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Band of brothers : enslaved men of the antebellum south
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Lussana, Sergio (2011) Band of brothers : enslaved men of the antebellum south. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2533307~S1
Abstract
This thesis examines the world of enslaved men in the antebellum southern United
States. Using oral interviews conducted with formerly enslaved people, full-length
slave autobiographies, as well as enslaved folklore, plantation records, trial papers,
and petitions, it underscores that the lives of enslaved men were intertwined with
one another, and that male interdependence was a fact of enslaved life. It examines
how pursuits such as drinking, gambling, wrestling, hunting, and evading the patrol
gangs brought enslaved men together in an all-male subculture through which they
constructed their own independent notions of masculinity, friendship, solidarity and
resistance. The thesis argues that homosocial company was integral to the gendered
identity and self-esteem of enslaved men. The emotional landscape they created
with other men offered them a vital mutual support network through which to resist
the dehumanising features of enslaved life. Through each other, they forged an
oppositional masculine culture that defied and subverted the authority of the
slaveholder that structured their everyday lives. Despite the controls designed to
locate the enslaved in plantation space, enslaved men illicitly left plantations at
night, evaded patrol gangs, engaged in theft, and spread news, gossip and rumours
from plantation to plantation across the South. Evidence indicates that this distinct
male world proved the foundation for conspiracy, rebellion and running away.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | E History America > E151 United States (General) | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Slaves -- Southern States, Southern States -- History -- 1775-1865 | ||||
Official Date: | March 2011 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of History | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Earle, Rebecca ; Lockley, Timothy James, 1971- | ||||
Sponsors: | Arts & Humanities Research Council (Great Britain) (AHRC) | ||||
Extent: | ix, 368 leaves : ill. | ||||
Language: | eng |
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