Slavery and Freedom:
An Interpretation of the Old South

Study Questions

How did patterns of consumption influence the relationship of slavery to capitalism? How does a slave society reproduce itself in a liberal capitalist world?
How did slave resistance influence American politics? To what extent did slaves instigate their own emancipation?
In what ways did the South's dependence on liberal capitalism and republicanism both support the 'peculiar institution' and at the same time contribute to its demise?
What does Oakes mean by the term "social death"? What did this mean for the black family?
Discuss the role of yeoman farmers in southern society. Consider the processes of physical and social alienation that separated slaveholders and nonslaveholders.
How does Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin support the arguments made by Oakes?
Compare and contrast the portraits of liberal capitalism presented in Slavery and Freedom to that presented in A Shopkeeper's Millenium.

Been Here So Long: Selections from the WPA American Slave Narratives: Seventeen of the 2000+ oral histories collected by WPA workers from former slaves between 1936 and 1938. Read this selection in conjunction with American Slave Narratives, an on-line anthology at the University of Virginia.
Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the Civil War: Primary sources describing life before, during, and after the American Civil War in two communities in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Pay special attention to the section "The Eve of War."
Civil War Women: On-Line Archival Collections: Features "scanned pages and texts of the writings of women during the American Civil War. Currently includes the 1864 diary of Alice Williamson, a 16 year old girl from Gallatin, Tennessee, the papers of Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a renowned Confederate spy, and the papers of Sarah E. Thompson, a spy for the Union."