Nearly 136 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery remains the unhealed wound on the American soul. Every discussion of racial equality in America has its taproot in slavery. In recent years, several high-profile books and films have sought to illuminate our understanding of American slavery. Both are profound additions to our national historiography.
Berlin presents a thorough and extensive examination of early slavery.
Certainly, these are important years, the times when the abolitionist movement wrestled with the national conscience, and when Americans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line came to understand that the issue could be settled only through bloodshed. But Berlin, a history professor at the University of Maryland, considers the evolution of slavery, and the changing nature of how slaves were treated. To consider anything less, Berlin writes, is to underestimate the power of the slaves, who fashioned life, culture, and traditions even under the watchful eyes of their masters. Each territory relied on plantation farming, and the demand for a given product dictated how entrenched slavery became in each. They were indeed slaves, but not in the manner most people understand today.