John Hebron Moore

Written in the 60s, so the language about slaves is not PC. The author does talk about slave labor quite a bit and even discusses runaways, but implies that some (perhaps even a majority) of slaves (at least those owned and exploited by Brown and Co) were complacent if not content. Obviously, that's wildly problematic. Moore often marvels that slaves were so trusted and given so much independence, which feeds into a paternalistic understanding of slavery, but fails to address the fact that even when Brown's slaves were far from his base of operations, they were still surrounded by miles and miles of slave country that was frequently (especially in Brown's time) patrolled by local White militias for the express purpose of catching and detering runaways. He even mentioned one slave who runs away a number of times and is captured every single time, which should have been the perfect point to briefly explain that the near-impossibility of escape plus the draconian consequences for failure meant enslaved people were less likely to try, even if they desperately wanted to run.

I don't know enough economic history to judge the rest of the book, but I'm happy it exists. The collection of primary sources is impressive, and in that regard it seems to be well done.… (meer)