{"product_id":"in-a-land-of-strangers-northern-teachers-in-the-slave-south-paperback-softback-9781469696379","title":"In a Land of Strangers; Northern Teachers in the Slave South (Paperback \/ softback) 9781469696379","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eIn a Land of Strangers\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eNorthern Teachers in the Slave South\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eMichael T. Bernath (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781469696379\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 4 August 2026\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e350 pages, 9 Halftones, unspecified\u003cbr\u003e23.5 x 2.5 x 15.5 cm, 0.554 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An important and persuasive contribution, \u003ci\u003eIn a Land of Strangers\u003c\/i\u003e breaks new ground with an impressive examination of more than two thousand northern teachers in the Old South, offering fresh insights into race, class, gender, and sectional identity. Elegantly written and methodologically strong, it promises wide scholarly impact.”—Jonathan Daniel Wells, author of \u003ci\u003eBlind No More: African American Resistance, Free Soil Politics, and the Coming of the Civil War\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“This book offers an unparalleled window into antebellum American identity through the eyes of Northern teachers, whose letters and diaries captured intimate encounters with white and Black Southerners. By tracing their ambitions, disillusionments, and cultural reckonings, this book significantly deepens our understanding of sectional difference and shared national life before the Civil War. ”—Heather Andrea Williams, author of \u003ci\u003eSelf-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Michael Bernath’s \u003ci\u003eIn a Land of Strangers\u003c\/i\u003e offers an innovative study of the Northern schoolteachers who tutored the children of Southern planters and, through them, helped create the identity of the South. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, Bernath’s work reorients how we think of and about Southern plantations in the decades before the start of the US Civil War and provides a fresh perspective on the antebellum era.”—Sarah Gardner, coeditor of \u003ci\u003eInsiders, Outsiders: Toward a New History of Southern Thought\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“By recovering the sharp, haunting voices of Yankee tutors, Michael Bernath takes readers into the opulent, dark heart of the Old South. Generations of historians have studied the myth and reality of the plantation South without consulting the letters of thousands of Northern teachers who lived with and worked for the region’s wealthiest families. \u003ci\u003eIn a Land of Strangers\u003c\/i\u003e corrects this omission with impressive archival research, perceptive analysis, and engaging prose.”—Jason Phillips, author of \u003ci\u003eLooming Civil War: How Nineteenth-Century Americans Imagined the Future\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat makes the American South distinctive? Is it the location, the culture, the mindset—or a story Americans learned to tell about themselves? \u003ci\u003eIn a Land of Strangers\u003c\/i\u003e contends that the idea of a “distinctive” South did not crystallize out of the Civil War or politics alone; instead, it took shape decades earlier through the everyday observations of thousands of Northern teachers who lived and worked there from the late eighteenth century through the Civil War. Young, white, educated, and marked as outsiders, these men and women occupied an unusual position of trust within Southern households, classrooms, and plantations, granting them rare, intimate access to the inner workings of slaveholding society. \t\u003cbr\u003e \t\u003cbr\u003e \tMichael T. Bernath offers the first full-length study of this vast group of teachers—the most sustained point of contact between North and South in the antebellum era. Bewildered, curious, and constantly translating the South for themselves and audiences back home, these educators described a strange and profoundly different place in their diaries and letters. Collectively, they fixed a shared image of the South in the national imagination. In this book, Bernath reshapes our understanding of sectional identity, American culture, and why the idea of a distinctive South endures.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"The University of North Carolina Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52589077758232,"sku":"9781469696379","price":28.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/in-a-land-of-strangers-northern-teachers-in-the-slave-south-paperback-softback-9781469696379","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}