ERA Reviews

In this fascinating book, Genovese examines the attemptsmade by antebellum Southern intellectuals like John C.Calhoun, James Henley Thornwell, George Fitzhugh, and others to reconcile the American love of freedom with the slavery they saw all around them. Genovese points out, Yankee propaganda to the contrary, that these men were, in their various fields, as formidable a group of intellects as America has ever produced. But their task was, of course, impossible. As usual, this book is essential for understanding the antebellum South.

In late 1775, sensing that the time for emancipation and liberty was at hand, a slave named Titus quietly slipped away from his master in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Richard Corliss, the slaveholder, offered three pounds reward for the capture and return of Titus. Titus did return, but as Colonel Tye, and he fought gallantly in the Battle of Monmouth, near Freehold. A year later, Colonel Tye did something even more extraordinary. Once again he returned to Monmouth County as leader of an integrated guerilla unit. Tye's intimate knowledge of Monmouth County swamps, rivers and woods served him well, as he and his group plundered the farms and estates of wealthy slaveholders, escaping to a hide out on Sandy Hook. These depredations continued for a year until Tye received a bullet wound and died of lockjaw. Tye would be an honored figure in American history but for one problem: This was the Revolutionary War, not the Civil War, and Tye was fighting on the British side. As far as he was concerned, Tye was fighting for the right side. On November 7, 1778, the Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, promised freedom to all slaves "willing to serve His Majesty's forces to end the present rebellion." If you had been a slave, which side would you have chosen? An embryonic nation apparently committed to slavery and largely governed by slaveholders, or a powerful maritime empire that promised you your freedom? This wonderful story about a courageous man, which I had never heard before, comes from an eye-opening book by Graham Russell Hodges, "Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in Monmouth County, 1665-1865," from Madison House Publishers in cooperation with the Friends of the Monmouth County Park System. Hodges lets the facts speak for themselves. From census figures, newspaper accounts, county and church records, business ledgers, wills, and reward postings for the capture of escaped slaves, we are reminded that New Jersey was a rural state that had much in common with the upper South - Lincoln never carried New Jersey. We did not have large plantations, but slaveholding was common and acceptable enough to make us closer to tidewater Maryland and Virginia than to New England in many of our attitudes. Slavery received an early start in New Jersey and rooted strongly enough to end slowly, grudgingly and later than any other Northeastern states. Vestiges of servitude lingered on into the Twentieth Century, with many African Americans economically bound to the same white families that had once owned them as property. Hodges gives particular attention to the role played by organized religion in the justification and maintenance of slavery, as well as in its gradual demise. The second part of Hodges' book deals with New Jersey's emancipation period, which saw a declining slave population and the growing strength of Monmouth County's free black community up to the Civil War. Local tax rolls reveal an increasing number of mostly poor, yet free, African Americans, a few of whom managed to acquire considerable farm acreage. Tables throughout the book show the distribution of free and slave populations by town and by year. Poet William Carlos Williams advises that we will find what is universal by examining what is found locally. By taking a magnifying glass to the 200 year history of slavery in a single New Jersey county, Graham Russell Hodges brings to light the degradation, violence, hypocrisy, and moral ambiguities of a terrible institution as it was experienced in this state, by people we would have known or even could have been. Its pages are filled with surnames still listed in our telephone books. It is a powerful book. Bob Rixon, WFMU-FM, Jersey City, NJ

In Julia Floyd Smith's book Slavery and Rice Culture in Low Country Georgia, 1750-1860, the unique economic system that developed in the tidewater region along Georgia's Atlantic Coast is carefully evaluated. According to Smith, the geographic and economic nature of rice cultivation fostered the development of a distinctive plantation culture, the characteristics of which were drastically disparate from that of cotton, indigo and tobacco plantations within the same state.

Rice cultivation, being a highly labor-intensive enterprise, required the employment of a more efficient system of slave labor than that of the gang system, commonly found on upland cotton plantations. Instead of the gang system, coastal rice plantations utilized the task system, whereby slaves were assigned specific tasks each day "designed to produce effective performance and served as a convenient measurement of labor requirements on various projects." The precise workmanship necessary throughout various stages of successful rice cultivation was more suitable to a single slave as opposed to a gang of slaves. Smith asserts that the task system provided advantages for rice plantation slaves, who unlike their counterparts laboring in the gang system, did not have to work from sunup to sundown. Task system slaves were able to engage in leisure time or recreation once their task was completed.

Tidewater rice plantations cultivated suitable tracts of land carved out of coastal swamplands. The unique geographic limitations of tidewater farming fostered the development of larger plantations with dense slave populations requiring efficient managerial oversight. Smith contends that not only did slaves influence the methods used in rice cultivation, where she is in agreement with historian Daniel Littlefield, they also played a valuable role in effectively managing plantations. Smith challenges the stereotyped image of the uneducated and brutal overseer by painting a picture of an experienced manager, successfully directing the operation of plantations and slave labor. Interestingly, Smith contends that many tidewater plantation owners relied more on drivers, themselves slaves, than on white overseers. According to Smith, "Overseers came and left and seldom developed a close bond with the owner. Reliable and trusted drivers remained on the plantation for a lifetime and were of invaluable service to the owner."

In Slavery and Rice Culture in Low Country Georgia, 1750-1860, Julia Floyd Smith argues that the slaves of coastal Georgia exercised more religious freedom and autonomy than slaves in other parts of the South in addition to developing a distinctive African American culture. Smith states, "Negro slave preachers had to be cautious and stress a doctrine approved by whites..." Smith adds that in addition to stressing a doctrine approved by whites, black slave preachers also aided in controlling slaves. Smith has potentially overestimated the religious autonomy of tidewater slaves by neglecting to fully account for the fact that the religion exercised by these slaves was one restricted by whites. By closely regulating religious freedom among slaves, slave owners were able to exert substantial control over their slaves, encouraging them to seek salvation only in God's heavenly kingdom. Smith contends that slaves were aware of this fact, and actually went to painstaking lengths to meet secretly and conduct services.

A distinct African American culture developed in coastal Georgia. This culture reflected the African origins of the slaves, including song, dance, language and family relationships. According to Smith, "They have created a cultural blending of the African and Anglo-American to form a distinct low country society in which the contributions and traditions of both may be seen." Although the slaves of coastal Georgia undoubtedly created a unique culture, this culture must have been fragile and subject to disruption. Instead of simply describing the nature of the distinct culture established by slaves in coastal Georgia, it is necessary for Smith to discuss the factors that challenged the establishment of this culture and contributed to its inherent fragility.

Finally, Smith merely alludes to the "matriarchal concept of the family as an institution" in coastal Georgia. This statement requires further analysis by Smith. Historian Orville Vernon Burton describes the patriarchal nature of slave families inland from the Atlantic Coast in Edgefield, South Carolina. According to Burton the slave owner acted as the patriarch of the slave family. Smith needs to elaborate by possibly attributing the remoteness and seclusion of many of the tidewater plantations with their matriarchal nature, given that slave owners often did not reside on the plantation itself.

Julia Floyd Smith presents a significant contribution to the study of the South. Recognizing the distinctiveness of the economic and social makeup of coastal Georgia enhances previous assessments of plantation society and challenges historians to reassess certain aspects of the antebellum south.

Dorothy and Carl Schneider's Slavery In America (0816038635,...) covers colonial times to the Civil War, providing a chronology of events and eyewitness insights along with capsule biographies of over a hundred key figures. Highly recommended.

In Social Work In The Era Of Devolution: Toward A Just Practice, faculty members of the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Work Rosa Perez-Koenig and Barry Rock effectively collaborate to survey and comment on the social forces, processes and policy changes that affect the social work profession. Social Work In The Era Of Devolution also explores practical issues as they affect selected vulnerable populations serviced by the social work profession as well as interventions that have taken place through community action and interagency collaboration. Highly recommended and instructive reading for social work students, practitioners, and interested non-specialist general readers, Social Work In The Era Of Devolution successfully integrates policy, practice, organizational, and community perspectives on social work practice with a commitment to social justice.

good clean readable sensible and clear! this music is difficult to get hold of.

Anthony Asadullah Samad writes from his heart. This is a book about rebirth and the changes that he went thru to become who he is today. It's about being an advocate for his people at all cost. It should be required reading for African American Studies everywhere. It will captures you from the beginning until the end. Excellent debut Mr. Samad.

Excellently written and arranged. I actually am a former student of Dr. Ward, and love the way he writes, capturing the reader with an excellent account on the subject.

This book contains a lot of information about not only the political events but especially about the discussions among the intellectuals who are active in democracy-related topics, about emerging groups and their opinions and actions with a focus on important persons and presents their history, statements, activities and conflicts with administration and government. It provides a very dense description and the quality is comparable with the book "China. A New History" which she published as a successor of John K. Fairbank. But this one her goes - of course - much more into detail.

Mr. Berner offers the serious scholar a reference that can aid any person interested in this period. His data bank of information helps in understanding this complex "little war". He has done a great deal of research to bring such a book to print. I recommend it for advanced classes in high schools and universities alike.