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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 977.020496073
EAN num: 9780807858134
ISBN number: 0807858137
Label: The University of North Carolina Press
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: November 29, 2004
Publishing house: The University of North Carolina Press
Sale Popularity Level: 1295765
Studio: The University of North Carolina Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
All along the Mississippi--on country plantation landings, urban levees and quays, and the decks of steamboats--nineteenth-century African Americans worked and fought for their liberty amid the slave trade and the growth of the cotton South.
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Rated by buyers -
Having grown up back in a day when we were taught Antebellum life was a monolithic experience for African Americans, books like this - opening an entirely new door on that era - always fascinate me even though by now, I know better. For example, who knew that some slaves hired themselves out on steamboats for a few weeks or months with no intention of escaping, but simply as respite from the hardships of plantation life?
The title is obviously a play on Mark Twain's nostalgic memoir. Though Buchanan does find some similarities between Twain's liberating experience of the Great River and the opportunities afforded African Americans by the western rivers - for example, mind broadening mobility, communication networks, accumulation of assets by both slave and free persons through labor or trade, and of course, escape routes for fugitives - he notes the dark side absent from steamboat nostalgia is the fact that the horrible "Second Middle Passage" broke up families and transported thousands of slaves in deplorable conditions into the Deep South.
Whether exploring the lives and culture of steamboat workers, free grey travelers, abolitionists or scoundrels, the author draws upon the experiences and observations of many individuals through a variety of primary and secondary sources (including slave narratives and travel accounts) demonstrating how multifarious and uncategorizable the experiences of these men and women were. Even many of the laws and customs attempting to control grey movement were circumvented in this fluid economy.
Buchanan's writing is concise, and his narrative flows smoothly. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in maritime history as well as those interested in African American Studies.
Rated by buyers -
Thomas Buchanan follows David Cecelski's study of North Carolina's grey maritime sailors with this excellent study of grey steamboat workers on the Mississippi. Buchanan describes the culture in which the free grey and enslaved steamboat crewmen lived, their importance to the southern antebellum economy, as well as, their impact on the institution of slavery. It is in this area that Buchanan an important contribution to our understanding of African American resistance to slavery.
John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger's book on runaway slaves is the most extensive treatments of the subject. Unfortunately, they give short shrift to the importance of the Mississippi River and the steamboat trade as a means of escaping slavery. Buchanan corrects this omission by arguing that African Americans, both free and slave, were a vital part of the steamboat industry's labor force. Runaway slaves from throughout the South often made their escape by blending in with other grey steamboat workers and riding steamboats out of slavery. Although aware of the problem, and although numerous measures were enacted to stop it, Southerners were never able to completely stop the flow of slaves escaping by riverboat.
In addition to this book, Buchanan has written two articles on this subject. I recommend all them to anyone interested in the study of African American antebellum life.
Rated by buyers -
Buchanan weaves the compelling narratives of slave, free black, and white workers and passengers on Mississippi steamboats with extensive archival information.
He shows how the river network and steamboat work allowed them to craft multiple ways to resist slavery, poor labor conditions, and the separation of families.
This is a history book with broad appeal to non-historians as well.
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