Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T20:32:21.674Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - Caste and Class in the Antebellum Slave Narrative

from Part I - Origins and Histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2021

Joycelyn Moody
Affiliation:
University of Texas, San Antonio
Get access

Summary

The majority of slave narratives published between 1840 and 1865 were produced by persons who came from what might be termed the elite slave minority, that is, from skilled workers, domestic workers, and headmen. Men and women from the relatively higher echelons of slavery contributed double the number of texts to the mid-century slave narrative than were produced by former field laborers, those who spent most of their working life in slavery doing the most grueling and punishing agricultural labor. In this chapter, class refers mainly to two kinds of differences observable in antebellum slave narratives: differences based on access to and/or control of material resources, such as money, property, and compensation for labor; and differences based on access to or control of social power and prestige based on factors such as occupation, wage earning, family status, and literacy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×