On Slavery’s Border is a bottom-up examination of how slavery and slaveholding were influenced by both the geography and the scale of the slaveholding enterprise. Missouri’s strategic access to important waterways made it a key site at the periphery of the Atlantic world. By the time of statehood in 1821; people were moving there in large numbers; especially from the upper South; hoping to replicate the slave society they’d left behind.Diane Mutti Burke focuses on the Missouri counties located along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to investigate small-scale slavery at the level of the household and neighborhood. She examines such topics as small slaveholders’ child-rearing and fiscal strategies; the economics of slavery; relations between slaves and owners; the challenges faced by slave families; sociability among enslaved and free Missourians within rural neighborhoods; and the disintegration of slavery during the Civil War. Mutti Burke argues that economic and social factors gave Missouri slavery an especially intimate quality. Owners directly oversaw their slaves and lived in close proximity with them; sometimes in the same building. White Missourians believed this made for a milder version of bondage. Some slaves; who expressed fear of being sold further south; seemed to agree.Mutti Burke reveals; however; that while small slaveholding created some advantages for slaves; it also made them more vulnerable to abuse and interference in their personal lives. In a region with easy access to the free states; the perception that slavery was threatened spawned white anxiety; which frequently led to violent reassertions of supremacy.
#2866972 in Books University of Georgia Press 1999-01-01 1999-01-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.25 x .77 x 5.25l; .70 #File Name: 0820320447168 pages
Review
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Great book! Would recommend!By Chuck B.I thought this was very well put together and interesting. It gives insight into a period which I find fascinating and alarming at the same time. Since we are new to Georgia; it also gives a local area insight. Give this a try.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A well put together southern memoir.By J LandersI've been researching our church history stumbled upon this book of memoirs by Cornelia Jones Pond; the wife of a former missionary to our church. A fascinating read about the Jones and Pond families and life in the south prior to their arrival at our church. Those who love history; will enjoy this book.
