Setting Slavery's Limits

Physical Confrontations in Antebellum Virginia, 1801–1860

Christopher H. Bouton

Using slave trials from antebellum Virginia, Christopher H. Bouton offers the first in-depth examination of physical confrontations between slaves and whites. These extraordinary acts of violence brought the ordinary concerns of enslaved Virginians into focus. Enslaved men violently asserted their masculinity, sought to protect themselves and their loved ones from punishment, and carved out their own place within southern honor culture.

Enslaved women resisted sexual exploitation and their mistresses. By attacking southern efforts to control their sexuality and labor, bondswomen sought better lives for themselves and undermined white supremacy. Physical confrontations revealed the anxieties that lay at the heart of white antebellum Virginians and threatened the very foundations of the slave regime itself.

While physical confrontations could not overthrow the institution of slavery, they helped the enslaved set limits on their owners’ exploitation. They also afforded the enslaved the space necessary to create lives as free from their owners’ influence as possible. When masters and mistresses continually intruded into the lives of their slaves, they risked provoking a violent backlash. Setting Slavery’s Limits explores how slaves of all ages and backgrounds resisted their oppressors and risked everything to fight back.

Lexington Books

Pages: 212 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-7945-2 • Hardback • November 2019 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-4985-7947-6 • Paperback • March 2022 • $39.99 • (£30.00)

978-1-4985-7946-9 • eBook • November 2019 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

Series: New Studies in Southern History

Subjects: History / United States / 19th Century, History / African American

Setting Slavery's Limits

Physical Confrontations in Antebellum Virginia, 1801–1860

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Using slave trials from antebellum Virginia, Christopher H. Bouton offers the first in-depth examination of physical confrontations between slaves and whites. These extraordinary acts of violence brought the ordinary concerns of enslaved Virginians into focus. Enslaved men violently asserted their masculinity, sought to protect themselves and their loved ones from punishment, and carved out their own place within southern honor culture.

Enslaved women resisted sexual exploitation and their mistresses. By attacking southern efforts to control their sexuality and labor, bondswomen sought better lives for themselves and undermined white supremacy. Physical confrontations revealed the anxieties that lay at the heart of white antebellum Virginians and threatened the very foundations of the slave regime itself.

While physical confrontations could not overthrow the institution of slavery, they helped the enslaved set limits on their owners’ exploitation. They also afforded the enslaved the space necessary to create lives as free from their owners’ influence as possible. When masters and mistresses continually intruded into the lives of their slaves, they risked provoking a violent backlash. Setting Slavery’s Limits explores how slaves of all ages and backgrounds resisted their oppressors and risked everything to fight back.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 212 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-7945-2 • Hardback • November 2019 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-4985-7947-6 • Paperback • March 2022 • $39.99 • (£30.00)

978-1-4985-7946-9 • eBook • November 2019 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

Series: New Studies in Southern History

Subjects: History / United States / 19th Century, History / African American

Author

Christopher H. Bouton received his PhD in history from the University of Delaware.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Contextualizing Confrontations

Chapter 1: Paternalism & Physical Confrontations

Chapter 2: Masculinity & Physical Confrontations

Chapter 3: Resistance to Sexual Exploitation

Chapter 4: Enslaved Women’s Violence and the Household

Chapter 5: Protecting White Supremacy

Epilogue: What Violence Meant to the Enslaved

Reviews

Some of the most interesting stories in this study come from Bouton's sensitive and careful examination of Virginia criminal slave trial transcripts. . . Setting Slavery's Limits: Physical Confrontations in Antebellum Virginia, 1801 - 1860 is an extremely well-written and well-researched book. The discussions are clear, the work is logically presented, and the case studies are intriguing.

— Journal of Southern History

Bouton has streamlined the discussion about slavery and power and placed it into a much-needed context of violence and honor, offering a better way to understand the complexities of slavery and why slaves either resisted physical punishment or endured it. Easily digestible by all levels of readership, Setting Slavery’s Limits is a great addition to the scholarship on African slavery in the United States.
— Matthew A. Byron, Young Harris College

In Setting Slavery's Limits: Physical Confrontations in Antebellum Virginia, 1801–1860, Christopher H. Bouton brings to light the untold story of slave resistance and masterfully illustrates how slaves used physical confrontation to resist the condition of slavery. These intermediary forms of resistance demonstrate how both enslaved men and women reasserted some measure of control over their daily lives. Bouton uses compelling examples to explore how these violent acts threatened the precarious slave society in Virginia. This book makes an important and necessary contribution to the study of slavery, resistance, and the antebellum period.
— Kimberly Nath, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater