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Generations of Captivity:

A History of African-American Slaves
Front Cover
14 Reviews
Harvard University Press, 2003 - History - 374 pages

Ira Berlin traces the history of African-American slavery in the United States from its beginnings in the seventeenth century to its fiery 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 dynamic vision, 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, told by a master historian, provides a rich understanding of the experience of African-American slaves, an experience that continues to mobilize American thought and passions today.

  

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Review: Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves

User Review  - Sarah Fournier - Goodreads

I didn't read the entire book, I was using it for research and read the chapters on the Charter Generation and Plantation Generation. The book is written well, I like how the author broke down the ... Read full review

Review: Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves

User Review  - Sean Chick - Goodreads

Good book for illustrating the changes in American slavery, but it also tends to ramble and Berlin fails to make a strong case for slaves have any power in this relationship. I'm sure they obstructed ... Read full review

All 13 reviews »

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Contents

I
1
II
21
III
51
IV
97
V
159
VI
245
VII
278
VIII
282
IX
353
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Generations of captivity: a history of African-American slaves
Generations of captivity: a history of African-American slaves
Ira Berlin
Snippet view - 2003

Common terms and phrases

African descent African-American American American Revolution Antebellum Atlantic creoles became black northerners Black Society Born to Run Charles Town charter Chesapeake Christianity church cotton countryside cultural decade East Florida economy eighteenth century emancipation enslaved estates European expanded Florida former slaves free black population free blacks free colored freedpeople fugitive Georgia grew hired History independence Kulikoff land lives Louisiana lowcountry lower Mississippi Valley Lower South mainland North America manumission master and slave migration militia Morgan Negro Netherland newly arrived nineteenth century Orleans owners plantation revolution plantation slaves planter class planters ports production regime region revolutionary rice runaways Saint Domingue seaboard Second Middle Passage slave population slave society slave trade slaveholders slaveowners Slavery and Freedom slavery's slaves and free social societies with slaves South Carolina southern interior Spanish Florida Stono Rebellion sugar tion tobacco took transformed Upper South urban Virginia West women York

Popular passages

Page 349 - David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (London: Verso, 1991); Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White...‎
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References from web pages

Bahá’í Thought: Generations of Captivity
One of the amazing books that I read was by Ira Berlin called Generations of Captivity: A History of African American Slaves. Berlin chose to approach this ...
www.bahaithought.com/ 2008/ 01/ generations-of-captivity.html

Patrick G. Wheaton - Generations of Captivity: A History of ...
Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves. By Ira Berlin. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003; pp x + 374. ...
muse.jhu.edu/ journals/ rhetoric_and_public_affairs/ v009/ 9.3wheaton.html

Generations of Captivity : A History of African-American Slaves
Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves A Book Launch with author Ira Berlin Ira Berlin, Distinguished University Professor, ...
www.wilsoncenter.org/ index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary& event_id=32372

Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves ...
Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves. By IRA BERLIN (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard up, 2003; pp. 374. np). ...
ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ cgi/ content/ full/ CXXII/ 495/ 207

bibliovault - Generations of captivity: a history of African ...
Ira Berlin, in his Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves, shows that the Northern states, despite having gradually emancipated ...
www.bibliovault.org/ BV.book.epl?BookId=6620

Generations of Captivity
The arrival of tens of thousands of slaves in the late 17th century and early 18th century. redefined the meaning of race, heightened the level of violence ...
www.nathanielturner.com/ generationsofcaptivity.htm

Generations of Captivity -- A History of African-American Slaves ...
Search for. Author/Title, Keyword, Title, Author, Publisher, ISBN, Featured Books. in. All Scholarly Subjects, Scholarly & General Subjects ...
www.frontlist.com/ detail/ 0674016246

Kliatt: Berlin, Ira. Generations of captivity; a history of ...
Generations of captivity; a history of African-American slaves. Harvard Univ. Press. 374p. illus. notes. index. c2003. 0-674-01624-6. $16.95. SA * ...
findarticles.com/ p/ articles/ mi_m0PBX/ is_1_39/ ai_n8698524/ print

SMC Department of History - Ouellette: HI 332 (Spring 2007)
Syllabus History 332. Spring 2007. Meeting: W 2:30-5:30. Course Title: History of the American Family. Lecturer: Dr. Susan Ouellette. Library 309 ...
academics.smcvt.edu/ history/ ouellette332.htm

History News Network
Interview with Ira Berlin About His Book, Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves. From the website of the University of Maryland ...
hnn.us/ roundup/ entries/ 7508.html

About the author (2003)

Ira Berlin is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Generations of Captivity
TitleGenerations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves
AuthorIra Berlin
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherHarvard University Press, 2003
ISBN0674020839, 9780674020832
Length374 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / United States / General
Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
Social Science / Slavery
  
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