Foul Means: The Formation of a Slave Society in Virginia, 1660-1740 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia) - Softcover

Jr., Anthony S. Parent

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807828130 ISBN 13: 9780807828137

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003

Synopsis

A challenge to the belief that the introduction of racial slavery in America was the consequence of a scarce labour market. It contends that during the late-17th and early-18th centuries a small, powerful planter class, to further its own economic interests, brought racial slavery to Virginia.

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Review

"Amazingly, generations of Virginia historians portrayed the colony's descent into race slavery as the emergence of a Golden Age. But Parent's compelling book casts new light on this grim and crucial evolution over three generations, demonstrating it was hardly a benign shift, or even an 'unthinking decision.' Instead, it was a terrible transformation that has thrown its long shadow across the rest of American history. It will take time for the full message to sink in." Amazingly, generations of Virginia historians portrayed the colony's descent into race slavery as the emergence of a Golden Age. But Parent's compelling book casts new light on this grim and crucial evolution over three generations, demonstrating it was hardly a benign shift, or even an 'unthinking decision.' Instead, it was a terrible transformation that has thrown its long shadow across the rest of American history. It will take time for the full message to sink in.(Peter H. Wood, Duke University)

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807828130
• ISBN 13: 9780807828137
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312