Black Life on the Mississippi: Slaves, Free Blacks, and the Western Steamboat World
- ISBN-10
- 0807829099
- ISBN-13
- 9780807829097
- Category
- Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies
- Pages
- 256
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2004
- Publisher
- University of North Carolina Press
- Author
- Thomas C. Buchanan
Description
All along the Mississippi--on country plantation landings, urban levees and quays, and the decks of steamboats--nineteenth-century African Americans worked and fought for their liberty amid the slave trade and the growth of the cotton South. Offering a counternarrative to Twain's well-known tale from the perspective of the pilothouse, Thomas C. Buchanan paints a more complete picture of the Mississippi, documenting the rich variety of experiences among slaves and free blacks who lived and worked on the lower decks and along the river during slavery, through the Civil War, and into emancipation.
Buchanan explores the creative efforts of steamboat workers to link riverside African American communities in the North and South. The networks African Americans created allowed them to keep in touch with family members, help slaves escape, transfer stolen goods, and provide forms of income that were important to the survival of their communities. The author also details the struggles that took place within the steamboat work culture. Although the realities of white supremacy were still potent on the river, Buchanan shows how slaves, free blacks, and postemancipation freedpeople fought for better wages and treatment.
By exploring the complex relationship between slavery and freedom, Buchanan sheds new light on the ways African Americans resisted slavery and developed a vibrant culture and economy up and down America's greatest river.
All along the Mississippi--on country plantation landings, urban levees and quays, and the decks of steamboats--nineteenth-century African Americans worked and fought for their liberty amid the slave trade and the growth of the cotton South. Offering a counternarrative to Twain's well-known tale from the perspective of the pilothouse, Thomas Buchanan paints a more complete picture of the Mississippi, documenting the rich variety of experiences among slaves and free blacks who lived and worked on the lower decks and along the river during slavery, through the Civil War, and into emancipation. By exploring the complex relationship between slavery and freedom, Buchanan sheds new light on the ways African Americans resisted slavery and developed a vibrant culture and economy up and down America's greatest river.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2007
- - pages
- Paperback
- Univ of North Carolina Press
-
- 2006-03-08
- 272 pages
- Ebook
- Univ of North Carolina Press
Similar books
-
Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality
By Nell Irvin Painter, Homi K. Bhabha, Kimberlé CrenshawAs I wrote in a recent tribute to Justice Marshall: There appears to be a deliberate retrenchment by a majority of the current Supreme Court on many basic issues of human rights that Thurgood Marshall advocated and that the Warren and ...
-
Behind the Scenes. by Elizabeth Keckley. Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House.
By Elizabeth KeckleyBehind the Scenes. by Elizabeth Keckley. Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House.
-
The African-American Odyssey: To 1877
By Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, Stanley HarroldSupreme Court Justices ( continued ) Name * Years on Court Appointing President John Marshall Harlan William J. Brennan , Jr. Charles E. Whittaker Potter Stewart Byron R. White Arthur J. Goldberg Abe Fortas Thurgood Marshall WARREN E.
-
Slavery, Race, and American History: Historical Conflict, Trends, and Method, 1866-1953
By John David SmithSee George D. Terry , “ A Study of the Impact of the French Revolution and the Insurrections in Saint - Domingue ... iiin , 65n , 66n ; John D. Duncan , “ Servitude and Slavery in Colonial South Carolina , 1670–1776 " ( Ph.D. diss .
-
Give Us Each Day: The Diary
By Alice Moore Dunbar-NelsonGive Us Each Day: The Diary
-
African American Firsts in Science & Technology
By Raymond B. Webster... George W. 318 Neal , Lonnie G. 126 , 312 Nickerson , William J. 11 Nokes , Clarence 121 Page , Lionel F. 356 ... Wanda Anne A. 150 Small , Isadore , III 135 Smart , Brinay 106 Smith , Jonathan S. , II 312 Smith , Morris Leslie 312 ...
-
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass Three-volume Set
By Paul FinkelmanThe latter, Morgan argues, brought more autonomy to slaves and created conditions by which they could carve out an African ... Holton, Woody. Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, and Slaves and the Making of the American Revolution.
-
Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made
By Eugene D. Genovese... Eric Foner, Ella Laffey, John Laffey, Sidney W. Mintz, Brenda Meehan-Waters, Jesse T. Moore, Willie Lee Rose, John F. Szwed, Bennett H. Wall, Michael Wallace, John Waters, Jonathan Weiner, Peter H. Wood, and Harold D. Woodman.
-
The First to Speak: A Woman of Color Inside the White House
By Kristin Clark TaylorMy interaction with the Reagan staff was not close or constant , but I was always left with the tacit feeling that , using Vickers ' yellow highlighted check - off list as a gauge to measure political importance , most everyone on the ...
-
What the Slaves Ate: Recollections of African American Foods and Foodways from the Slave Narratives
By Herbert C. Covey, Dwight EisnachAccording to Phillips (1966), beef and mutton were not plentiful because of poor grazing pastures. ... Examples of references to beef from the narratives include Hattie Douglas (AR), who spoke of preparing an entire cow and preserving ...