Innovative and exciting, My Brother Slaves makes a valuable contribution to the fields of gender and slavery and new studies of 'masculinity' and its meanings in the antebellum South.
~Emily West, author of Family or Freedom: People of Color in the Antebellum South
This is an engaging and insightful addition to the growing literature on enslaved masculinity. Lussana shows that gender was just as important for enslaved men as for enslaved women and this deeply-researched book will become required reading for anyone interested in slavery in the South.
~Timothy Lockley, author of Lines in the Sand: Race and Class in Lowcountry Georgia, 1750-1860
Sergio Lussana's thoughtful book explores the inner world of enslaved men. It considers how African American bondsmen fashioned their own uniquely masculine social spaces, how they negotiated their masculine identities, and the extent to which enslaved peoples utilized friendship to affirm their humanity and exercise agency. Based on exhaustive research of the 1930s WPA interviews, My Brother Slaves sheds much needed light on gender and the slave community.
~Richard Follett, University of Sussex
Through the skillful use of slave narratives, autobiographies, and folklore, Lussana uncovers the previously obscure homosocial world of enslaved men. Peering through a gendered lens, he examines masculine work, leisure pursuits, friendships, and exploits off the home plantation to supply a useful counterpoint to the much larger body of scholarship devoted to enslaved female experiences.
~Jeff Forret, author of Slave against Slave: Plantation Violence in the Old South
[Lussana] has created a vivid depiction of the world in which male slaves worked, lived and tried to overcome. While there is much to read in the growing historiography of slave studies, Lussana's is among the first to exclusively study male slaves. Beyond his originality, Lussana is a gifted writer. The author's beautifully crafted narrative flows like water through the study's five chapters. For anyone desiring a more profound understanding of how male slaves lived, functioned, coped with chattel slavery, and resisted that abominable institution, Lussana's engaging, powerful and provocative study is essential reading.
~Civil War News
Well-written, clear, and concise, My Brother Slaves is a useful primer on the development of enslaved manhood and homosocial relationships.
~Reviews in History
My Brother Slaves fills a long-standing void in the history of slavery. Lussana utilizes his wide range of sources in effective ways to reveal a world of, largely, solidarity and resistance among enslaved males in the antebellum South.
~Journal of Social History
For nearly one hundred years, the pendulum of slavery's historiography has swung in wide arcs. Sergio A. Lussana's finely executed monograph suggests where the pendulum may be settling. He examines how enslaved men developed friendships with one another and what those relationships meant for constructing black masculinity, intertwining race and class, and connecting everyday resistance with revolution.
~Journal of American History
Black masculinity, which has, at times, been characterized as essentially pathological and predatory, has received little scholarly attention. In My Brother Slaves: Friendship, Masculinity, and Resistance in the Antebellum South, Sergio A. Lussana details the development of an extensive all-male subculture that served as the seedbed not only for novel ideas about black masculinity, but also for effective forms of slave resistance.
~Journal of Southern History
A fascinating read provides a great resource for any reader or researcher pursing new light on the topic of friendships, masculinity and resistance of enslaved men in the Antebellum South.
~The Southeastern Librarian
In My Brother Slaves: Friendship, Masculinity, and Resistance in the Antebellum South, Sergio A. Lussana seeks to further expand our knowledge of the cultures and social structures of slave communities by focusing on a group that is underrepresented in the literature: enslaved men. Lussana has constructed a compelling and focused study of the lives, relationships, and resilience of enslaved men in the antebellum South.
~American Historical Review
Lussana provides insights into issues of masculinity and manhood through the use of antebellum slave narratives, slave owners' accounts and personal papers, and the 1930s Works Progress Administration interviews. My Brother Slaves is a valuable addition to the literature on African American and nineteenth-century US history, as well as gender and labor studies.
~Journal of African American History
