The Punished Self: Surviving Slavery in the Colonial South - Hardcover

Bontemps, Alex

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801435218 ISBN 13: 9780801435218

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2001

Synopsis

The Punished Self describes enslavement in the American South during the eighteenth century as a systematic assault on Blacks' sense of self. Alex Bontemps focuses on slavery's effects on the slaves' framework of self-awareness and understanding. Whites wanted Blacks to act out the role "Negro" and Blacks faced a basic dilemma of identity: how to retain an individualized sense of self under the incredible pressure to be Negro? Bontemps addresses this dynamic in The Punished Self.The first part of The Punished Self reveals how patterns of objectification were reinforced by written and visual representations of enslavement. The second examines how captive Africans were forced to accept a new identity and the expectations and behavioral requirements it symbolized. Part 3 defines and illustrates the tensions inherent in slaves' being Negro in order to survive. Bontemps offers fresh interpretations of runaway slave ads and portraits. Such views of black people expressing themselves are missing entirely from other historical sources. This book's revelations include many such original examples of the survival of the individual in the face of enslavement.

About this title

Review:

"The author of The Punished Self has set for himself a daunting task: to try to extract from the available sources how, in a system of brutal repression and control, the enslaved retained a sense of self. . . . This book is a provocative addition to the literature on colonial slavery and the psychological toll the institution levied on the enslaved." Caroline Cox, North Carolina Historical Review, July 2002"

"Bontemps has created an imaginative and challenging work that provides a well-crafted template outlining the dynamic and psychic consequences of the process of enslavement. . . . It appears very likely that the central problem articulated here will be the site of rich future investigations." Sean Condon, H-Net Reviews, February 2002"

"This theoretical study explores how Africans survived the dehumanizing institution of slavery in the British mainland colonies. . . . The questions raised by Bontemps are fundamental ones for scholars to consider." Choice, December 2001"

"Bontemps's analysis is at once insightful and, in the fullest sense of the word, challenging. Believing that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, he painstakingly pieces together the sources of white elites to reveal both what was said in the records and, more importantly, 'what they left unsaid or only superficially acknowledged.' His close analysis and densely argued narrative challenges the dualities of accommodation and resistance, slavery and freedom. Asking new questions of standard sources, Bontemps reveals with insight and imagination the psychological consequences of objectification, and blacks' struggle to maintain a sense of self while adapting to the brutalities and dehumanization of enslavement." Michael A. Morrison, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Fall 2002"

"Alex Bontemps's book is principally concerned with the issue of African invisibility in the colonial South; that is, how Africans and their descendants, so vital to the U.S. South, were purposely confined to the margins of the society's self-projection and representation, and how some responded to their effacement. . . . This book should be read by all with interest in slavery, race, and the South." Michael A. Gomez, American Historical Review, December 2002"

"The Punished Self is the most imaginative work on slavery I've ever read. Alex Bontemps leaps right over the old binaries of resistance/accommodation; African/American; ethnicity/race, and goes straight to the fundamental question: how did these human beings survive slavery? He discovered that the physical and psychic survival of enslaved Africans often depended on their ability to play a"Negro" without becoming one. The Punished Self is a monumental intervention that will force everyone to rethink not only slavery studies but also our understanding of identity." Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo Mama's DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America"

"In many ways and in the best senses, this is a very difficult book. Its startling insights repay an arduous search for colonial sources speaking to the subjectivities of slaves and of masters. Bontemps laboriously reads those largely elite sources against their grain, winnowing out what they reluctantly tell us about slaves as well as masters. Bontemps develops, among much else, a history of what master could not imagine and harrowingly situates slaves in a system based on terror in many forms." David Roediger, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, author of The Wages of Whiteness"

"In this enthralling and extremely impressive book, Alex Bontemps thinks about slavery in a strikingly original and penetrating way. The Punished Self is an important book that will challenge our understanding of Eighteenth Century African-American and American culture." Shane White, University of Sydney"

"Central to the discussion here is the recognition of the capacity of slaves to endure and survive . . . potential and real exploitation and harm. Equally remarkable was their awareness of both their own vulnerability and ultimate durability. Bontemps stresses that the burden of having survived was embedded in the triumph of survival. Much of this provides a fresh and insightful perspective on what has already been gleaned and defined by other historians. What is completely original is the early part of the book's concentration on viewing the slave experience through the gaze of painters and sketch artists." Mary Ellison, Race and Class, Summer 2003 "

"The author of The Punished Self has set for himself a daunting task: to try to extract from the available sources how, in a system of brutal repression and control, the enslaved retained a sense of self. . . . This book is a provocative addition to the literature on colonial slavery and the psychological toll the institution levied on the enslaved."--Caroline Cox, North Carolina Historical Review, July 2002

"Bontemps has created an imaginative and challenging work that provides a well-crafted template outlining the dynamic and psychic consequences of the process of enslavement. . . . It appears very likely that the central problem articulated here will be the site of rich future investigations."--Sean Condon, H-Net Reviews, February 2002

"This theoretical study explores how Africans survived the dehumanizing institution of slavery in the British mainland colonies. . . . The questions raised by Bontemps are fundamental ones for scholars to consider."--Choice, December 2001

"Central to the discussion here is the recognition of the capacity of slaves to endure and survive . . . potential and real exploitation and harm. Equally remarkable was their awareness of both their own vulnerability and ultimate durability. Bontemps stresses that the burden of having survived was embedded in the triumph of survival. Much of this provides a fresh and insightful perspective on what has already been gleaned and defined by other historians. What is completely original is the early part of the book's concentration on viewing the slave experience through the gaze of painters and sketch artists."--Mary Ellison, Race and Class, Summer 2003

"Bontemps's analysis is at once insightful and, in the fullest sense of the word, challenging. Believing that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, he painstakingly pieces together the sources of white elites to reveal both what was said in the records and, more importantly, 'what they left unsaid or only superficially acknowledged.' His close analysis and densely argued narrative challenges the dualities of accommodation and resistance, slavery and freedom. Asking new questions of standard sources, Bontemps reveals with insight and imagination the psychological consequences of objectification, and blacks' struggle to maintain a sense of self while adapting to the brutalities and dehumanization of enslavement."--Michael A. Morrison, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Fall 2002

"Alex Bontemps's book is principally concerned with the issue of African invisibility in the colonial South; that is, how Africans and their descendants, so vital to the U.S. South, were purposely confined to the margins of the society's self-projection and representation, and how some responded to their effacement. . . . This book should be read by all with interest in slavery, race, and the South."--Michael A. Gomez, American Historical Review, December 2002

"The Punished Self is the most imaginative work on slavery I've ever read. Alex Bontemps leaps right over the old binaries of resistance/accommodation; African/American; ethnicity/race, and goes straight to the fundamental question: how did these human beings survive slavery? He discovered that the physical and psychic survival of enslaved Africans often depended on their ability to play a"Negro" without becoming one. The Punished Self is a monumental intervention that will force everyone to rethink not only slavery studies but also our understanding of identity."--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo Mama's DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America

"In many ways and in the best senses, this is a very difficult book. Its startling insights repay an arduous search for colonial sources speaking to the subjectivities of slaves and of masters. Bontemps laboriously reads those largely elite sources against their grain, winnowing out what they reluctantly tell us about slaves as well as masters. Bontemps develops, among much else, a history of what master could not imagine and harrowingly situates slaves in a system based on terror in many forms."--David Roediger, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, author of The Wages of Whiteness

"In this enthralling and extremely impressive book, Alex Bontemps thinks about slavery in a strikingly original and penetrating way. The Punished Self is an important book that will challenge our understanding of Eighteenth Century African-American and American culture."--Shane White, University of Sydney

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0801435218
• ISBN 13: 9780801435218
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240