Freedpeople in the Tobacco South: Virginia, 1860-1900

Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807824607 ISBN 13: 9780807824603

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999

Throughout the colonial and antebellum periods, Virginia's tobacco producers exploited slave labor to ensure the profitability of their agricultural enterprises. In the wake of the Civil War, however, the abolition of slavery, combined with changed market conditions, sparked a breakdown of traditional tobacco culture. Focusing on the transformation of social relations between former slaves and former masters, Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie traces the trajectory of this breakdown from the advent of emancipation to the stirrings of African American migration at the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing upon a rich array of sources, Kerr-Ritchie situates the struggles of newly freed people within the shifting parameters of an older slave world, examines the prolonged agricultural depression and structural transformation the tobacco economy underwent between the 1870s and 1890s, and surveys the effects of these various changes on former masters as well as former slaves. While the number of older freedpeople who owned small parcels of land increased phenomenally during this period, he notes, so too did the number of freedom's younger generation who deserted the region's farms and plantations for Virginia's towns and cities. Both these processes contributed to the gradual transformation of the tobacco region in particular and the state in general.

Review:

A convincing study of the impact of the political economy of tobacco.

"Journal of American History"

"This study uses valuable source materials, good secondary literature, and raises good questions.

"Choice""

"A well-crafted, broadly focused, deeply researched monograph that raises important questions.

"American Historical Review""

"Kerr-Ritchie, in a fashion that is fresh and unfamiliar, tells what might have been an old story in a new setting.

"Times Literary Supplement""

It represents an important and long overdue contribution to the history of a large and significant African-American population.

"Journal of Interdisciplinary History"

This study uses valuable source materials, good secondary literature, and raises good questions.

"Choice"

A well-crafted, broadly focused, deeply researched monograph that raises important questions.

"American Historical Review"

Kerr-Ritchie, in a fashion that is fresh and unfamiliar, tells what might have been an old story in a new setting.

"Times Literary Supplement"

Synopsis:

In the wake of the Civil War, the abolition of slavery and changed market conditions sparked a breakdown of traditional tobacco culture. Focusing on the transformation of social relations between former slaves and former masters, this work traces the trajectory of this breakdown.