Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World: Amazon.co.uk: David Brion Davis: Books

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A masterly overview of what scholars in the field have achieved over the past fifty years. (Howard Temperley, Times Literary Supplement )

The publication...could not be more welcome....genius...a tour de force. (Ira Berlin, New York Times Book Review )

Inhuman Bondage provides a masterly overview of what scholars in the field have achieved over the past fifty years. (Howard Temperley, TLS )

Ira Berlin, New York Times Book Review

"The publication...could not be more welcome....genius...a tour de force."

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

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IN 1770, on the eve of the American Revolution, African American slavery was legal and almost unquestioned throughout the New World. Read the first page

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New World Slavery, 24 Jun 2010

By

S Wood (Scotland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (Paperback)

Describing the rise and fall of slavery in the New World in a mere 320 pages is a demanding project for a historian, and one that David Brion Davis largely (with a few caveats) accomplishes with no small amount of skill in his book "Inhuman Bondage".

The books begins with the Amistad case from the late 1830's which is somewhat at odds with the Spielberg version, though far more interesting and revealing for being so. Davis then makes room to contemplate the roots of slavery in the Near East, the Greek and Roman Empires, and on through history until it erupted into the New World with the "discoveries" of the late fifteenth century. This, for me, was the highlight of the book, and also includes reflections on the interaction between slavery and racism (and the accompanying arguments between cause and effect) as well as examining the Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Ancient World and Enlightenment views of race and slavery.

As regards the main subject of the book, slavery in the New World, Davis focuses on the North American experience, followed by that of the Caribbean, with Brazilian slavery in the rear. Spanish slavery, except in so far as it applied to the Caribbean, is largely absent. Other subjects that receive attention are Slave revolts in the various colonies, the role of the Haitian revolt in the demise of Slavery, British and other European emancipation, the debates about the role slavery played in the industrial revolution, the American Civil War and emancipation, as well as the astonishing case of the Brazilian slave revolt that brought about emancipation in that country, the last in the Western hemisphere to do so. Paradoxically the actual day-to-day realities of the slaves and slavery remain relatively untouched by the text.

I didn't agree with all of Davis's analysis, but to his credit he makes the reader aware of other historical views even if his dismissal of the connections between slavery and industrialisation is more than a little heavy handed. The book only truly irked with regard to Davis's opinion on the Turner rebellion; his remark that the massacres of whites was brutal and counterproductive is reasonable, but to then go on an claim that this was little different psychologically from the mental state that leads to the genocide of Jews, is to put it politely, a grotesque overstatement. For a start the Nazis were not treated by the Jewish people in the way that White Americans treated Black slaves. If Davis himself applied this assertion systematically his account of the Haitian revolt would have been very different, and less enlightening for that. He certainly doesn't apply it to the putting down of Slave revolts, including those in the British Caribbean where hundreds of blacks died, many cold bloodedly executed in response to wide spread insurrections that resulted in less than a handful of white deaths.

In short, "Inhuman Bondage" is a thoroughly interesting exploration of New World slavery. As a book its fascinating and enlightened scholarship easily out-weigh its occasional defects. The accounts of the roots of slavery in the old world are easily, and somewhat perversely given the books title, the highlight of the book. Readers interested in reading further into the subject can do no worse than Robin Blackburn's dense but comprehensive The Making of New World Slavery; for the Haitian revolt C.L.R. James The Black Jacobins is still a remarkable account; those interested in the experience of the North American mainland will find that Peter Kolchin's American Slavery (1619-1877) will supply the details that are largely absent from Davis's account, and Eric Foner's Reconstruction is an immensely detailed account of the post-emancipation experience of American blacks.

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Amazon.com: 4.8 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful and essential, 29 April 2006

By David Von Drehle - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (Hardcover)

This brilliant book is the best one-volume account of New World slavery I have seen, or could imagine. Davis has done something rare here. Having mastered this history over a lifetime of distinguished scholarship, he has now distilled his knowledge for a general audience. Too often, the experts won't, or can't, "popularize," and the popularizers are not expert. Davis is a gifted writer--some of the prose in this book is breathtaking--and an unusually lucid thinker. And so he was able to get his vast knowledge into a tight frame.

An earlier reviewer, while acknowledging how "glorious" this book is, complained of digressions. But where that reader saw detours, I found electrifying connections and illuminating comparisons. To survey history is to digress, because there is always more than one thing going on at a time, always more than one current steering events.

Slavery is not a pleasant subject, but it is as important to American history as any subject could be. Here we have the book that allows every sincere reader to acquire a broad understanding of this sordid, crucial story.

I rarely pay much attention to blurbs on the back of a book. But the testimonial to this book by Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson bears repeating, because it is exactly right. This is a "gracefully fashioned masterpiece ... simply indispensable ... the glorious culmination of the definitive series of studies on slavery by one of America's greatest living historians."

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT YOU NEVER LEARNED IN SCHOOL IN THE SOUTH, 8 May 2007

By R. Vincent - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (Hardcover)

If you are over 60 and did not self-educate on slavery,you need to read this book. Believe me, slavery was a barely mentioned topic in elementary school through college. I know this is true for Blacks in the South and probably is true for other races as well.

This book is a must read for those non-academics who want to have a better understanding of slavery in America and the Americas. The sexual exploitation and psychological impact of slavery is generally known. This book, however, allows one to get the full picture of slavery from a global, economic and political perspective. There is nothing better for a painful subject like this than finding a reliable (well documented) and easy to read source by a respected author.

A great gift for your friends, no matter what race!

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read and Enjoy, 12 Jun 2006

By V. Cuffel - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (Hardcover)

This is an altogether splendid book. It is skillfully written such that it is difficult to put down; the notes are voluminous, the maps helpful, the range of information brought together and organized successfully impressive, the opinions of the author clearly expressed, and acknowledgement and credit to other historians generous. Despite this, one does wonder for whom the book was written, surely not the hypothetical general reader. Much more information than the lawyerly standard of what everyone knows is frequently called for. To give just one example, on pp. 265-66, a free black is shown worrying about the effects on him of the Fugitive Slave Law. One drops immediately to how Anthony Burns was hauled through the streets of Boston on his way to Virginia. Is one to infer that Burns was a free black erroneously seized or an escaped slave? And although Davis details how important the religious motivation was in abolitionist thought, nowhere was there any explanation of how this Biblically based thinking, which at this time was largely literal, coped with or was able to get around the clear Biblical acceptance of slavery. And one could wish, particularly in view of their extent and comprehension of various aspects of the subject, that the citations in the notes had been compiled into a bibliography. Nevertheless, I would recommend to anyone who is at all interested in slavery, the Civil War, racism, and a host of associated topics, that they do themselves a favour and read Inhuman Bondage.

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