… Schermerhorn’s focus is refreshing, as he brings the experiences of enslaved Americans to the forefront, rather than addressing slavery from the realm of white slaveholders.

Moving chronologically, the book addresses the major issues that faced enslaved African Americans, such as personal, day-to-day experiences with family, labor, and sexual exploitation, as well as efforts to secure freedom by running away, challenging slavery in the courts, and planning and staging rebellions. 'Schermerhorn provides an overview of slavery in the US from the Revolutionary era until the end of Reconstruction in the late 1870s. Manisha Sinha, author of The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition A highly usable book in courses on slavery and nineteenth-century American history.' 'A distinguished historian of slavery and the slave trade, Calvin Schermerhorn's new synthesis on the history of slavery combines the latest historical literature in the field with his own considerable research adeptly. He explores the personal narratives of enslaved people and develops themes such as politics, economics, labor, literature, rebellion, and social conditions. In chapters organized chronologically, Schermerhorn argues that American economic development relied upon African Americans' social reproduction while simultaneously destroying their intergenerational cultural continuity. Calvin Schermerhorn charts changes in the family lives of enslaved Americans, exploring the broader processes of nation-building in the United States, growth and intensification of national and international markets, the institutionalization of chattel slavery, and the growing relevance of race in the politics and society of the republic. Written as a narrative history of slavery within the United States, Unrequited Toil details how an institution that seemed to be disappearing at the end of the American Revolution rose to become the most contested and valuable economic interest in the nation by 1850. Description Product filter button Description

Unrequited Toil by Calvin Schermerhorn