The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South

The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South by John W. Blassingame is a nonfiction history discussing slavery in the United States. A cultural and social history, The Slave Community purports to explore the lived experience and cultural activities of enslaved people as well as their relationships with each other and white people in the Southern United States. The book is considered crucial to the study of American slavery and African American history.

Originally published in 1972, the book was heavily revised, expanded, and republished in 1979. This guide covers the 1979 Oxford University Press edition.

Content Warning: The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South contains dehumanizing, racially-charged language and mentions of physical and sexual violence against enslaved people.

Plot Summary

In John W. Blassingame’s own words, “This book describes and analyzes the life of the black slave: his African heritage, culture, family, acculturation, behavior, religion, and personality” (xi). Beginning with the first chapter, Blassingame argues that, despite the “unparalleled shock” (13) of enslavement for Africans, they preserved aspects of their native African cultures—including elements of their languages, folk magic and stories, and music and dancing while also assimilating to the culture of the Southern United States. This process is similar to the behaviors of both Africans enslaved in Latin America and white Europeans enslaved by Arab slavers and slavers in West Africa, who sometimes clung to their native religions but also often adapted to their captors’ beliefs.

Next, Blassingame details how enslaved people created a unique culture out of their African roots and Southern adaptations. Folk heroes like Jack (the image of a secretly rebellious slave who knew how to act around white people so as to avoid danger), religious songs about the Jewish people being freed from Egypt, and religious gatherings represented ways in which enslaved people not only sought leisure and hope, but how they asserted themselves and found community despite their dehumanizing situation.

Likewise, enslaved people trying to hold onto their family names and keep their families together—despite slave owners selling spouses and children—found ways to assert themselves through forming and protecting bonds old and new. Some enslaved people went on to become fugitives or engage in revolts. Blassingame states there is “overwhelming evidence” of enslaved people’s “undying love of freedom” in defiance of their circumstances (192). Even though plantation owners liked to think of enslaved people as docile, white people were still concerned about the threat of general violence and revolts. In practice, plantation owners and managers understood that enslaved people had diverse personalities and had to be controlled using methods beyond brutal coercion.

Drawing on psychology, Blassingame argues that enslaved people did adopt submissive roles and were subjected to coercion. However, enslaved people often played into their masters’ expectations to protect themselves and each other from punishment, hiding their genuine emotions and “frequently reject[ing] the arguments” (305) of their own racial inferiority. Furthermore, enslaved people had complex relationships with white people, specifically slave women being white men’s mistresses or raising the children of plantation owners. Overall, the portrait Blassingame provides is one of nuance. Despite the brutality of the plantation system in the South, enslaved people were active in creating and preserving their own culture, asserting their own individuality, and protecting their families and communities.