Weathering different storms : regional agriculture and slave families in the non-cotton South, 1800-1860
Pargas, D.A.
Citation
Pargas, D. A. (2009, March 12). Weathering different storms : regional agriculture and slave families in the non-cotton South, 1800-1860. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/13609
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License: Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden
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Regional Agriculture and Slave Families in the Non-Cotton South, 1800-1860
Proefschrift
ter verkrijging van
de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden,
op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties
te verdedigen op donderdag 12 maart 2009 klokke 15.00 uur
door
Damian Alan Pargas
geboren te Alexandria, Virginia, USA in 1978
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Promotiecommissie
Promotor: Prof. dr. P.C. Emmer Copromotor: Dr. G.C. Quispel
Referent: Prof. dr. S. Engerman (University of Rochester) Overige leden: Prof. dr. A. Fairclough
Prof. dr. L.A.C.J. Lucassen Dr. E.F. van der Bilt
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 5
Part I
RETHINKING THE EXPERIENCES OF SLAVE FAMILIES
Introduction
Agency, Diversity, and Slave Families 11
Chapter One
Three Slave Societies of the Non-Cotton South 25
Part II
THE BALANCING ACT: WORK AND FAMILIES
Chapter Two
The Nature of Agricultural Labor 59
Chapter Three
Family Contact during Working Hours 89
Chapter Four
Family-Based Internal Economies 115
Part III
SOCIAL LANDSCAPES: FAMILY STRUCTURE AND STABILITY
Chapter Five
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Slaveholding Across Time and Space 147
Chapter Six
Marriage Strategies and Family Formation 177
Chapter Seven
Forced Separation 209
Part IV
CONCLUSIONS
Chapter Eight
Weathering Different Storms 247
Notes 251
Bibliography 307
Summary 327
Samenvatting 333
Curriculum vitae 341
Acknowledgements
Researching and writing this book took me, all told, about five years. Along the way—as I developed a vague idea about American slave families and turned it into a master’s thesis, then expanded it into a dissertation—I was fortunate enough to have ample support from family, professors, colleagues, friends and institutions. Without their help this dissertation would never have gotten off the ground and as an idea would have probably remained little more than a hunch.
I extend my thanks first and foremost to my family members in all three geographic clusters of the Atlantic world. My family in the United States—Fernando, Denise, Gabriel, Alexandra, Charlie and Elizabeth (Nanny)—provided me with invaluable advice, encouragement, and luxurious accommodation during my research trips to northern Virginia and Washington. My parents also provided me with financial assistance for my research at the master’s level. My family in Uruguay—Héctor and Ester (Tata & Abuelita), Diana, Mariana, Daniela, Néstor, Ana and little Lucia—has always been a lasting source of emotional support and generously provided me with a sunny and beautiful destination for several much-needed vacations. Finally, my family in the Netherlands—Peter, Janny, Maya and Marloes—provided me with encouragement and literally hundreds of free meals (i.e., brain food), without which I would have been unfit to perform my duties.
During my undergraduate and graduate studies at Leiden University two professors in particular believed in me and in my ideas long before I did, and therefore share disproportionate
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credit for this dissertation, namely Chris Quispel and Piet Emmer. Both offered invaluable advice and both guided me through the treacherous waters of academia during the past few years. For their support and wisdom I am infinitely grateful. My other colleagues at Leiden University also provided me with feedback, advice, coffee, and every now and again a free lunch, especially:
Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, Chris Nierstrasz, Jessica Roitman, Catia Antunes, Hans Wilbrink, Jorrit van den Berk, Andreas Weber, Alicia Schrikker, Job Weststrate, Marijke Wissen-van Standen, Leonard Blussé, Henk Kern, Joost Augusteijn, Leo Lucassen, Peter Meel, Gert Oostindie, Ed van der Bilt, and Adam Fairclough. There are many others, too numerous to mention here, who also deserve my sincere thanks. My colleagues at Itinerario—Frans-Paul van der Putten, Alicia Schrikker, Annelieke Dirks, Gijs Kruijtzer, and Lincoln Paine—provided me with invaluable editing experience and a welcome diversion from writing. I extend my warm thanks across the ocean to Professor Stanley Engerman at the University of Rochester for his advice and cooperation. Finally, my friends Alexander Hoorn and Johan Kwantes forced me on numerous occasions to get out of the office and relax for the sake of my own sanity.
Several institutions provided me with financial assistance as well as helpful feedback on this manuscript, none more so than Leiden University, which funded most of my research trips to the United States, paid me a generous salary, and provided me with a pleasant workplace. The Leids Universitair Fonds (LUF) financed my research trip to Louisiana in the summer of 2006.
The N.W. Posthumus Institute for Social and Economic History provided me with an excellent opportunity to present my research at various stages and offered me constructive criticism, most of which I have applied to the obvious improvement of this manuscript. Special thanks to Ben Gales for his advice and help. The Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin also provided me with a luxurious forum at which to present my research in the winter of 2006 and offered constructive criticism. The numerous institutions which I visited in the United States provided me with pleasant workplaces away from home, and their librarians and assistants were usually quite helpful and accommodating. Especially the staff at the Library of Congress and National Archives in Washington, and at Louisiana State University’s Hill Memorial Library, were particularly friendly and well-informed, and deserve special mention here. Finally, the editors and peer reviewers at Journal of Family History and American Nineteenth Century History provided me with excellent comments and tips, and a platform to present earlier versions of some of the chapters in this book.
Most of all, however, I thank my loving wife, Tamara, who has been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me during these past nine years, who accompanied me during
several research trips, who edited portions of this manuscript, and to whom I dedicate the finished product.
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