Slave Against Slave: Plantation Violence in the Old South

In the first-ever comprehensive analysis of violence among enslaved people in the antebellum South, Jeff Forret challenges persistent notions of slave communities as sites of unwavering harmony and solidarity. Though existing scholarship shows that intraracial black violence did not reach high levels until after Reconstruction, contemporary records bear witness to its regular presence among enslaved populations. Using a vast array of primary sources, Slave against Slave explores the roots of and motivations for such violence and the ways in which slaves, masters, churches, and civil and criminal laws worked to hold it in check. Far from focusing on violence alone, the book also deepens understanding of morality among the enslaved, revealing how they sought to prevent violence and punish those who engaged in it. With this groundbreaking work, Forret has opened a new line of inquiry into the study of American slavery.

Author: Jeff Forret
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 08/05/2020
Pages: 544
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.83lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 1.22d
ISBN13: 9780807174319
ISBN10: 0807174319
BISAC Categories:
- History | African American & Black
- Social Science | Slavery
- Social Science | Violence in Society

About the Author
Jeff Forret is professor of history and a Distinguished Faculty Research Fellow at Lamar University. He is also the author of Race Relations at the Margins: Slaves and Poor Whites in the Antebellum Southern Countryside and Williams' Gang: A Notorious Slave Trader and His Cargo of Black Convicts.