My Brother Slaves: Friendship, Masculinity, and Resistance in the Antebellum South PDF
Preview My Brother Slaves: Friendship, Masculinity, and Resistance in the Antebellum South
My Brother Slaves My Brother SlaveS Friendship, Masculinity, and resistance in the antebellum South Sergio a. lussana Due to variations in the technical specifications of different electronic reading devices, some elements of this ebook may not appear as they do in the print edition. Readers are encouraged to experiment with user settings for optimum results. Copyright © 2016 by the University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, eastern Kentucky University, the Filson historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of louisville, and Western Kentucky University. all rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: the University Press of Kentucky 663 South limestone Street, lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: lussana, Sergio, author. title: My brother slaves : friendship, masculinity, and resistance in the antebellum south / Sergio a. lussana. Description: lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, 2016. | Series: New directions in Southern history | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lCCN 2015048920| ISBN 9780813166940 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780813166964 (pdf) | ISBN 9780813166957 (epub) Subjects: lCSh: Slaves —Southern States—Social conditions—19th century. | Male friendship—Southern States—history—19th century. | Masculinity—Southern States—history—19th century. | Southern States—Social conditions—19th century. | Slavery—Southern States. Classification: lCC e185.18 .l87 2016 | DDC 306.3/62097509034—dc23 lC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015048920 this book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the american National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of america. Member of the association of american University Presses For my grandmother, yvonne Frances runtz. Contents Introduction 1 1. enslaved Men and Work 19 2. enslaved Men and leisure 45 3. Beyond the Plantation 71 4. Friendship, resistance, and runaways 99 5. enslaved Men, the Grapevine telegraph, and the Underground railroad 125 epilogue 147 acknowledgments 151 Notes 155 Bibliography 189 Index 211 Introduction “For much of the happiness, or absence of misery, with which I passed this year, I am indebted to the genial temper and ardent friendship of my brother slaves. they were every one of them manly, generous, and brave; yes, I say they were brave, and I will add fine looking. It is seldom the lot of any to have truer and better friends than were the slaves on this farm. It was not uncommon to charge slaves with great treachery toward each other, but I must say I never loved, esteemed, or confided in men more than I did in these. they were as true as steel, and no band of brothers could be more loving. there were no mean advantages taken of each other, no tattling, no giving each other bad names to Mr. Freeland, and no elevating one at the expense of the other. We never undertook anything of any importance which was likely to affect each other, without mutual consultation. We were generally a unit, and moved together.”1 With these words, Frederick Douglass, one of the most celebrated black men in american history, described the men he had lived and worked with while enslaved in Maryland in 1835. trapped in a world of brutal physical punishment, unremitting back-breaking labor, and forced sepa- ration from loved ones, Douglass testified that the friendship he shared with other enslaved men carried him through his dark days of enslave- ment. these men were central to Douglass; their friendship eased the pain of slavery. It was to this circle of men that he turned for emotional comfort. he affirmed the masculinity of his friends and pronounced that their lives were interdependent. they were a “unit” and “moved together.” they were a “band of brothers.” Douglass’s musings are insightful because they shed light on an inti- mate area of enslaved life: enslaved men and their relationships with other men. yet, in contrast to studies of enslaved women and gender, works on enslaved men and issues of masculinity have proved less forthcoming because historians have generally failed to employ the techniques of gender history to analyze the lives of enslaved men. only recently have scholarly articles begun to examine how enslaved men negotiated masculine iden- 1
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