This book is about the different ways that men and women experienced migration from the Southern seaboard to the antebellum Southern frontier. Based upon extensive research in planter family papers, Cashin studies how the sexes went to the frontier with diverging agendas: men tried to escape the family, while women tried to preserve it. On the frontier, men usually settled far from relatives, leaving women lonely and disoriented in a strange environment. As kinship networks broke down, sex roles changed, and relations between men and women became more inequitable. Migration also changed race relations, because many men abandoned paternalistic race relations and abused their slaves. However, many women continued to practice paternalism, and a few even sympathized with slaves as they never had before. Drawing on rich archival sources, Cashin examines the decision of families to migrate, the effects of migration on planter family life, and the way old ties were maintained and new
ones formed.
Industry Reviews
"Highly readable...This lively, human exploration of race, class, and gender...provides a new look at the impact of individualism in unsuspected places."--American Historical Review
"Using diaries, family letters, travel accounts, and census samples, [Cashin] weaves historical analysis, effective illustration, and delightful anecdotes together and rewards readers with an impressive contribution to the literature of Southern history."--The Historian
"Packs quite a wallop. In relatively few pages she comments intelligently, provocatively, and originally on many of the most disputed subjects in southern history...Writing with clarity and grace, Cashin brings fresh interpretations to complex problems."--William and Mary Quarterly
"A beautifully written statistical study of planter families and slaves who migrated from the southern seaboard states to the new southwest between 1810 and 1860."--CHOICE
"A Family Venture explores a great unwritten chapter of the American past. Sensitive to questions of gender, race, and class, yet free of jargon, Cashin's work provides a scholarly and accessible portrait of the southern frontier. Her splendid research and vivid prose provide a compelling volume. This terrific book deserves a wide audience and will surely spark a stampede of future studies on this exciting new historical frontier."--Catherine
Clinton, Harvard University
"Cashin makes a provocative argument about social relationships and migration in the antebellum South...A Family Venture is a stimulating work on a neglected and important topic."--Journal of Social History
"A fresh foray into new territory."--Arkansas Historical Quarterly
"Cashin's tale [has] a real contribution to make to the emerging history of gender as a defining element in social relations. Cashin goes where few others have trod by taking a hard look at the southern family in the context of the frontier as a migration process."--The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
"A Family Venture is a notable contribution to the history of women, families, and the frontier in the antebellum South and provides a model for future studies of family life in other frontier regions."--Mississippi Quarterly
"What is new here is a thorough and equally balanced gender study where the behavior and thoughts of men are compared directly with those of women. Cashin makes good use of the new "men studies" literature presenting gender as a dichotomous category with equal weight to both the male and female perspective. This study adds to the increasing body of literature that does this comparative kind of analysis. Cashin's description of the generational conflict between
men is superb...A Family Venture is a must for those interested in the growing literature on comparative gender studies."--Journal of the Early Republic
"Ground-breaking work...Cashin's work is an excellent choice for anyone interested in probing the social complexities of the antebellum South...She presents this material in a lucid fashion that is readily accessible to undergraduates, and offers a provocative thesis to interested specialists as well."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History
