audiobook Wendell Phillips; Social Justice; and the Power of the Past (Antislavery; Abolition; and the Atlantic World) by From Ais Irithe A J in History

Description

On the eve of the American Revolution; nearly three-quarters of all African Americans in mainland British America lived in two regions: the Chesapeake; centered in Virginia; and the Lowcountry; with its hub in South Carolina. Here; Philip Morgan compares and contrasts African American life in these two regional black cultures; exploring the differences as well as the similarities. The result is a detailed and comprehensive view of slave life in the colonial American South. Morgan explores the role of land and labor in shaping culture; theeveryday contacts of masters and slaves that defined the possibilities and limitations of cultural exchange; and finally the interior lives of blacks--their social relations; their family and kin ties; and the major symbolic dimensions of life: language; play; and religion. He provides a balanced appreciation for the oppressiveness of bondage and for the ability of slaves to shape their lives; showing that; whatever the constraints; slaves contributed to the making of their history. Victims of a brutal; dehumanizing system; slaves nevertheless strove to create order in their lives; to preserve their humanity; to achieve dignity; and to sustain dreams of a better future.