Suzanna Melendez<\/p>\n
1st<\/sup> Blog Post<\/p>\n 9\/20\/2016<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stephanie M. H. Camp\u2019s recent slave narrative Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women & Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South<\/em> is centered on female resistance to bondage in the antebellum South. Camp argues that compared to male slave resistance, women faced greater obstacles in their quest to be free. Many different studies of slavery have deepened our understanding of bondmen\/women\u2019s experiences and resistance. In spite of our knowledge, the lack of sources is a major hurdle that presents difficulties to scholars researching bondwomen. As a feminist historian, Camp said \u201cThrough spare, documentation come to us consistently from both the upper and lower South in slaveholders\u2019 diaries, journals, and correspondence; in state legislative records; in nineteenth- century autobiographies by ex-slaves; and in twentieth century interviews of the formerly enslaved.\u201d (8) Investigating everyday forms of resistance changed the scholarship of gender history. Despite bondwomen being physically bounded to the slavery regime, it did not demolish their aspiration to be free.<\/p>\n Although the title of the book is Closer to Freedom<\/em> the facts state bondwomen were far from free. Women were confined to their master\u2019s plantation \u201cthe boundaries of power created by fences consolidated white patriarchal authority over both large plantations and self-working yeoman households\u2026.\u201d (5) In addition, Camp goes into great detail talking about passes and tickets which restricted slave movement. Ironically, the piece of paper which allowed male slaves to leave their place of work was practically out of reach for bondwomen. Further details suggested that \u201ca final factor preventing women from running away in the same numbers as men was their lack of knowledge of geography beyond the plantation.\u201d (38) Even though women were unfamiliar with their surroundings that did not prevent them from running away. But most of the women who ran away turned themselves in after a few weeks. Harsh weather elements, lack of food, and clothing prompted runaways to return to their slave holders. \u201cColonial and antebellum slaveholders believed that strict control of the black body, in particular its movement in space and time, was key to the enslavement of black people.\u201d (67) The idea of geography was not only an important element in Camp\u2019s book but also in Pekka H\u00e4m\u00e4l\u00e4inen\u2019s The Comanche Empire. <\/em>Robert Huitrado pin pointed in his blog post that the indigenous empire displayed no clear-cut borders. While France, Spain, Mexico and Euro-America were busy settling borders the Comanche\u2019s utilized their knowledge of the land, violence, and soft power to build an empire centered on economic and political power. Therefore, geography not kept certain people in containment but it also equipped those in a position of power.<\/p>\n Other elements which contributed to freedom being figuratively was the type of violence inflicted onto bondwomen\u2019s bodies if they resisted their everyday duties or ran away. \u201cWhen women broke the rules and moved out of bounds, they risked and received punishments that were more than physically painful and heartbreaking; some were sexually degrading.\u201d(33) Camp does discuss some bondwomen\u2019s resistance to the slave system in the South. The strongest evidence that she included in her narrative were the parties and women\u2019s expressing their personalities in their style. In some instances women prepared their dresses for the nights festivities and drank alcohol with the men. Attending the parties put many women in danger especially, since they did not have a pass. Some diary entries which recorded punishments detailed that \u201c\u2026 women were slightly more consistently punished- by flogging, shackles, ball and chain, or jailed-than men.\u201d (57) Limitations at the time might have prevented bondwomen from being physically liberated but it did not stop them from expressing themselves or attending social gatherings.<\/p>\n Overall, Camp\u2019s narrative was very well written and provides the reader with new insights of black women\u2019s constant struggles of bondage in the South. The text highlighted the contrast between bondsmen\/women\u2019s experiences. Despite their gender, bondwomen endured exhausting physical labor, excruciating physical violence, and sexual assault. Although the book does provide some examples of women\u2019s resistance in the plantation south, they did not physically resist every day. Mentally, bondwomen yearned for freedom but they did not run away or fight back every day. The idea of being hunted down by dogs or getting whipped until their back bled discouraged many runaways. Instead they rebelled through music, clothing and ultimately, built alliances within the Union Army in order to be free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Suzanna Melendez 1st Blog Post 9\/20\/2016 Stephanie M. H. Camp\u2019s recent slave narrative Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women & Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South is centered on female resistance to bondage in the antebellum South. Camp argues that compared to male slave resistance, women faced greater obstacles in their quest to be free. 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