Slavery and Forced Migration in the Antebellum South

This book sheds new light on domestic forced migration by examining experiences of American-born slave migrants from a comparative perspective.

Damian Alan Pargas (Author)

9781107658967, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 December 2014

296 pages, 7 b/w illus. 1 map
23 x 15.3 x 1.6 cm, 0.4 kg

'Damian Alan Pargas has produced a valuable volume on the many aspects of the forced migration of enslaved people in the antebellum South … well documented, this volume should high on a list of mandatory reading for classes on slavery in the antebellum South, sociology, and southern history in general.' Charles Vincent, The Journal of Southern History

American slavery in the antebellum period was characterized by a massive wave of forced migration as millions of slaves were moved across state lines to the expanding southwest, scattered locally, and sold or hired out in towns and cities across the South. This book sheds new light on domestic forced migration by examining the experiences of American-born slave migrants from a comparative perspective. Juxtaposing and contrasting the experiences of long-distance, local, and urban slave migrants, it analyzes how different migrant groups anticipated, reacted to, and experienced forced removal, as well as how they adapted to their new homes.

Introduction
Part I. Migration: 1. Valuable bodies
2. The gathering storm
3. Changing places
Part II. Assimilation: 4. Cogs in the wheel
5. Managing newcomers
6. Slave crucibles
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Slavery & abolition of slavery [HBTS], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]