Life in Black and White
Life in Black and White, is a great book about the Southern society in the antebellum period focussing on the daily life in Loundoun County, Virginia, tracing the lives of all classes and cultures. For years, many historians have argued that most slave families in the American antebellum south were, despite many and certain circumstances upon them, traditional nuclear families. The author, Brenda E. Stevenson, challenged numerous reviews and ideas of the nature of slave families' relations and ways of life. She examines the whole Southern society through the families of all races. In this process the book offers an unprecedented look at the daily lives of different communities such as the slaves, planters, free blacks, and yeoman farmers. Most importantly she gives us the opportunity to see the social and cultural forces which bond them together, even while driving them apart. Stevenson provides a perfect portrait of family and community life in the American South bringing in stories and quotes of planters, slaves, free blacks, and poor whites, in the mid-18th century to the Civil War. These stories give strong evidence on the hardships of life for both blacks and whites. For instance, in chapter 6, The Nature of Lou
According to the Stelmachowicz Book Review, Life in Black and White, receives four stars out of four for its insightful, innovative, and moving stories offering our most detailed portrait of the reality of life in the South. Every single person should read this book whether you are black or white to learn how our ancestors lived and prospered in the 18th century. This book is a compelling survey of Southern society in the daily lives in one Virginia county. It is for all the reasons that I happily submit this recommendation of this book without reservation. "We went to work at sunrise, and quit work between sundown and dark. Some were sold from my master's farm, and many from the neighborhood. If a man did anything out of the way, he was more in danger of being sold than of being whipped. Us slaves were always afraid of being sold South" (Stevenson, 166). In reading this book there were not many instances were Stevenson had a weak argument, but one section comes to mind to be non-important in the evaluation of life in the South. Her underlying assumptions in some areas of the book made her ideas not clear. For instance, Stevenson devotes two chapters to the challenges and regularities of marriage, marital bond, and the conflict between financial success. The following chapters of Gender Convention and Courtship and Marriage for Better or Worse were to lengthy in description. Stevenson fails a couple of times to convince the reader why such issues make these problems unique to the South. It does give an adequate description of family life, but it tends to draw the reader
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Approximate Word count = 1078
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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