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Summary:

In this book Ira Berlin traces the history of African-American slavery in the United States from its beginnings in the seventeenth century to its demise nearly three hundred years later. Most Americans, black and white, have a singular vision of slavery, one fixed in the mid-nineteenth century when most American slaves grew cotton, resided in the deep South, and subscribed to Christianity. Here, however, Berlin offers a major reinterpretation in which slaves and their owners continually renegotiated the terms of captivity. Slavery was thus made and remade by successive generations of Africans and African Americans who lived through settlement and adaptation, plantation life, economic transformations, revolution, forced migration, war, and ultimately, emancipation. Berlin's understanding of the processes that continually transformed the lives of slaves makes Generations of captivity essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of antebellum America. Connecting the "Charter Generation" to the development of Atlantic society in the seventeenth century, the "Plantation Generation" to the reconstruction of colonial society in the eighteenth century, the "Revolutionary Generation" to the Age of Revolutions, and the "Migration Generation" to American expansionism in the nineteenth century, Berlin integrates the history of slavery into the larger story of American life. He demonstrates how enslaved black people, by adapting to changing circumstances, prepared for the moment when they could seize liberty and declare themselves the "Freedom Generation." This epic story provides a rich understanding of the experience of African-American slaves, an experience that continues to mobilize American thought and passions today

Table of Contents:

• Prologue : slavery and freedom
• Charter generations
• Plantation generations
• Revolutionary generations
• Migration generations
• Epilogue : freedom generations.

Author/Creator:

Berlin, Ira, 1941-2018

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

English.

Main Work:

Generations of captivity: a history of African-American slaves [by Berlin, I.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: Generations of captivity [by Berlin, I.] (Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003 — LCCN 2002028142; OCLC Number 50598040)

Subjects:

Slavery — United States — History

Enslaved persons — United States — History

Enslaved persons — United States

Slavery

Enslaved persons

United States

Genres:

History

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 2004 Nonfiction
Description based on: Print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (374 pages) : maps

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

E441 .B47 2003eb

ISBNs:

9780674020832 (electronic bk.)
0674020839 (electronic bk.)
0674010612 [Invalid]
9780674010611 [Invalid]
0674016246 (pbk.) [Invalid]
9780674016248 (pbk.) [Invalid]
9780674252431 (e-book)
0674252438

OCLC Numbers:

607810179