Sign-In
Cart
Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa
Hardcover
Series: Reconsiderations in Southern African History
African HistoryGeneral Racism & Ethnic Studies
ISBN13: 9780813921785
Publisher: Univ Of Virginia Pr
Published: Jun 29 2003
Pages: 334
Weight: 1.42
Height: 1.11 Width: 6.32 Depth: 9.50
Language: English
What was it like to be a slave in colonial South Africa? What difference did freedom make?
The questions themselves are simply put, but John Edwin Mason has found complex answers after delving deeply into the slaves' experience within the slaveholding patriarchal household, the work that slaves performed, the families they created, and the religions they practiced. Grounding his analysis within the context of South Africa's incorporation into the British Empire--primarily examining the period of 1820-50--Mason investigates a wealth of documentation from the British Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Colonial officials, particularly the slave protectors, created and preserved a rich archive within which the voices of slaves and slaveholders, free blacks, and poor whites are recorded, and from which Mason presents vividly descriptive and telling accounts of slave life.
In Social Death and Resurrection Mason draws upon Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson's theory that a slave's social degradation rendered him socially dead. Social death defined slavery in the ideal, slavery as it would have been had the slaves played along. But in colonial South Africa slaves did not play along: they fought the lash and resisted domination, retaining a cultural and moral community of their own. Mason investigates the subsequent resurrection of slaves following their successful struggle to preserve family, faith, community ties, and human dignity, despite their class domination and racial subjugation by slaveowners.
Although slavery officially came to an end with a series of reforms during a mid-nineteenth-century period of modernization and reform, the British colonial state's commitment to formal equality was in fact compatible with continued class domination. As a result, slaves did not entirely cease to be slaves, but through their own efforts and some governmental assistance, they achieved at least a partial victory over slavery's violence, marginalization, and degradation.
Reconsiderations in Southern African History
Also in
African History
Mountain Farmers: Moral Economies of Land & Agricultural Development in Arusha & Meru
Spear, Thomas
Paperback
Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland
Kahn, Ashley
Hardcover
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
Hochschild, Adam
Paperback
We Are Heirs of the World's Revolutions: Speeches from the Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87
Sankara, Thomas
Paperback
Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War
French, Howard W.
Paperback
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World
Lagnado, Lucette
Paperback
The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide
French, Howard W.
Hardcover
Slow Poison: IDI Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State
Mamdani, Mahmood
Hardcover
A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Woman Confronts the Legacy of Apartheid
Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla
Paperback
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
Millard, Candice
Paperback
The Golden Trade of the Moors: West African Kingdoms in the Fourteenth Century
Bovill, Edward W.
Bovill, E. W.
Paperback
Seeking Sexual Freedom: African Rites, Rituals, and Sankofa in the Bedroom
Sekyiamah, Nana Darkoa
Hardcover
When The World Was Black, Part One: The Untold History of the World's First Civilizations Prehistoric Culture
Understanding, Supreme
Hardcover
Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith After Genocide in Rwanda
Wilson-Hartgrove, Jonathan
Katongole, Emmanuel M.
Paperback
Mdw Dtr: Divine Speech: A Historiographical Reflection of African Deep Thought from the Time of the Pharaohs to the Present Paperback
Carruthers, Jacob H.
Paperback
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill
Millard, Candice
Paperback
Another Man's War: The True Story of One Man's Battle to Save Children in the Sudan
Childers, Sam
Paperback
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
Gourevitch, Philip
Paperback
Ancient African Empires: An Enthralling Guide to the Major Kingdoms and Civilizations of Africa
Wellman, Billy
Hardcover
Jews Under Moroccan Skies: Two Thousand Years of Jewish Life
Ricketts, George
Elmaleh, Rapha'el
Paperback
Politically Unconscious: The Psychic Aftermath of the Sudanese Revolution
Khougali, Mohamed
Paperback
The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave by Kofi Ghanaba and Oyafunmike Ogunlano
Lynch, Willie
Paperback
Cuba and the Independence War in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde: The Fall of the Last Colonial Empire in Africa
Dreke, Victor
Paperback
The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination
Reid, Stuart A.
Paperback
Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youths Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
Mathabane, Mark
Paperback
Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People
Evans-Pritchard, E. E.
Hardcover
Hidden Treasures of the Ethiopian Bible in English Complete: Uncovering the Secrets of the Deuterocanonical Apocrypha, Enoch, and Lost Writings
Thornfield, Alexander J.
Paperback
Algiers, Third World Capital: Freedom Fighters, Revolutionaries, Black Panthers
Mokhtefi, Elaine
Paperback
Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa
Krog, Antjie
Paperback
Three Sips of Gin: Dominating the Battlespace with Rhodesia's Famed Selous Scouts
Bax, Timothy
Paperback
Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers
Witton, Edward
Paperback
Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War
French, Howard W.
Hardcover
Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist International, Africa, and the Diaspora, 1919-1939
Adi, Hakim
Paperback
By Flesh and Toil: How Sex, Race, and Labor Shaped the Early French Empire
Lamotte, Mélanie
Hardcover
Kindezi: The Kongo Art of Babysitting
Fu-Kiau, Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki
Lukondo-Wamba, A. M.
Paperback
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa
Stearns, Jason K.
Paperback
World History: A Visual Journey From The Dawn Of Civilization To The 21st Century
Alive, History Brought
Paperback
A School for My Village: A Promise to the Orphans of Nyaka
Kaguri, Twesigye Jackson
Linville, Susan Urbanek
Paperback
They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan
Ajak, Benjamin
Deng, Alephonsion
Deng, Benson
Paperback
In the Company of Heroes: The Personal Story Behind Black Hawk Down
Hartov, Steven
Durant, Michael J.
Paperback
African Saints Saints, Martyrs, and Holy People from the Continent of Africa
Quinn, Frederick
Paperback
This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson
Paperback
Operation Legacy and Other Stories: Graphic Histories from Africa
Diptée, Audra A.
Getz, Trevor R.
Paperback
World History, Volume 2: from 1400 (paperback, b&w)
Kordas, Ann
Lynch, Ryan J.
Nelson, Brooke
Paperback
When The World Was Black, Part One: The Untold History of the World's First Civilizations Prehistoric Culture
Understanding, Supreme
Paperback
When the World was Black Part Two: The Untold History of the World's First Civilizations Ancient Civilizations
Understanding, Supreme
Paperback
People in Motion: Flexible States and Porous Boundaries in the History of Coastal West Africa
Barnes, Sandra T.
Hardcover
Ripples from the Zambezi: Passion, Entrepreneurship, and the Rebirth of Local Economies
Sirolli, Ernesto
Paperback
The Kingdom of God in Africa: A History of African Christianity
Gitau, Wanjiru M.
Shaw, Mark
Paperback
The Kebra Nagast: King Solomon, The Queen of Sheba & Her Only Son Menyelek - Ethiopian Legends and Bible Folklore
Budge, E. a. Wallis
Paperback
African History: Explore The Amazing Timeline of The World's Richest Continent - The History, Culture, Folklore, Mythology & More of Africa
Brought Alive, History
Paperback
Nineveh and Its Remains: With an account of a visit to the Chaldæan Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or devil-worshippers; and an enqu
Layard, Austen Henry
Paperback
The Heretic of Cacheu: Crispina Peres and the Struggle Over Life in Seventeenth-Century West Africa
Green, Toby
Hardcover
When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda
Mamdani, Mahmood
Paperback
Mythology: Captivating Greek, Egyptian, Norse Celtic and Roman Myths of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, and Monsters
Clayton, Matt
Hardcover
Lessons From the Rhodesian Bush War: A Study in Survival, Rural Defense, and Collapse
Shift, Don
Paperback
When the World Was Black Part Two: The Untold History of the World's First Civilizations - Ancient Civilizations
Understanding, Supreme
Hardcover
The Hatata Inquiries: Two Texts of Seventeenth-Century African Philosophy from Ethiopia about Reason, the Creator, and Our Ethical Responsibilities
Yaqob, Zara
Heywat, Walda
Paperback
Red Rubber: King Leopold II's Regime; the Belgian Slave Trade in the Congo over Twenty Years, 1890-1910
Morel, Edmund Dene
Paperback
Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History
Lewis, Jori
Paperback