The Quarters and the FieldsThe Quarters and the Fields

"A fresh and inventive method of presenting some lesser-known aspects of slavery to both scholars and students."--Ronald Traylor, Southeastern Louisiana University "Pargas redefines the meaning of 'slave agency' to examine the varying ability of enslaved workers to shape and protect their domestic arrangements."--Larry Hudson, University of Rochester In The Quarters and the Fields , Damian Pargas provides a unique approach to the examination of slavery. Rather than focus on slave work and family life on cotton plantations, he compares the practice of slavery among the other major agricultural cultures: tobacco, mixed grain, rice, and sugar cane.
In doing so, Pargas reveals how the demands of different types of masters and crops influenced work patterns and habits, which in turn shaped slave family life. Demanding labor arrangements in Virginia forced slave mothers to find childcare from white mistresses or elderly slaves. South Carolina slave-owners' focus on task completion rather than gang labor led to enslaved field hands having more time to spend with their families and engage in work on their own behalf. In Louisiana, the long brutal days of cane cultivation left slaves little time for family contact, but provided them with unique opportunities to improve their families' material conditions.
All slave families negotiated a variety of boundaries and opportunities, and, as Pargas shows, the differences had much more to do with local needs and customs than with the institution itself.