This interpretation of the black experience in the South revealing emphasizes the evolution of slavery over time and the emergence of a rich, hybrid African American culture. From the incisive discussion on the origins of slavery in the Chesapeake colonies, John Boles embarks on an interpretation of a vast body of demographic, anthropological, and comparative scholarship to explore the character of black bondage in the American South. On such diverse issues as black population growth, the strength of the slave family, the efficiency and profitability of slavery, the diet and health care of bondsmen, the maturation of slave culture, the varieties of slave resistance, and the participation of blacks in the Civil War, Black Southerners provides a balanced and judicious treatment.

John B. Boles is professor of History at Rice University and managing editor of the Journal of Southern History. He is the author and editor of several books, including Masters and Slaves in the House of the Lord, The Great Revival, and Religion in Antebellum Kentucky. He edits the series "Religion in the South" for the University Press of Kentucky.

Reviews:

"A splendid example of a schollarly task too seldom undertaken, Black Southerners should be of great value to all students of southern history."-Journal of Southern History

"Boles sidesteps historiographic feuds and posturing, offering instead a concise, clear-eyed view of black life and labor in the American South and of the rise of a diverse, durable black community in the grip of white power."-The Historian

"Expertly traces the evolutionary changes within the peculiar institution and the common historical experience shared by whites and blacks."-Choice

"A clear, balanced, and senstivei synthesis of the vast literature of Anglo-American and Southern history."-Virginia Quarterly Review