Life in Black and White essays

Life in Black and White essays Life in Black and White, is a great book about the Southern society in the antebellum period focussing on the daily life in Loundoun County, Virginia, tracing the lives of all classes and cultures. For years, many historians have argued that most slave families in the American antebellum south were, despite many and certain circumstances upon them, traditional nuclear families. The author, Brenda E. Stevenson, challenged numerous reviews and ideas of the nature of slave families relations and ways of life. She examines the whole Southern society through the families of all races. In this process the book offers an unprecedented look at the daily lives of different communities such as the slaves, planters, free blacks, and yeoman farmers. Most importantly she gives us the opportunity to see the social and cultural forces which bond them together, even while driving them apart. Stevenson provides a perfect portrait of family and community life in the American South bringing in stories and quotes of planters, slaves, free blacks, and poor whites, in the mid-18th century to the Civil War. These stories give strong evidence on the hardships of life for both blacks and whites. For instance, in chapter 6, The Nature of Loudoun Slavery, owners would sell certain slaves for financial reasons, masters most readily sold slaves as punishment or a mean of control. An ex-slave explains what some masters would say to discipline or threaten to sell them down South. He come....down to the quarters. Pick out de famly dat got de most chillun an say, Fo God, nigger, Im goin to sell all dem chillun o yourn lessen you keep quiet. Dat threat was a worsen prospects of alickin. Evybody sho keep quiet arter dat ( Stevenson, 179). Slave life was emphasized of labor and discipline. The workload was merle physical punishment in itself, but all slaves were alwa ...