear witness to its regular presence among enslaved populations. Using a vast array of primary sources, Slave against Slave explores the roots of and motivations for such violence and the ways in which slaves, masters, churches, and civil and criminal laws worked to hold it in check. Far from focusing on violence alone, the book also deepens understanding of morality among the enslaved, revealing how they sought to prevent violence and punish those who engaged in it. With this groundbreaking work, Forret has opened a new line of inquiry into the study of American slavery.
Jeff Forret is professor of history and Distinguished Faculty Research Fellow at Lamar University. His books include Williams’ Gang: A Notorious Slave Trader and His Cargo of Black Convicts and Slave against Slave: Plantation Violence in the Old South, winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize.
“Forret's archival research is broad, thorough, detailed, and imaginatively deployed. . . . Highly recommended. All college and university libraries.”—CHOICE
“Jeff Forret’s Slave Against Slave makes a significant contribution to the field. This well-researched book provocatively traces the history of intraracial violence among those enslaved.”—Journal of Southern History
“In raising questions about the degree of solidity in slave communal life, his deeply researched volume provides a feast of information and useful generalizations that will be studied, cited, and refined for decades to come by researchers seeking to understand the mysteries of what had been one of the most ubiquitous institutions in history.”—Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
“An impressive work of scholarship about an important but largely neglected subject: violence between enslaved people. . . . Evidence of violence between enslaved people is scattered among many sources that are not indexed and are difficult to piece together. Only a historian who is fully aware of the methodological problems involved, endowed with considerable imagination, and willing to exercise the patience and care necessary to complete such a monumental project over a ten-year period could have successfully completed the job.”—North Carolina Historical Review
“The Gone With the Wind impression of happy bondage eventually gave way to the ideal of a resilient “slave community” supporting its members and, at least passively, resisting oppression. Jeff Forret’s close examination of the records in his fascinating Slave Against Slave reveals a more complicated picture.”—Shepherd Express
“[An] impressively researched and well-written book. . . . Forret’s study is certainly a hallmark and guaranteed to contribute mightily to the discourses on slavery, violence, and the implication of both for years to come.”—Journal of the Civil War Era
Found an Error? Tell us about it.
