Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2016
Reveals the lived experience of slaves in eighteenth-century Boston
Instead of relying on the traditional dichotomy of slavery and freedom, Hardesty argues we should understand slavery in Boston as part of a continuum of unfreedom. In this context, African slavery existed alongside many other forms of oppression, including Native American slavery, indentured servitude, apprenticeship, and pauper apprenticeship. In this hierarchical and inherently unfree world, enslaved Bostonians were more concerned with their everyday treatment and honor than with emancipation, as they pushed for autonomy, protected their families and communities, and demanded a place in society.
Drawing on exhaustive research in colonial legal records - including wills, court documents, and minutes of governmental bodies - as well as newspapers, church records, and other contemporaneous sources, Hardesty masterfully reconstructs an eighteenth-century Atlantic world of unfreedom that stretched from Europe to Africa to America. By reassessing the lives of enslaved Bostonians as part of a social order structured by ties of dependence, Hardesty not only demonstrates how African slaves were able to decode their new homeland and shape the terms of their enslavement, but also tells the story of how marginalized peoples engrained themselves in the very fabric of colonial American society.
Industry Reviews
Hardesty's excursion through wills, probate, court records, newspapers, etc., is a provocative study of slavery and dependence in eighteenth-century Boston. Rather than examine black life in early America from the point of view of slavery or freedom, Hardesty advances an alternative paradigm, one that suggests that a better way to understand the institution would perhaps be to examine it as part of the larger Atlantic world where other systems of labor (i.e., Amerindian slavery, indentured servitude, and pauper apprenticeship) existed alongside racial slavery in a continuum of unfreedom or dependency. Within this broader context, he challenges traditional dichotomies about slave resistance and agency. -- African American Review
Hardesty challenges generalized images of Atlantic enslavement by uncovering actions and experiences that move beyond dichotomies such as slavery/freedom and black/white[This] work adds new dimensions to enslavement in New England, but also in the larger Atlantic world. * The Journal of Global Slavery *
In this five-chapter study, Hardesty uses "an early modern, transnational lens" to recast the classic dichotomy of slavery and freedom in eighteenth-century Boston. Hardesty' central argument is that "colonial-era slavery should be understood as a continuum of unfreedom", suggesting that the binary of slavery and freedom is not an accurate way to describe the status of Africans in early Boston ... Carving an archive out of colonial records meant to silence and suppress the black voice is not an easy task. Yet, through legal records, Hardesty is able to vividly reconstruct not only the lives of individuals but also a complicated social structure ... the presentation of primary source material on the status of African Americans in Boston is commendable -- The Journal of African-American History
Well written and meticulously researched, this outstanding book is an important contribution to the understanding of slavery, New England history, Colonial America, and the 18thCentury Atlantic world. * Choice Connect *
For too long, slaves in colonial America have been essentialized as freedom fighters. Jared Hardesty reveals in this path-breaking study that autonomy was what slaves strived for, not freedom. Instead of revolting against their bondage, Boston's slaves tried to improve their condition by joining Protestant churches, using the law, and rising in protest against workplace iniquities. Hardesty throws their lives into sharp relief by portraying them as part of a society marked by many forms of unfreedom. -- Wim Klooster,Clark University
In this delightful work, Jared Hardesty places the experiences of Boston slaves within the wider Atlantic world, while also illuminating their lives within the context of eighteenth century New England. Unfreedom is the most significant contribution to slavery studies in New England since the publication of Joanne Pope Melishs seminal Disowning Slavery in 1998. -- Harvey Amani Whitfield,University of Vermont
Jared Hardesty's Unfreedom is a seminal study of enslaved life in colonial and revolutionary Boston. While many scholars have explored this topic in great depth, Hardesty provides a new conceptual framework for understanding the lived experiences of enslaved Africans, moving beyond a focus on resistance as a means of achieving freedom. Through meticulous research, Hardesty has reconstructed the everyday lives, motivations, desires, and social worlds of those in bondage. This study is a must read for anyone interested in slavery, African American culture, and early American history. -- Christopher Cameron,University of North Carolina at Charlotte
This book offers a fresh and inventive interpretation of what much previous scholarship has dismissed as a relative lack of resistance of New England slaves to their enslavement, an argument that has in turn supported the myth of northern slavery as a 'mild' institution. Hardesty provides a rich and detailed account of the efforts of enslaved people in Boston to obtain a measure of control over their lives. Rather than trying to attack slavery as a status, or even to end their own enslavement, many slaves strove to obtain public recognition, leverage against their masters, literacy, recognition of the legitimacy of their families, and material privileges. These efforts should not be characterized as accommodation, Hardesty argues, but as a powerful kind of resistance by which slaves not only reshaped the conditions of their own existence but redefined the terms and limits of bondage. -- Joanne Pope Melish,University of Kentucky
