Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New WorldDavid Brion Davis has long been recognized as the leading authority on slavery in the Western World. His books have won every major history award--including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award--and he has been universally praised for his prodigious research, his brilliant analytical skill, and his rich and powerful prose. Now, in Inhuman Bondage, Davis sums up a lifetime of insight in what Stanley L. Engerman calls "a monumental and magisterial book, the essential work on New World slavery for several decades to come." Davis begins with the dramatic Amistad case, which vividly highlights the international character of the Atlantic slave trade and the roles of the American judiciary, the presidency, the media, and of both black and white abolitionists. The heart of the book looks at slavery in the American South, describing black slaveholding planters, the rise of the Cotton Kingdom, the daily life of ordinary slaves, the highly destructive internal, long-distance slave trade, the sexual exploitation of slaves, the emergence of an African-American culture, and much more. But though centered on the United States, the book offers a global perspective spanning four continents. It is the only study of American slavery that reaches back to ancient foundations (discussing the classical and biblical justifications for chattel bondage) and also traces the long evolution of anti-black racism (as in the writings of David Hume and Immanuel Kant, among many others). Equally important, it combines the subjects of slavery and abolitionism as very few books do, and it illuminates the meaning of nineteenth-century slave conspiracies and revolts, with a detailed comparison with 3 major revolts in the British Caribbean. It connects the actual life of slaves with the crucial place of slavery in American politics and stresses that slavery was integral to America's success as a nation--not a marginal enterprise. A definitive history by a writer deeply immersed in the subject, Inhuman Bondage offers a compelling narrative that links together the profits of slavery, the pain of the enslaved, and the legacy of racism. It is the ultimate portrait of the dark side of the American dream. Yet it offers an inspiring example as well--the story of how abolitionists, barely a fringe group in the 1770s, successfully fought, in the space of a hundred years, to defeat one of human history's greatest evils. |
From inside the book
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Page xi
... Spain outlaws enslavement of Native Americans. 1619: Twenty blacks brought by Dutch ship to Virginia; some blacks had arrived even earlier. 1627: British begin settling Barbados; by 1643 producing sugar. 1630: A Selective Calendar of ...
... Spain outlaws enslavement of Native Americans. 1619: Twenty blacks brought by Dutch ship to Virginia; some blacks had arrived even earlier. 1627: British begin settling Barbados; by 1643 producing sugar. 1630: A Selective Calendar of ...
Page xvi
... Spain. 1870: Spain passes a gradual emancipation act. 1873–76: Puerto Rico frees slaves and then ex-slave apprentices. 1871: Brazil passes the Rio Branco Act, freeing all children of slaves at age twenty-one. 1883–84: Slaves are freed ...
... Spain. 1870: Spain passes a gradual emancipation act. 1873–76: Puerto Rico frees slaves and then ex-slave apprentices. 1871: Brazil passes the Rio Branco Act, freeing all children of slaves at age twenty-one. 1883–84: Slaves are freed ...
Page 2
... Spain, Haiti, and ancient Rome. For me the term “inhuman” has two connotations with respect to our subject. After first considering the title of W. Somerset Maugham's famous novel of 1915, Of Human Bondage, and discussing the issue with ...
... Spain, Haiti, and ancient Rome. For me the term “inhuman” has two connotations with respect to our subject. After first considering the title of W. Somerset Maugham's famous novel of 1915, Of Human Bondage, and discussing the issue with ...
Page 9
... Spain's empire in the Americas, which undermined slavery from Mexico to Chile (but had the reverse effect on Cuba). A succession of American administrations was determined to prevent France or especially Britain, still seen as America's ...
... Spain's empire in the Americas, which undermined slavery from Mexico to Chile (but had the reverse effect on Cuba). A succession of American administrations was determined to prevent France or especially Britain, still seen as America's ...
Page 12
... Spain. The Amistad case involved American politics, the judiciary, and foreign relations at the highest levels. It also epitomized slavery's deepest contradictions, both legal and philosophical. Early in 1839, in the Mende region of ...
... Spain. The Amistad case involved American politics, the judiciary, and foreign relations at the highest levels. It also epitomized slavery's deepest contradictions, both legal and philosophical. Early in 1839, in the Mende region of ...
Contents
1 | |
12 | |
27 | |
3 The Origins of Antiblack Racism in the New World | 48 |
4 How Africans Became Integral to New World History | 77 |
Brazil and the Caribbean | 103 |
6 Slavery in Colonial North America | 124 |
7 The Problem of Slavery in the American Revolution | 141 |
From Slaveholder Treatment and the Nature of Labor to Slave Culture Sex and Religion and Free Blacks | 193 |
11 Some NineteenthCentury Slave Conspiracies and Revolts | 205 |
12 Explanations of British Abolitionism | 231 |
13 Abolitionism in America | 250 |
14 The Politics of Slavery in the United States | 268 |
15 The Civil War and Slave Emancipation | 297 |
Epilogue | 323 |
Notes | 333 |
8 The Impact of the French and Haitian Revolutions | 157 |
Illustrations | 175 |
From Contradiction to Defense | 175 |
Acknowledgments | 415 |
Index | 419 |
Other editions - View all
Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World David Brion Davis Limited preview - 2006 |
Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World David Brion Davis Limited preview - 2006 |
Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World David Brion Davis Limited preview - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
abolition abolitionism abolitionists African American African slave trade American slavery Amistad antislavery Atlantic Slave Atlantic Slave Trade Barbados became black Africans black slaves bondage Brazil Brazilian Britain British West captives Caribbean Chapter Christian Cinqué Civil colonies Congress Cuba Culture Curse Curse of Ham David Brion Davis debate Denmark Vesey despite Drescher early economic Eltis Emancipation Proclamation England enslavement especially European Frederick Douglass free blacks freedom French Geggus Haiti Haitian Revolution historians human Ibid important islands Jamaica Jefferson Jews John large numbers later leaders Lincoln masters mulatto Muslim Negro nineteenth century North Northern number of slaves owners passim percent plantation planters political population Portuguese president Problem of Slavery proslavery racial racism rebellion rebels Roman Saint-Domingue slave emancipation slave labor slave revolts Slave System slaveholding Society South Carolina Southern Spain Spanish sugar thousand tion Union United Vesey Virginia West Indian West Indies Western William World York