Money over Mastery, Family over Freedom: Slavery in the Antebellum Upper South

Money over Mastery, Family over Freedom: Slavery in the Antebellum Upper South · Calvin Schermerhorn · Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011 · viii, 286 pp. * $60.00 cloth; $30.00 paper

Originally a dissertation at the University of Virginia, Calvin Schermerhorns Money over Mastery, Family over Freedom examines slavery in the Chesapeake and coastal Upper South. Set against the backdrop of the burgeoning interstate slave trade that conveyed slaves to the cotton frontier, it explores the varied strategies slaves pursued to preserve their families and escape the horrors of sale and forced migration. Central to their efforts was the ability to network. Through connections forged at work, in church, and in the market, slaves cultivated ties and allied themselves with whites as well as other blacks to make arrangements designed to keep their families intact. The skillful use of these networks helped some slaves achieve victory over the...