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I think this Tuesday’s readings certainly differed from the readings of the previous week on Cherokee women but each provided valuable information on different aspects of slaves’ experience in the Americas. I’m going to begin with Genovese’s chapter Slave Revolts in Hemispheric Perspective because it is easier to tie into last week’s reading. Genovese does a good job highlighting some of the major differences that allowed for large-scale slave revolutions in some areas of the Atlantic and explaining why such revolutions were not as prominent in other areas. While Genovese certainly approached the issue from a Marxist angle, she engaged other societal constructs in a meaningful manner: the shooting ability of white militias in the United States, the population ratios within a given community, and exploring how varying religious beliefs influenced behavior. Situating slave rebellions within the concept of class struggle sets the stage for rebellion, proceeding to use secondary factors as either additive or subtractive elements towards slaves’ tendency towards revolution made it a more complete piece than I expected when I read the phrase “worldwide capitalist production”(1). My only criticism is the thing that ties Genovese’s work to last week’s readings. My issue is that she focuses almost exclusively on the African influences in slave culture and lacks a discourse on contributions from enslaved Native Americans. Moreover, given the importance of women in Cherokee communities and the enslavement of some Cherokee women, her study also fails to engage gender as a contributing factor in rebellion.
Reid’s analysis provided a far more detailed analysis of a specific incident and area that of Genovese, and successfully navigates and explains the complex political framework that dealt with runaway and freed slaves in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Moreover, while Genovese posits revolution as the ultimate form of resistance in slave communities, Reid explores personal struggles and resistances to slavery in the form seeking freedom by fleeing to free territories. However, as Reid clearly articulates the struggle for freedom did not end upon reaching the north or even being freed by one’s master, the struggle was perpetual and later compounded by the decision in Prigg v. Pennsylvania. I think her engagement free African-Americans continued experience with slavery provided a different perspective on the issue of slavery and contributes to a more complete assessment of slavery’s far-reaching effects in United States society prior to the Civil War.