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The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South
Examines Black pre-Civil War culture and the slave family, detailing sexual attitudes, courtship practices and wedding ceremonies, childrearing, familial roles, language, and discipline
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 22, 2013
This is one of the watershed works concerning slavery in the US - one of the first that acknowledged the agency of the slaves themselves through casual resistance. A must-read for anyone studying slavery or slave communities.
September 26, 2009
A very readable look at slave culture, arguing that American slaves retained and adapted many African folkways up through the time of the Civil War.
September 10, 2025
A comprehensive cultural history of slavery in the antebellum South, drawing on an impressive bibliography of primary sources. Blassingame curates slave autobiographies, plantation records, diary entries, memoirs, and personal correspondences to present a depiction of plantation life that transcends literary stereotypes of the era. He delves into the psychological impact of slavery, the complex relationship between slaves, masters, and overseers, and the social hierarchies on the plantation.
Religion was an important element of the culture for both the planter’s family and the slave’s. Slaves incorporated elements of African religion into the Protestant Christianity that they embraced or became acculturated to. Other cultural elements the book highlights include dance, folk songs and lore, and superstition. Blassingame compares the cultural development of Southern slaves with those of Latin America.
If the book has an argument, it is that an accurate portrayal of a slave’s life on a Southern plantation has been a gap in the historiography.
Religion was an important element of the culture for both the planter’s family and the slave’s. Slaves incorporated elements of African religion into the Protestant Christianity that they embraced or became acculturated to. Other cultural elements the book highlights include dance, folk songs and lore, and superstition. Blassingame compares the cultural development of Southern slaves with those of Latin America.
If the book has an argument, it is that an accurate portrayal of a slave’s life on a Southern plantation has been a gap in the historiography.
November 10, 2025
read for history 404.
holy. shit.
a great book for undergrads in my opinion. accessible with a heavy emphasis on primary sources from previous slaves, and those embedded into african culture. blassingame focuses on acculturation, the influence of both african culture on american culture and vice versa. a new left approach to slavery, analyzing song lyrics and focusing on silent voices.
the only negative comment i have is the lack of clarity on women. he does specify the treatment of women a little bit in the beginning, but after that doesn’t do much to address the experience of the enslaved woman. in fact, obviously a product of its time, the book goes on to generalize the slave experience as “his” experience.
holy. shit.
a great book for undergrads in my opinion. accessible with a heavy emphasis on primary sources from previous slaves, and those embedded into african culture. blassingame focuses on acculturation, the influence of both african culture on american culture and vice versa. a new left approach to slavery, analyzing song lyrics and focusing on silent voices.
the only negative comment i have is the lack of clarity on women. he does specify the treatment of women a little bit in the beginning, but after that doesn’t do much to address the experience of the enslaved woman. in fact, obviously a product of its time, the book goes on to generalize the slave experience as “his” experience.
June 25, 2024
AN EXCELLENT SURVEY OF THE LIFE OF SLAVES IN COMMUNITY
John Wesley Blassingame (1940–2000) was an American historian and chairman of the African-American studies program at Yale University.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1972 book, “This book describes and analyzes the life of the black slave: his African heritage, culture, family, acculturation, behavior, religion, and personality. In terms of emphasis, it breaks sharply with American historiographical tradition… By concentrating solely on the planter, historians have… been listening to only one side of a complicated debate. The distorted view of the plantation… are s intimately related to the planter’s projections, desires, and biases that they tell us little about slave behavior and even less about the slave’s inner life, his thoughts, actions self-concepts, or personality… the slave held onto many remnants of his African culture, gained a sense of worth in the quarters, spent most of his time free from surveillance by whites, controlled important aspects of his life, and did some personally meaningful things on his own volition. This relative freedom of thought and action helped the slave to preserve his personal autonomy and to create a culture which has contributed much to American life and thought.”
He notes, “To argue… that [slavery] was easy for [the first slaves] because Africans were by nature docile and submissive is to substitute mythology for history. The enslavement of Africans was intimately related to the history of Indian-white relations in the New World and certain historical and anthropological principles… historically it has been almost impossible to enslave members of societies who are nomadic food gatherers…” (Pg. 2)
He states, “Although a few chiefs sold their own subjects, household slaves or criminals, most African slaves were prisoners captured in tribal wars or kidnapped by slave raiders.” (Pg. 5-6) Later, he adds, “The African who survived the Mid-Passage… had one important advantage, for the experience he was about to face was not entirely unfamiliar to him. Generally, both men and women were accustomed to agricultural labor in Africa and knew of the existence of slavery. In fact, the frequent tribal wars represented a constant reminder of the threat of capture.” (Pg. 10)
He points out, “Many of the Africans resisted enslavement at every step in their forced emigration… they began trying to escape on the long march to the coast. Failing this and suicide attempts while still in sight of their native shores, the Africans mutinied while being transported to the New World and killed their white captors… they rebelled so frequently that a number of ship owners took out insurance to cover losses from mutinies… the Africans continued to resist even after they landed in the New World… Even when they did not run away, the Africans were often obstinate, sullen, and uncooperative laborers.” (Pg. 7-9)
He observes, “In spite of all the restrictions, the slaves were able to draw upon their African heritage to build a strong musical tradition. There is overwhelming evidence of the survival of African song and dance forms in the United States in the nineteenth century. The heyday of African cultural influence on Negro slaves, however, was during the eighteenth century. American clergymen and English missionaries were especially horrified at the ‘idolatrous dances and revels’ of the slaves.” (Pg. 29)
He summarizes, “All things considered, the few Africans enslaved in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America appear to have survived their traumatic experiences without becoming abjectly docile, infantile or submissive. The Africans retained enough manhood to rebel because the Southern plantation was not a rationally organized institution designed to crush every manifestation of individual will or for systematic extermination… Whatever the impact of slavery on their behavior and attitudes, it did not force them to concentrate all of their psychic energy on survival.” (Pg. 39)
He explains, “Often the most powerful and significant individual on the plantation was the conjurer. The conjurers gained their control over the slaves in various ways. Shrewd men, they generally were industrious enough to avoid punishment. They then told the slaves they were not punished because they had cast a spell on their masters. Claiming the ability to make masters kind, prevent separations cause and prevent pain and suffering, ensure love and happiness, the conjurers were often very successful in gaining adherents. Frequently, there were able to do this because they used their knowledge of the medicinal value of roots and herbs to cure certain illnesses.” (Pg. 45)
He says, “The more pious masters often attempted to develop religious principles in their slaves and encouraged them to attend their own churches. Some slaves, however, refused to do this because of their master’s actions between Sabbaths… Frequently, while in the first flush of his own conversion, a planter required all of his slaves to attend church. Both master and slave might attend a camp meeting… The slaves acquired many of their religious ideas at the camp meetings they attended with their masters… As long as the slaves communed with whites, their religious instruction was circumscribed. The planters, in spite of their piety, insisted that their slaves not learn any of the potentially subversive tenets of Christianity (the brotherhood of all men, for instance). Consequently, no white master could give a full exposition of the gospel to the slaves without incurring the wrath of the planters. Most masters saw religion more as a way of preventing rebellion than as a way of saving the slave’s soul.” (Pg. 60-62)
He continues, “Most slaves, repelled by the brand of religion their masters taught, formulated new ideas and practices in the quarters. The slave’s religious principles were colored by his own longings for freedom and based on half-understood passages from the Old Testament, struggles of the Jews, beautiful pictures of a future life, enchantment and fear, and condemnation of sin… A syncretism of African and conventional religious beliefs, the praise meeting in the quarters was unique in the United States.” (Pg. 64) He adds, “Religious faith often conquered the slave’s fear of his master. The more pious slaves persisted in attending religious services … in spite of floggings… the slave asserted that his master could inflict pain on his body, but he could not harm his Soul.” (Pg. 75)
He states, “A number of planters attempted to promote sexual morality in the quarters, punished the slaves for licentiousness and adultery, and recognized the male as the head of the family… White churches (when slaves attended them) sometimes helped to promote morality in the quarters by excommunicating adulterers and preaching homilies on fidelity… The white man’s lust for black women was one of the most serious impediments to the development of morality. The white man’s pursuit of black women frequently destroyed any possibility that comely black girls could remain chaste for long. Few slave parents could protect their pretty daughters from the sexual advances of white men… The black autobiographers testified that many white men considered every slave cabin as a house of ill-fame.” (Pg. 80-82)
He notes, “By all odds, the most brutal aspect of slavery was the separation of families. This was a haunting fear which made all of the slave’s days miserable. In spite of the fact that probably a majority of the planters tried to prevent family separations in order to maintain plantation discipline, practically all of the black autobiographers were touched by the tragedy.” (Pg. 89) He adds, “The love the slaves had for their parents reveals clearly the importance of the family… the slave family provided an important buffer, a refuge from the rigors of slavery… In his family, the slave… drew on the love and sympathy of its members to raise his spirits. The family was, in short, an important survival mechanism.” (Pg. 103)
He points out, “The slave’s constant prayer, his all-consuming hope, was for liberty… the slave understood clearly what freedom was. He only had to feel the scars on his back, recall the anguished cry of his wife and child as they were torn away from him… to know concretely, what liberty meant… The more slaves knew of freedom, the more desirous they were of obtaining it.” (Pg. 105-107)
He states, “Nowhere does the irrationality of slavery appear as clearly as in the way that slaves were punished… the master was only a man, subject… to miscalculations, to anger, to sadism, and to drink. When angry, masters frequently kicked, slapped, cuffed, or boxed the ears of domestic servants, sometimes flogged pregnant women, and often punished slaves so cruelly that it took them weeks to recover.” (Pg. 162)
He observes, “The few slaves who learned to read gained immeasurable status in the quarters because they had a secret mirror on the outside world and would keep the others informed of events that were transpiring there… So few slaves learned to read and write that they had to develop other skills to maintain their personal autonomy.” (Pg. 207)
This is an excellent book, that will be “must reading” for this seriously studying slavery.
John Wesley Blassingame (1940–2000) was an American historian and chairman of the African-American studies program at Yale University.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1972 book, “This book describes and analyzes the life of the black slave: his African heritage, culture, family, acculturation, behavior, religion, and personality. In terms of emphasis, it breaks sharply with American historiographical tradition… By concentrating solely on the planter, historians have… been listening to only one side of a complicated debate. The distorted view of the plantation… are s intimately related to the planter’s projections, desires, and biases that they tell us little about slave behavior and even less about the slave’s inner life, his thoughts, actions self-concepts, or personality… the slave held onto many remnants of his African culture, gained a sense of worth in the quarters, spent most of his time free from surveillance by whites, controlled important aspects of his life, and did some personally meaningful things on his own volition. This relative freedom of thought and action helped the slave to preserve his personal autonomy and to create a culture which has contributed much to American life and thought.”
He notes, “To argue… that [slavery] was easy for [the first slaves] because Africans were by nature docile and submissive is to substitute mythology for history. The enslavement of Africans was intimately related to the history of Indian-white relations in the New World and certain historical and anthropological principles… historically it has been almost impossible to enslave members of societies who are nomadic food gatherers…” (Pg. 2)
He states, “Although a few chiefs sold their own subjects, household slaves or criminals, most African slaves were prisoners captured in tribal wars or kidnapped by slave raiders.” (Pg. 5-6) Later, he adds, “The African who survived the Mid-Passage… had one important advantage, for the experience he was about to face was not entirely unfamiliar to him. Generally, both men and women were accustomed to agricultural labor in Africa and knew of the existence of slavery. In fact, the frequent tribal wars represented a constant reminder of the threat of capture.” (Pg. 10)
He points out, “Many of the Africans resisted enslavement at every step in their forced emigration… they began trying to escape on the long march to the coast. Failing this and suicide attempts while still in sight of their native shores, the Africans mutinied while being transported to the New World and killed their white captors… they rebelled so frequently that a number of ship owners took out insurance to cover losses from mutinies… the Africans continued to resist even after they landed in the New World… Even when they did not run away, the Africans were often obstinate, sullen, and uncooperative laborers.” (Pg. 7-9)
He observes, “In spite of all the restrictions, the slaves were able to draw upon their African heritage to build a strong musical tradition. There is overwhelming evidence of the survival of African song and dance forms in the United States in the nineteenth century. The heyday of African cultural influence on Negro slaves, however, was during the eighteenth century. American clergymen and English missionaries were especially horrified at the ‘idolatrous dances and revels’ of the slaves.” (Pg. 29)
He summarizes, “All things considered, the few Africans enslaved in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America appear to have survived their traumatic experiences without becoming abjectly docile, infantile or submissive. The Africans retained enough manhood to rebel because the Southern plantation was not a rationally organized institution designed to crush every manifestation of individual will or for systematic extermination… Whatever the impact of slavery on their behavior and attitudes, it did not force them to concentrate all of their psychic energy on survival.” (Pg. 39)
He explains, “Often the most powerful and significant individual on the plantation was the conjurer. The conjurers gained their control over the slaves in various ways. Shrewd men, they generally were industrious enough to avoid punishment. They then told the slaves they were not punished because they had cast a spell on their masters. Claiming the ability to make masters kind, prevent separations cause and prevent pain and suffering, ensure love and happiness, the conjurers were often very successful in gaining adherents. Frequently, there were able to do this because they used their knowledge of the medicinal value of roots and herbs to cure certain illnesses.” (Pg. 45)
He says, “The more pious masters often attempted to develop religious principles in their slaves and encouraged them to attend their own churches. Some slaves, however, refused to do this because of their master’s actions between Sabbaths… Frequently, while in the first flush of his own conversion, a planter required all of his slaves to attend church. Both master and slave might attend a camp meeting… The slaves acquired many of their religious ideas at the camp meetings they attended with their masters… As long as the slaves communed with whites, their religious instruction was circumscribed. The planters, in spite of their piety, insisted that their slaves not learn any of the potentially subversive tenets of Christianity (the brotherhood of all men, for instance). Consequently, no white master could give a full exposition of the gospel to the slaves without incurring the wrath of the planters. Most masters saw religion more as a way of preventing rebellion than as a way of saving the slave’s soul.” (Pg. 60-62)
He continues, “Most slaves, repelled by the brand of religion their masters taught, formulated new ideas and practices in the quarters. The slave’s religious principles were colored by his own longings for freedom and based on half-understood passages from the Old Testament, struggles of the Jews, beautiful pictures of a future life, enchantment and fear, and condemnation of sin… A syncretism of African and conventional religious beliefs, the praise meeting in the quarters was unique in the United States.” (Pg. 64) He adds, “Religious faith often conquered the slave’s fear of his master. The more pious slaves persisted in attending religious services … in spite of floggings… the slave asserted that his master could inflict pain on his body, but he could not harm his Soul.” (Pg. 75)
He states, “A number of planters attempted to promote sexual morality in the quarters, punished the slaves for licentiousness and adultery, and recognized the male as the head of the family… White churches (when slaves attended them) sometimes helped to promote morality in the quarters by excommunicating adulterers and preaching homilies on fidelity… The white man’s lust for black women was one of the most serious impediments to the development of morality. The white man’s pursuit of black women frequently destroyed any possibility that comely black girls could remain chaste for long. Few slave parents could protect their pretty daughters from the sexual advances of white men… The black autobiographers testified that many white men considered every slave cabin as a house of ill-fame.” (Pg. 80-82)
He notes, “By all odds, the most brutal aspect of slavery was the separation of families. This was a haunting fear which made all of the slave’s days miserable. In spite of the fact that probably a majority of the planters tried to prevent family separations in order to maintain plantation discipline, practically all of the black autobiographers were touched by the tragedy.” (Pg. 89) He adds, “The love the slaves had for their parents reveals clearly the importance of the family… the slave family provided an important buffer, a refuge from the rigors of slavery… In his family, the slave… drew on the love and sympathy of its members to raise his spirits. The family was, in short, an important survival mechanism.” (Pg. 103)
He points out, “The slave’s constant prayer, his all-consuming hope, was for liberty… the slave understood clearly what freedom was. He only had to feel the scars on his back, recall the anguished cry of his wife and child as they were torn away from him… to know concretely, what liberty meant… The more slaves knew of freedom, the more desirous they were of obtaining it.” (Pg. 105-107)
He states, “Nowhere does the irrationality of slavery appear as clearly as in the way that slaves were punished… the master was only a man, subject… to miscalculations, to anger, to sadism, and to drink. When angry, masters frequently kicked, slapped, cuffed, or boxed the ears of domestic servants, sometimes flogged pregnant women, and often punished slaves so cruelly that it took them weeks to recover.” (Pg. 162)
He observes, “The few slaves who learned to read gained immeasurable status in the quarters because they had a secret mirror on the outside world and would keep the others informed of events that were transpiring there… So few slaves learned to read and write that they had to develop other skills to maintain their personal autonomy.” (Pg. 207)
This is an excellent book, that will be “must reading” for this seriously studying slavery.
December 3, 2015
I think this book is really good. It gives the explanation of slavery as not just cruel but also having an influence on our Culture. It compares the white slaves of Africa to slavery of the africans in the US and gives a detailed account on both. Overall, I would recommend to read this book on anybody who would like to learn more about Slavery and what it was like. There are many descriptions and facts that the author has provided. It is a fast read, it's like a novel and very illustrious account of slavery. The whole transaction just sits in my mind, how a horrible ordeal these people went through. But, at the end slavery is our past and something to learn from this book is that it happened and won't happen again, at least I hope so.
September 19, 2016
This book should be required reading in history classes in high schools, I think. We all know that slavery is horrible and should have never come to pass, but this goes into details that are skipped over in the typical overview of American history. I particularly like how it delves into resistance by African slaves and their defense to retain their identity in culture along with stereotypes and justifications that whites used for slavery and how they contradicted themselves. It's a much more complete view of a horrible time in history that shouldn't be glossed over or forgotten, and I strongly recommend it.
August 30, 2020
This piece is depressing, because it lays bare much of happened to the slaves of the antebellum south. But it's stuff worth knowing.
February 15, 2023
i debated on whether to add this to my profile or not since it’s a school reading, but i ultimately chose to because it was so good and so informative. it reinforced or debunked common knowledge the general public shares on what slavery was like in the south, and it talks in detail about multiple facets of slavery that are otherwise not discussed in a typical social studies class. i really enjoyed reading this although it left me heartbroken. that’s history i suppose
April 4, 2019
An amazing work of historiography. So grateful to have read this book, to increase my own understanding of the realities of slavery. This book invoked many thoughts about how the enslavement of Africans in America has carried over; how racism has evolved and appears today. We owe a great debt to black people, one we may never repay.
July 30, 2021
This book relies on many unconventional forms of primary sources to get to the essence of the culture of Antebellum slaves. His thesis is basically that slaves had more agency over their own culture and identity than previously believed, and that there were significant holdovers of aspects of African culture in the way American slaves lived their lives.
March 26, 2024
Very easy to understand, concise/comprehensive, approaches Southern slavery through perspectives from other slave/total institutions. It is really 300 pages long with the index, bibliography, appendix, tables, and discussions. It is very general for the South as it is a big region, but it serves as an excellent introduction.
December 8, 2019
Meh. Knew most of it.
February 10, 2023
Read for HIST180 SC
Read
March 8, 2023LAST ONE !! WE DID IT
May 15, 2023
All I remember is that it's from the 70s and I tried reading it at the Hoch.
May 3, 2024
It was interesting, but the pictures do not aid the text and there were redundancies.
March 18, 2010
It was hard making it through this book. I gave it three stars instead of two for a couple of reasons. One is that I did learn from it, and found information that I had not previously known. The other is that the book contains a "Critical Essay on Sources" which is great, not just for the wide selection of sources but also for the explanation of the criteria used in determining how much trust to place in any given account.
Blassingame also published a compilation of slave interviews, letters, and speeches, and that is no surprise because his true talent may be the ability to patiently pore over data and sift through sources and find lots of information. The downside is that, at least on this topic, there were many contradictions. Some masters were kind, and some were cruel, and some wavered between both, and some slaves adapted, and some didn't, and some abolitionists were accurate, and some twisted the truth, and it's not that he is not right, but the frequent see-sawing leaves a feeling that you aren't really getting anywhere. Blassingame himself acknowledges in the preface that there are contradictions that he still does not understand. One wonders what he would have produced if he had lived longer.
That there is always room for more study leads to another point. I felt the weakest area was the chapter on slave personalities. There are many references to the work of Bruno Bettelheim, some of whose work has now been discredited, and I think modern psychology would disagree with a lot of the conclusions.
Blassingame also published a compilation of slave interviews, letters, and speeches, and that is no surprise because his true talent may be the ability to patiently pore over data and sift through sources and find lots of information. The downside is that, at least on this topic, there were many contradictions. Some masters were kind, and some were cruel, and some wavered between both, and some slaves adapted, and some didn't, and some abolitionists were accurate, and some twisted the truth, and it's not that he is not right, but the frequent see-sawing leaves a feeling that you aren't really getting anywhere. Blassingame himself acknowledges in the preface that there are contradictions that he still does not understand. One wonders what he would have produced if he had lived longer.
That there is always room for more study leads to another point. I felt the weakest area was the chapter on slave personalities. There are many references to the work of Bruno Bettelheim, some of whose work has now been discredited, and I think modern psychology would disagree with a lot of the conclusions.
May 16, 2016
I finished reading this book for my US History to 1877.
The book was definitely insightful, and knowing the culture of African slavery in Antebellum America was eye opening to me. They created the blues, which has obviously carried over till today. Coming to find out what these men, women, and children shocked me. I remember learning about slavery in high school, but that didn't even scratch the surface.
One thing that I did appreciate about this book was that Blassingame didn't just write about slavery in the United States, but spoke about the slave trades taking place on the African continent. Africans would enslave other Africans. Prisoners of war, or even kidnapping a family in their homes or farms and selling them to Dutch, Arabian, and Portuguese slave traders. Blassingame kept in mind that plantations and slavery was going on in Latin America, and the Caribbean Islands.
I gave the book four stars because some statements from author came off more as speculation, or there was a generalization of information without any given reference citations. Although, I'll be lenient to remember that Blassingame admitting that there weren't enough sources to clarify some of the aspects he pointed out towards the end of the book.
The book was definitely insightful, and knowing the culture of African slavery in Antebellum America was eye opening to me. They created the blues, which has obviously carried over till today. Coming to find out what these men, women, and children shocked me. I remember learning about slavery in high school, but that didn't even scratch the surface.
One thing that I did appreciate about this book was that Blassingame didn't just write about slavery in the United States, but spoke about the slave trades taking place on the African continent. Africans would enslave other Africans. Prisoners of war, or even kidnapping a family in their homes or farms and selling them to Dutch, Arabian, and Portuguese slave traders. Blassingame kept in mind that plantations and slavery was going on in Latin America, and the Caribbean Islands.
I gave the book four stars because some statements from author came off more as speculation, or there was a generalization of information without any given reference citations. Although, I'll be lenient to remember that Blassingame admitting that there weren't enough sources to clarify some of the aspects he pointed out towards the end of the book.
August 7, 2014
Fascinating and readable. This books examines the slave society as a society - exploring the institutions, life ways, and patterns from both the slave and owners perspective. The prose is as good as a novel, but the terrors of the institution sear into your soul. The only weakness about this book is that it was written a while ago, and could use a solid updating.
January 21, 2016
The Slave Community: Plantation Life In the Antebellum South by John W. Blassingame (Oxford U. Press 1972) (917.30696). This well-researched volume documents all aspects of life for the plantation slave before the Civil War. My rating: 7/10, finished 2003.
December 11, 2015
I found it invaluable in researching slave-run plantations for my novel, The Lies That Bind (DarkHorse Trilogy, Book 1). The Slave Community is exceptionally well-researched and written, very insightful and revealing. It will open your eyes to much.
February 13, 2012
Research for my novel.
September 5, 2010
Read while at the University of Southern Mississippi in a history class. A good book about the south and having lived there all my lift I thought it was a fair discussion.
September 23, 2013
Had to read for US History class - found the book quite generalizing and at times sexist (ie. only referring to slaves as "he").
June 17, 2014
This subject is very interesting to me. I enjoyed reading the insights shared by the author.
Read
September 29, 2015A counter-reaction against Genovese's emphasis on the hegemonic power of planters - Blassingame emphasizes slave resistance/community.
October 28, 2019
Read for personal research - found this book's contents helpful and inspiring.
A good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
A good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews