For Adam's Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England
There are numerous scholarly studies of social relations and family life in colonial New England, but, unfortunately, few of them examine the institution of chattel slavery and how it influenced the families of both slaves and master. Di Bonaventura has adapted her doctoral dissertation on the topic to provide an engrossing, if somewhat slow-moving, study of two Connecticut families in the eighteenth century. Much of her account relies on the extensive diary of Joshua Hempstead, a successful farmer from New London and the owner of the slave Adam Jackson. But di Bonaventura utilizes other primary sources to fill in gaps about Jackson and his family. The relations between master and slave are complex. At times, Adam and his family seem to be virtually part of the larger Hempstead family, and the burden of enslavement appears light. Yet di Bonaventura provides often brutally disturbing examples that remind us that slavery is a condition of subjugation to the whims of the more powerful. This is an important examination of an often-neglected aspect of our colonial heritage. --Jay Freeman