The Claims of Kinfolk

The Claims of Kinfolk PDF Author: Dylan C. Penningroth
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807862134
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In The Claims of Kinfolk, Dylan Penningroth uncovers an extensive informal economy of property ownership among slaves and sheds new light on African American family and community life from the heyday of plantation slavery to the "freedom generation" of the 1870s. By focusing on relationships among blacks, as well as on the more familiar struggles between the races, Penningroth exposes a dynamic process of community and family definition. He also includes a comparative analysis of slavery and slave property ownership along the Gold Coast in West Africa, revealing significant differences between the African and American contexts. Property ownership was widespread among slaves across the antebellum South, as slaves seized the small opportunities for ownership permitted by their masters. While there was no legal framework to protect or even recognize slaves' property rights, an informal system of acknowledgment recognized by both blacks and whites enabled slaves to mark the boundaries of possession. In turn, property ownership--and the negotiations it entailed--influenced and shaped kinship and community ties. Enriching common notions of slave life, Penningroth reveals how property ownership engendered conflict as well as solidarity within black families and communities. Moreover, he demonstrates that property had less to do with individual legal rights than with constantly negotiated, extralegal social ties.

The Claims of Kinfolk

The Claims of Kinfolk PDF Author: Dylan C. Penningroth
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807862134
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book

Book Description
In The Claims of Kinfolk, Dylan Penningroth uncovers an extensive informal economy of property ownership among slaves and sheds new light on African American family and community life from the heyday of plantation slavery to the "freedom generation" of the 1870s. By focusing on relationships among blacks, as well as on the more familiar struggles between the races, Penningroth exposes a dynamic process of community and family definition. He also includes a comparative analysis of slavery and slave property ownership along the Gold Coast in West Africa, revealing significant differences between the African and American contexts. Property ownership was widespread among slaves across the antebellum South, as slaves seized the small opportunities for ownership permitted by their masters. While there was no legal framework to protect or even recognize slaves' property rights, an informal system of acknowledgment recognized by both blacks and whites enabled slaves to mark the boundaries of possession. In turn, property ownership--and the negotiations it entailed--influenced and shaped kinship and community ties. Enriching common notions of slave life, Penningroth reveals how property ownership engendered conflict as well as solidarity within black families and communities. Moreover, he demonstrates that property had less to do with individual legal rights than with constantly negotiated, extralegal social ties.

Black Litigants in the Antebellum American South

Black Litigants in the Antebellum American South PDF Author: Kimberly M. Welch
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
In the antebellum Natchez district, in the heart of slave country, black people sued white people in all-white courtrooms. They sued to enforce the terms of their contracts, recover unpaid debts, recuperate back wages, and claim damages for assault. They sued in conflicts over property and personal status. And they often won. Based on new research conducted in courthouse basements and storage sheds in rural Mississippi and Louisiana, Kimberly Welch draws on over 1,000 examples of free and enslaved black litigants who used the courts to protect their interests and reconfigure their place in a tense society. To understand their success, Welch argues that we must understand the language that they used--the language of property, in particular--to make their claims recognizable and persuasive to others and to link their status as owner to the ideal of a free, autonomous citizen. In telling their stories, Welch reveals a previously unknown world of black legal activity, one that is consequential for understanding the long history of race, rights, and civic inclusion in America.

American Decades

American Decades PDF Author: Vincent Tompkins
Publisher: American Decades
ISBN: 9780810357266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 658

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Book Description
Intended as a reference source for American social history, this volume discusses the people, events and ideas of the 1940s. After an introductory overview and chronology, subject chapters follow with subject-specific timelines and alphabetically arranged entries.

Kinfolks

Kinfolks PDF Author: Lisa Alther
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1611451760
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
The author looks for her father's family in Virginia. They may have belonged to a mysterious group known as the Melungeons.

American Abolitionists

American Abolitionists PDF Author: Stanley Harrold
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317879716
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
This book, the latest in the Seminar Studies in History series, examines the movement to abolish slavery in the US, from the origins of the movement in the eighteenth century through to the Civil War and the abolition of slavery in 1865. Books in this Seminar Studies in History series bridge the gap between textbook and specialist survey and consists of a brief "Introduction" and/or "Background" to the subject, valuable in bringing the reader up-to-speed on the area being examined, followed by a substantial and authoritative section of "Analysis" focusing on the main themes and issues. There is a succinct "Assessment" of the subject, a generous selection of "Documents" and a detailed bibliography. Stanley Harrold provides an accessible introduction to the subject, synthesizing the enormous amount of literature on the topic. American Abolitionists explores "the roles of slaves and free blacks in the movement, the importance of empathy among antislavery whites for the suffering slaves, and the impact of abolitionism upon the sectional struggle between the North and the South". Within a basic chronological framework the author also considers more general themes such as black abolitionists, feminism, and anti-slavery violence. For readers interested in American history.

Southern Black Women and their Struggle for Freedom during the Civil War and Reconstruction

Southern Black Women and their Struggle for Freedom during the Civil War and Reconstruction PDF Author: Karen Cook Bell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316514757
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
An insightful exploration of the complexity of Black women's wartime and postwar experiences across the American South.

A History of African Americans in North Carolina

A History of African Americans in North Carolina PDF Author: Jeffrey J. Crow
Publisher: North Carolina Division of Archives & History
ISBN: 9780865263512
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"First published in 1992, it traced the story of black North Carolinians from the colonial period into the 1990s. A revised edition issued in 2002 that included a new chapter examining the expanding political influence of North Carolina's African Americans and the rise of effective black politicians. This new, second revised edition brings the discussion through the historic presidential election of Barack Obama in 2008"--Page 4 of cover

Discovering African American St. Louis

Discovering African American St. Louis PDF Author: John Aaron Wright
Publisher: Missouri History Museum
ISBN: 9781883982454
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
African Americans have been part of the story of St. Louis since the city's founding in 1764. Unfortunately, most histories of the city have overlooked or ignored their vital role, allowing their influence and accomplishments to go unrecorded or uncollected; that is, until the publication of Discovering African American St. Louis: A Guide to Historic Sites in 1994. A new and updated 2002 edition is now available to take readers on a fascinating tour of nearly four hundred African American landmarks. From the boyhood home of jazz great Miles Davis in East St. Louis, Illinois, to the site of the house that sparked the landmark Shelley v. Kraemer court case, the maps, photographs, and text of Discovering African American St. Louis record a history that has been neglected for too long. The guidebook covers fourteen regions east and west of the Mississippi that represent St. Louis's rich African American heritage. In the words of historian Gary Kremer, "No one who reads this book and visits and contemplates the places and peoples whose stories it recounts will be able to look at St. Louis in the same way ever again."

An American Vein

An American Vein PDF Author: Danny Miller
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0821415891
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
An American Vein is an anthology of literary criticism of Appalachian novelists, poets, and playwrights. The book reprises critical writing of influential authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, Cratis Williams, and Jim Wayne Miller. It introduces new writing by Rodger Cunningham, Elizabeth Engelhardt, and others.

From Whence Cometh My Help

From Whence Cometh My Help PDF Author: Ethel Morgan Smith
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826261639
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description