- New Arrivals
Fiction- Historical FictionCrime & ThrillersMysteryScience-FictionFantasyPoetryRomanceChildren’s BooksYoung Adult
- Biographies & MemoirsHistoryCurrent AffairsTech & ScienceBusinessSelf-DevelopmentTravelThe ArtsFood & WineReligion & SpiritualitySportsHumor
Children’s BooksListsBlogGift CardsMy ListsGames- About & Help
- About Tertulia
- Membership & Co-Ownership
- Shipping & Delivery
- Orders & Payments
- Contact Support
- Send App Feedback
- Follow us
- Download the app
The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South
Recent scholarship on slavery has explored the lives of enslaved people beyond the watchful eye of their masters. Building on this work and the study of space, social relations, gender, and power in the Old South, Stephanie Camp examines the everyday containment and movement of enslaved men and, especially, enslaved women. In her investigation of the movement of bodies, objects, and information, Camp extends our recognition of slave resistance into new arenas and reveals an important and hidden culture of opposition.
Camp discusses the multiple dimensions to acts of resistance that might otherwise appear to be little more than fits of temper. She brings new depth to our understanding of the lives of enslaved women, whose bodies and homes were inevitably political arenas. Through Camp's insight, truancy becomes an act of pursuing personal privacy. Illegal parties ("frolics") become an expression of bodily freedom. And bondwomen who acquired printed abolitionist materials and posted them on the walls of their slave cabins (even if they could not read them) become the subtle agitators who inspire more overt acts.
The culture of opposition created by enslaved women's acts of everyday resistance helped foment and sustain the more visible resistance of men in their individual acts of running away and in the collective action of slave revolts. Ultimately, Camp argues, the Civil War years saw revolutionary change that had been in the making for decades.
Camp discusses the multiple dimensions to acts of resistance that might otherwise appear to be little more than fits of temper. She brings new depth to our understanding of the lives of enslaved women, whose bodies and homes were inevitably political arenas. Through Camp's insight, truancy becomes an act of pursuing personal privacy. Illegal parties ("frolics") become an expression of bodily freedom. And bondwomen who acquired printed abolitionist materials and posted them on the walls of their slave cabins (even if they could not read them) become the subtle agitators who inspire more overt acts.
The culture of opposition created by enslaved women's acts of everyday resistance helped foment and sustain the more visible resistance of men in their individual acts of running away and in the collective action of slave revolts. Ultimately, Camp argues, the Civil War years saw revolutionary change that had been in the making for decades.
Book Details
- Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
- Publish Date: Sep 13rd, 2004
- Pages: 224
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.01in - 6.21in - 0.66in - 0.73lb
- EAN: 9780807855348
- Categories: • Cultural & Ethnic Studies - American - African American & Bl• Slavery• Women's Studies
About the Author
Camp, Stephanie M. H.: - Stephanie M. H. Camp is associate professor of history at the University of Washington, Seattle.
Praise for this book
"Sensitive, bold, and imaginative, the first book to place black women at the center of everyday resistance to bondage.
(Douglas R. Egerton, Le Moyne College, author of "Gabriel's Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802")"
(Douglas R. Egerton, Le Moyne College, author of "Gabriel's Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802")"
"Wonderfully evocative. . . . A provocative book full of astonishing, sometimes unforgettable moments."
-- "Virginia Magazine"
-- "Virginia Magazine"
"Camp's creative and elegant work reinforces the interconnectedness of North and South, slave and free, in the lives of enslaved people."
-- "Signs"
-- "Signs"
"Very readable yet analytically sophisticated. . . . Camp seamlessly integrates a wide array of sources . . . into an engaging book that does more than recount women's experiences as slaves in the plantation South. . . . An excellent study of bondwomen and a penetrating look at the rival geographies created by enslaved people."
-- "Journal of Southern History"
-- "Journal of Southern History"
aThis slim volume makes a substantial and often ingenious contribution to slavery studies and to womenas and southern history..."
l "American Historical Review"
l "American Historical Review"
_This slim volume makes a substantial and often ingenious contribution to slavery studies and to women_s and southern history..."
l "American Historical Review"
l "American Historical Review"
"This slim volume makes a substantial and often ingenious contribution to slavery studies and to women's and southern history..."
l "American Historical Review"
l "American Historical Review"
"Deepens our understanding of resistance as both an individual and collective endeavor. [Camp] argues forcefully. . . . Intriguing and interesting."
-- "The Journal of Interdisciplinary History"
-- "The Journal of Interdisciplinary History"