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Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America
written by Ira Berlin
Studio : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Publisher : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Released : 2000-03-04
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780674002111
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 11 reviews)
List Price : $24.50
Our Price : $15.94
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Product Description |
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Many Thousands Gone traces the evolution of black society from the first arrivals in the early seventeenth century through the American Revolution. Laboring as field hands on tobacco and rice plantations, as skilled artisans in port cities, or as soldiers along the frontier, generation after generation of black slaves struggled to create a world of their own in circumstances not of their own making. In a panoramic view that stretches from the North to the Chesapeake Bay and Carolina low country to the Mississippi Valley, Berlin reveals the diverse forms that slavery and freedom assumed before cotton was king. |
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Americancivilwar.com Review |
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When Americans look at slavery, they conjure up images of tired black bodies picking cotton from sunup to sundown under Southern skies. That image is partly true, but, as the noted history professor Ira Berlin details, the lives of slaves in America's racist system were complex and diverse. "Viewing slavery through the perspective of what slaves did most of the time," Berlin writes, "provides a means to draw some fundamental distinctions and find some essential commonalities among the various experiences of North America." Berlin reveals the color-caste codes of the Afro-Creoles of the Chesapeake, the survival of African culture in the South Carolina-Georgia-Florida coastal area, and the intermingling of Africans with French and Spanish in the Mississippi Delta area. He weaves a woeful and wondrous tale of the mores, occupations, conflicts, wars, and rebellions that made up the ongoing relationships between masters and slaves. Many Thousands Gone is an excellent companion to Philip D. Morgan's Slave Counterpoint, revealing the influence the "peculiar institution" of slavery had on those of African and European descent alike. --Eugene Holley Jr. |
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Finally, Colonial History and Slavery |
Slavery neither suddenly started, nor was inevitable in what became the United States. Also, as Ira Berlin's Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America (1998) indicates, primarily due to economic circumstances, slavery constantly changed and varied by time and place. Although not specifically included in his thesis, he also explains how slavery differed by sex and age. This is a study of Africans and African-Americans both free and enslaved. It looks at the "negotiation" of servant-master relationships, providing both with agency and with power over the other. As an occasional side note, Berlin traces the etymology of race. His synthesis of existing secondary literature is the first monograph that recognizes and uses these vital variables. Historiographically, this book is revolutionary because it challenges students of slavery to avoid monolithic analyzes. It is also significant because it focuses on the colonial, not antebellum, era.
Berlin looks for the roots and changes of slavery in both the Atlantic World and in the British North American colonies. Before the colonies committed themselves to slavery, Berlin considers them "societies with slaves": "the charter generation." Society had not completely dedicated its energies to using laborers from Africa. During this generation masters, Native-Americans, and Ladinos (or creoles) Africans often worked side-by-side. Like African slavery, slaves in the North could own property. African slavery was just one of many forms of servitude. Unlike their earlier counterparts, except for perhaps urban slaves, "the plantation generation" with "slave societies" limited the mobility and acculturation of slaves, as slaves were often Bozel Africans or directly from Africa. This new commitment was partly a result of cash crops. African slaves were more truly chattel and chances for freedom limited. The "revolutionary generation," paradoxically, experienced slavery's decline in the North and rise in the South. Conditions manumitted slaves encountered foreshadow those after 1865.
Any work of scholarship has its weaknesses. First, Berlin's subtitle is somewhat misleading: he does not explore the dynamics of slavery in all North American regions. Including the entire named region would require a discussion of slaves in Mexico, possibly Canada, and other countries or colonies north of the present-day Panama Canal. Second, although it may be beyond current evidence, despite the reference of census data, the lack of precise data--in this and other scholarly accounts of slavery--is frustrating for readers who seek a comprehensive understanding. In a book of 131,817 words, Berlin uses the word "some" 267 times, "many" 226 times, "most" 219 times, "about" 90 times, "generally" 81 times, "perhaps" 76 times, "several" 54 times, "estimate" 19 times, "usually" 18 times, "majority" 16 times, "probably" 14 times, "roughly" 7 times, and "approximately" 6 times. Statistically, 1 out of every 4.965 sentences has one of these words. Third, Berlin seems to focus too narrowly on social history; therefore, he does not fully reference relevant events or people (i.e., "the master") when describing the diversity of slavery. Bacon's Rebellion (1675-6) is important in explaining the shift from "societies with slaves" to "slave societies" in the Chesapeake region, for example, because the wealthy were not providing former indentured servants, who were now completing their terms, freedom dues. Explanations of the shift to a harsher and more engrained slave society could also be enhanced with a discussion of South Carolina's Negro Act of 1740, which was a response to the Stono Rebellion (1739). Fourth, Berlin seems to focus on the more positive evidence per se. For example, when discussing gradual abolition in northern areas, he does not discuss that masters could and did sell slaves to the South so that they would not gain freedom. Fifth, although not really a criticism, Berlin stops too soon. Readers are introduced to the complexities of slavery from approximately 1619-1810s, but an eight-page epilogue explaining the next fifty years of United States slavery is not satisfying. Perhaps future scholars can fill this gap. Future scholars also need to seek exact data. And a work on the scale and nature of The Jungle or The Conditions of the Working Class in England that explores the horrors of slavery would be useful.
Overall, Many Thousands Gone is an excellent book. Although Berlin does not incorporate archival research in this study, he shows mastery of a large body of important secondary literature. For a synthesis and study of this kind, archival research would not necessarily be the best approach and may well be impossible. Furthermore, Many Thousands Gone is one of those books that will require multiple slow and careful readings to come close to fully understanding and retaining the subject. Berlin's presentation of the evidence makes one question much of what college classes have taught. Complexity and variability provide a new generalization from which scholars should work.
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A must read |
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A must read for students, but also a good read for the general history enthusiast. |
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Important Synthesis of Early Enslavement |
Ira Berlin in "Many Thousands Gone" has made a very important contribution to the growing literature attempting to understand both the big picture and the daily details of slavery. As his subtitle suggests, his work focuses on the first two centuries of slavery in North America.
Berlin's primary (and well-documented) thesis is that slave culture was not one monolithic culture, but several different cultures depending upon the era and the area of North American enslavement. Additionally, Berlin highlights that slavery was racist and classist, an interpretation which does not minimize the evils of racism, but also exposes the evils of classism.
Though in other works by the same author, readers find first-hand accounts of the horrors of slavery in the words of the enslaved, such documentation is less evident in this work. An increase in such documentation would have strengthened the already excellent "Many Thousand Gone." Still, the overall message and "feel" of "Many Thousands Gone" does accurately and powerfully depict the agony and inhumanity of African American slavery.
Berlin engages the important issue of the slave's choice of or refusal to choose the master's religion. Including a small sampling of the slave narratives (the majority of which evidence acceptance of Christianity) and the myriad slave conversion accounts, would have provided added depth to this fine book. Converting slaves, by their own accounts, did not see themselves as converting to their masters' religion. Instead, they saw themselves rejecting their masters' hypocritical distortion of Christianity and receiving Christ and Christianity, cleansed of lies and replete with the message of eternal freedom spirituality and internal freedom in Christ.
For the broad panorama of early enslavement, look no further than "Many Thousands Gone."
Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends. |
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Many Thousands Gone-na get mis-educated by Ira Berlin |
From my reading of Ira Berlin's work, one thing is apparent: Ira Berlin is a closet KKK member (maybe leader). Throughout his writing he minimizes the evils of slavery and emphasizes what few freedoms slaves enjoyed. He describes his academic style as more "nuanced" than the style of previous works on slavery in America. What he means by this is that he goes into minute detail about how at different times and in different places, slavery was more or less oppressive. All of that is obvious to anyone, because it occurs in every oppressive structure throughout history, but Berlin's tight focus on this detail makes one almost forget how horrid the institution was at all times, everywhere it was practiced.
Rather than write about the true history of slavery from the slave's perspective - the history of resistance and struggle to the death, Berlin describes slavery as being "negotiated" between slave and master, as if they were haggling over the price of a bagel. He consistently uses toned-down language to obscure the reality of what slavery was. He says that we cannot understand someone just by knowing that they were a slave - we cannot lump all slaves together. But what greater information can we know about someone than that their entire life revolves around the struggle to free him or herself of the whip of their master? Does it truly help us to nuance that understanding by knowing that at times, some lucky slaves were allowed to go to church, or to take breaks from work, or to get only 20 lashes instead of 50?
Unfortunately for history students, Berlin has become widely respected among many historians, which just goes to show how deeply racist America continues to be. |
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Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America |
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Brought for college class. Arrived in excellent condition. Purchased new book at great price. Better then campus store prices. |
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