Book contents
- Old Age and American Slavery
- Cambridge Studies on the American South
- Old Age and American Slavery
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Enslaved
- Part II Enslavers
- 7 “Old God damn son-of-a-bitch, she gone on down to hell”
- 8 “They are getting too old and weak”
- 9 “Something must be done with the old man”
- 10 “Let our women and old men … be disabused of the false and unfounded notion that slavery is sinful”
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusion
from Part II - Enslavers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2023
- Old Age and American Slavery
- Cambridge Studies on the American South
- Old Age and American Slavery
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Enslaved
- Part II Enslavers
- 7 “Old God damn son-of-a-bitch, she gone on down to hell”
- 8 “They are getting too old and weak”
- 9 “Something must be done with the old man”
- 10 “Let our women and old men … be disabused of the false and unfounded notion that slavery is sinful”
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Old Age and American Slavery reveals how antebellum southerners adapted to, resisted, and failed to overcome changes associated with age, both real and imagined, and the extent to which these struggles intersected with wider concerns over control, exploitation, resistance, and survival in a slave society. In doing so, it asks future scholars to rethink static hierarchies among Black and white southerners, to incorporate age into their work as a category of analysis and as a relation of power, and to address the contingent and contested networks of solidarity and support among enslavers and enslaved in the American South. Age shaped slavery, both as a system of economic exploitation and a contested site of personal domination, in crucial ways. Albeit never on equal terms, both Black and white southerners had to grapple with the realization that “old age [was] creeping up on me so fast,” and their efforts to do so were entwined in the wider struggles within and against slavery. The ravages of time came for all, and the conclusion reiterates how recognition of this fact shaped the dynamics of American slavery, and the lives of enslaved people and enslavers alike.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Old Age and American Slavery , pp. 346 - 352Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023