Slavery - Emancipation, Abolition & African American Civil War Participation, Slavery - Social Sciences, Family - Sociocultural Aspects, General & Miscellaneous African American History, Slavery & Abolitionism - African American History, 19th Century Amer

Stolen Childhood

Name: Stolen Childhood
Author: W King
ISBN: 9780253329042

by W King

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Overview

Wilma King sheds light on a long-overlooked aspect of slavery in the United States - the wretched lives of the millions of young people enslaved in the nineteenth-century South. A substantial body of scholarship examines the history of U.S. slavery, but it has not focused on these children and their place in enslaved families and the slave community. Wilma King argues that childhood was stolen from these youngsters - they were forced into the workplace at an early age, subjected to arbitrary plantation authority and punishment, and were separated from family. For this exhaustive study, King draws on a wide range of sources, including government records and many unpublished archival materials. This volume tells the story of these children and youth, adding their experience to the history of slavery in the United States.

This pathbreaking history sheds light on a tragic aspect of slavery--the wretched lives of the millions of children who were forced into the workplace at an early age, subjected to arbitrary plantation authority and punishment, and separated from their families. King draws on a wide range of sources for this exhaustive study, including government records and many unpublished archival materials. Photos.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Marking the milestones and millstones of the youthful years of enslaved blacks' lives on U.S. plantations in the 1800s, King (history, Michigan State Univ.) traces how those born into slavery grew old almost instantly, before their time, suffering atrocities akin to those of war-ravaged populations. She examines family, work, play, religion, punishment, and escape in a pioneering survey to assess our understanding of slavery from the experiences and perspectives of those under 21 years of age. As Deborah Gray White did in Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South (LJ 11/15/85), King has here remapped old and familiar terrain to lay out promising directions for fresh inquiry. Highly recommended for collections on 19th-century U.S. history, children, slavery, and blacks.-Thomas J. Davis, SUNY at Buffalo

Booknews

Sheds light on the millions of young people enslaved in the 19th- century South and their place in enslaved families and the slave community. Follows the slave child's experiences in work, play, education, socialization, resistance to slavery, and the transition to freedom, and details the challenges parents faced trying to reunite families after emancipation. Contains b&w photos. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kathleen Hughes

It is difficult to imagine a more hellish childhood than one spent in slavery, and King's examination of the lives of slave children in the nineteenth century provides detailed documentation of just how bad things were. Using interviews with ex-slaves and other historical documents, King pieces together the slave child's experience. From the difficult plantation work they were expected to do to how they spent their play and leisure time to how they learned to read and write despite being forbidden to do so by plantation owners, King provides a jarring snapshot of children living in bondage. This compellingly written work is a testament to the strength and resilience of the children and their parents, who taught them necessary survival skills, self-respect, and love, despite nightmarish existences.