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Dunaway, Wilma A.

The African-American family in slavery and emancipation / Wilma A. Dunaway. - New York : Maison des sciences de l'homme/Cambridge University Press, 2003. - xi, 368 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm. - Studies in modern capitalism .

Includes bibliographical references (p. 323-352) and index.

Slave trading and forced labor migrations
Family diasporas and parenthood lost
Malnutrition, ecological risks, and slave mortality
Reproductive exploitation and child mortality
Slave household subsistence and women's work
The impacts of Civil War on slave families
The risks of emancipation for black families
Reconstruction threats to black family survival
Theoretical reprise


Wilma Dunaway contends that studies of the slave family have been flawed by neglect of small plantations and exaggeration of slave agency. Using population trends and slave narratives, she identifies several profit-maximizing strategies that owners implemented to disrupt and endanger African-American families during the Civil War and Reconstruction.


ISBN: 0521812763 0521012163 (pbk.)

LCCN: 2002071484

Subjects--Topical Terms:
Slavery--Social aspects--History.--United States
African American families--History.
Slaves--Social conditions.--United States
Slaves--Emancipation--United States.
Freedmen--Social conditions.--United States
African Americans--Social conditions.
African American families--History.--Appalachian Region, Southern
Slaves--Social conditions.--Appalachian Region, Southern

Subjects--Geographic Terms:
Appalachian Region, Southern--Race relations.
Appalachian Region, Southern--Social conditions.

LC Class. No.: E443 / .D86 2003

Dewey Class. No.: 306.3620973 / DUN