From Calabar to Carter's Grove
Subtitle: the history of a Virginia slave community
By: Lorena S. Walsh.
Series: Colonial Williamsburg studies in Chesapeake history and culture
Publisher: University Press of Virginia
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Charlottesville, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 335
Subjects: Slaves -- Virginia -- Carter's Grove -- Social life and customs; Slaves -- Virginia -- Carter's Grove -- History -- 18th century; Slaves -- Virginia -- Carter's Grove -- History -- 17th century; Plantation life -- Virginia -- Williamsburg Region -- History -- 18th century; Plantation life -- Virginia -- Williamsburg Region -- History -- 17th century; Carter's Grove (Va.) -- Social life and customs
Description: In From Calabar to Carter's Grove, Lorena S. Walsh has done what conventional wisdom has deemed nearly impossible: she has assembled a substantial history of a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Virginia slave community.

Walsh's analysis of existing plantation records, artifacts, and ruins has generated a clear and frequently detailed picture of these slaves, including lists of popular forenames and accounts of illnesses, childbirths, and escape attempts.

However, as the author is first to admit, this book does not - and, based on the available evidence, cannot - offer portraits of individual slaves; it is instead a collective portrait of the group, offering details of their African origins, slave histories, and daily hardships.

Enhanced with maps, drawings, and photographs, From Calabar to Carter's Grove is an innovative study that paves the way for similar research on other slave communities. This volume will be invaluable not only to historians but to those with an interest in antebellum or African-American history.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-322) and index.