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Bound by Bondage
Slavery and the Creation of a Northern Gentry
Nicole Saffold Maskiell (Author)
9781501781681
Paperback / softback, published 15 April 2025
306 pages, 5 b&w halftones, 3 maps, 4 charts - 5 Halftones, black and white - 3 Maps - 4 Charts
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.454 kg
An ambitious effort to reconstruct an entangled world of mastery and slavery bound—and divided—by ties of family, class, and race. Maskiell's deep research and intergenerational framework refresh our understanding of the ways that slavery was a daily experience not only for the enslaved but for enslavers as well Maskiell provides new insight into our founding fathers and mothers—enslaved and free.
During the first generations of European settlement in North America, a number of interconnected Northeastern families carved out private empires. In Bound by Bondage, Nicole Saffold Maskiell argues that slavery was vital to the rise of this aristocracy, and those dynastic families built prestige through mastery, creating manorial estates and expansive trading networks from the Northeast to the South, the Caribbean, and beyond. Members of this elite class, including mayors, governors, and presidents, were among the largest slaveholders in the North, with power aspirations uniting Anglo and Dutch families. Using original research drawn from archives across several continents in multiple languages, Maskiell traces the origins of these private empires from the founding of Northeastern colonies to the eve of the Revolutionary War. She reveals a multiracial Early America, where enslaved traders, woodsmen, millers, maids, bakers, and groomsmen developed expansive networks of their own that challenged the power of the elites, helping in escapes, in trade, and in simple camaraderie. Bound by Bondage adds a new chapter to early North American history, linking Northern networks of merit to slavery.
Introduction: Manhunt
1. Neger: Race, Slavery, and Status in the Dutch Northeast (1640s–60s)
2. Kolonist: Slaveholding and the Survival of Expansive Anglo-Dutch Elite Networks (1650s–90s)
3. Naam: Race, Family, and Connection on the Borderlands (1680s–90s)
4. Bond: Forging an Anglo-Dutch Slaveholding Northeast (1690s–1710s)
5. Family: Kinship, Ambition, and Fear in a Time of Rebellions (1710s–20s)
6. Market: Creating Kinship-Based Empires United by Slaveholding (1730s–50s)
7. Identity: Navigating Racial Expectations to Escape Slavery (1750s–60s)
Conclusion: Gentry