Unrequited Toil
A History of United States Slavery

Introduces the essential history of slavery from the American Revolution to post-Civil War Reconstruction in twelve thematic chapters.

Calvin Schermerhorn (Author)

9781107608580, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 August 2018

266 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.38 kg

'Unrequited Toil is an engaging, beautifully composed survey of slavery in the United States. It presents a highly useful and readable account featuring the latest scholarly research, valuable to specialists and students alike.' Dale Kretz, The Journal of American History

Written as a narrative history of slavery within the United States, Unrequited Toil details how an institution that seemed to be disappearing at the end of the American Revolution rose to become the most contested and valuable economic interest in the nation by 1850. Calvin Schermerhorn charts changes in the family lives of enslaved Americans, exploring the broader processes of nation-building in the United States, growth and intensification of national and international markets, the institutionalization of chattel slavery, and the growing relevance of race in the politics and society of the republic. In chapters organized chronologically, Schermerhorn argues that American economic development relied upon African Americans' social reproduction while simultaneously destroying their intergenerational cultural continuity. He explores the personal narratives of enslaved people and develops themes such as politics, economics, labor, literature, rebellion, and social conditions.

Introduction
1. Counter-revolutionaries
2. Slow death for slavery
3. Cotton empire
4. Black insurgency
5. Financial chains
6. Life in the quotidian
7. Landscape of sexual violence
8. Industrial discipline
9. Narratives
10. Geopolitics
11. Abolition war
12. No justice, no peace
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]