Slavery and Class in the American South

Compiled over decades of research and spanning an impressive archive, William L. Andrews's study of the social and economic distinctions among enslaved people provides an important contribution to the study of life under slavery. This accounting of class attends to distinctions of both labor and access to resources and social benefits, as well as to the complex relations of privilege and power to which class contributed. * Brigitte Fielder, Journal of Southern History *
Compiled over decades of research and spanning an impressive archive, William L. Andrew's study of the social and economic distinctions among enslaved people provides an important contribution to the study of life under slavery. [...] Readers will leave this book with a keen eye for enslaved writers' attunement to class amid their discourses on race, slavery, and freedom. * J. R. Kerr-Ritchie, the Journal of Southern History *
If time or finances allow for just a single volume to supplement one's reading of mid-nineteenth century American slave narrative autobiographies, Slavery and Class in the American South is it. It is an exhaustive, well-written, exceptional, and timely work that should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the historical context or literary contribution of pre-Emancipation American chattel slavery. * I. Francis Kyle III, New England Journal of History *
Slavery and Class in the American South will be required reading for anyone who studies nineteenth-century African American literature and scholars of antebellum slavery. Beautifully written, replete with welcome illustrations, William L. Andrews has produced a work that will benefit historians for some time. * Frank J. Byrne, American Historical Review *
Though most slave narratives reflect the experiences of skilled ex-slaves, Andrews's work highlights field slaves' narratives and their experiences to give a more complete picture of the enslaved antebellum experience. An in-depth study of former slavesâ concepts of class, this work is a valuable resource to scholars of American history and literature. * Choice *
...he admiringly succeeds in highlighting differences in social status and class among enslaved African Americans and insightfully discusses how the parameters of distinction informed the narrators' sense of themselves and their views on slavery and the enslaved population of the American South. * Silke Hackenesch, Amerikastudien *
In this crowning scholarly achievement of a long career, William L. Andrews confirms that these seemingly simple [slave] narratives can offer more complex and nuanced readings. In addition to revealing the value of close attention to the narratives, this monograph, as did Andrews's previous work, highlights the complexity of the lives of the enslaved and their commentary on key issues. * Nicole N. Aljoe, Journal of American History *
William Andrews has 'lifted the veil' on class relations within the slave community in the antebellum South. Well-meaning scholars, mostly for political reasons, have far too often chosen to remain silent about distinctions of class drawn by black people among themselves, starting in slavery, choosing to discuss African Americans as if they were always a social monolith, and thereby reducing their complexity. Andrews reveals, in riveting detail, that this has never been the case, even well before the Civil War. This is a seminal work of scholarship, one destined to generate a new branch of literary studies, dedicated to studying how class mattered within the African American tradition. * Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University *
William Andrews has given us an inestimable gift-the first sustained consideration of the totality of known antebellum slave narratives. Andrews provides new insight into the ways enslaved and oppressed people leveraged limited social and economic power to claw out a place for themselves in a system that was never meant to support their survival or success. This momentous work reveals more than we ever have known about the kinds of work these writers did before they made their way to 'freedom.' This much-needed contribution will be used by literary scholars and historians and will help shape emerging scholarship for decades. * P. Gabrielle Foreman, Founding Faculty Director, The Colored Conventions Project *
No one knows the substance and range of slave narratives as well as William Andrews. The preeminent scholar of this genre here shows with brilliant clarity and new insights how much social class shaped the authors' lives within slavery, as well as motivated their desires and methods of achieving freedom. Slavery and Class in the American South removes slave narrative authors from a flattened, mythic realm and probes their economic and social hierarchies. This is the most innovative book ever written on the first generation of African American writers. * David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom *
Andrews's deep familiarity with the narratives that enslaved and formerly enslaved people produced in the mid-nineteenth century enables him to conduct a nuanced interrogation of how enslaved people perceived social class and privilege in the wider society, but particularly within their own communities. * Heather Williams, University of Pennsylvania *
William Andrews is one of the leading scholars of American slavery and certainly one of our great authorities on the testimony of enslaved people. But here he has broken new ground by looking at how the enslaved understood and expressed social distinctions among themselves, notions of 'class' within their own communities. Slavery and Class in the American South is a thought-provoking and unsettling read, though one that is important to grapple with. * Steven Hahn, author of A Nation Under Our Feet *
Beautifully written and finely argued exploration. Andrews's analysis is outstanding: extensively detailed, luminous, profound, moving, definitive. Slavery and Class in the American South: A Generation of Slave Narrative Testimony, 1840-1865 should influence enslavement, life writing, and US Southern studies for generations to come. * Joycelyn K. Moody, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly *
Slavery and Class in the American South is a jam-packed book, but it is also a book anyone can read. The prose is clear and free of academic jargon, so that even readers untrained in literary theory can grasp its arguments... An important addition to slavery studies, drawing from a literary archive to shed light on the class dynamics that permeated the slave community. * Adam Rothman, American Literary History *
Andrews's latest book... evinces encyclopedic knowledge, a searching intellect, deep commitments to African American history and culture, and a consistently clear and accessible style... think we will be returning to Slavery and Class in the American South for a long time - not only for the field-changing work it does but also for the even more massive work it should compel all of us to do. * Eric Gardner, African American Review *