The Slave Community is a book written by historian John W. Blassingame.
Published in 1972, it is one of the first historiographies of slavery
in the United States to be presented from the perspective of the
enslaved. The Slave Community is a revisionist study challenging
previous scholarship that suggests African American slaves were docile
and submissive "Sambos" who enjoyed the benefits of a paternalistic
master-slave relationship on southern plantations. Using psychology,
Blassingame analyzes fugitive slave narratives published in the 19th
century to conclude that an independent culture developed among the
enslaved and that there were a variety of personality types exhibited
by slaves other than the Sambo. Although the importance of The Slave
Community was recognized by scholars of American slavery, Blassingame's
conclusions, methodology, and sources were heavily criticized.
Historians critiqued the use of slave narratives that were seen as
unreliable and biased. They questioned Blassingame's decision to
exclude the more than 2,000 interviews with former slaves conducted by
the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s. Historians argued
that Blassingame's use of psychological theory proved unhelpful in his
interpretation. Blassingame defended his conclusions at a 1976 meeting
of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History and
in 1979 published a revised and enlarged edition of The Slave
Community. Despite criticisms, The Slave Community is a foundational
text in the study of the life and culture of slaves in the antebellum
South.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slave_Community>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1535:
French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed along the St. Lawrence River and
reached the Iroquois fortified village Hochelaga on the island now
known as Montreal.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cartier>
1835:
Mexican dragoons dispatched to disarm settlers at Gonzales, Texas
encountered stiff resistance from a Texian militia in the Battle of
Gonzales, the first armed engagement of the Texas Revolution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gonzales>
1928:
Saint Josemaría Escrivá founded Opus Dei, a worldwide organization of
lay members of the Roman Catholic Church.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei>
1941:
World War II: Nazi German forces began Operation Typhoon, an all-out
offensive against Moscow, starting the three-month long Battle of
Moscow.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moscow>
1967:
Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American Justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurgood_Marshall>
1992:
In response to a prison riot, military police stormed the Carandiru
Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil, killing at least 100 prisoners.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carandiru_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
heterographic (adj):
1. Misspelled; of or pertaining to an incorrect spelling or a spelling
that differs from accepted standards.
2. (linguistics) Of a writing system in which a particular symbol
represents more than one possible sound
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heterographic>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am one of you and being one of you
Is being and knowing what I am and know.
Yet I am the necessary angel
of earth,
Since, in my sight, you see the earth again,
Cleared of its stiff and
stubborn, man-locked set
And, in my hearing, you hear its tragic drone
Rise liquidly in liquid
lingerings,
Like watery words awash; like meanings said
By repetitions of
half-meanings.
--Wallace Stevens
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wallace_Stevens>