Examining how labor and economy shaped family life for both women and men among the enslaved

"Swing the Sickle for the Harvest Is Ripe" compares the work, family, and economic experiences of enslaved women and men in upcountry and lowcountry Georgia during the nineteenth century. Mining planters' daybooks, plantation records, and a wealth of other sources, Daina Ramey Berry shows how slaves' experiences on large plantations, which were essentially self-contained, closed communities, contrasted with those on small plantations, where planters' interests in sharing their workforces allowed slaves more open, fluid communications. By inviting readers into slaves' internal lives through her detailed examination of domestic violence, separation and sale, and forced breeding, Berry also reveals important new ways of understanding what it meant to be a female or male slave, as well as how public and private aspects of slave life influenced each other on the plantation.

Examining how labor and economic circumstances shaped the family life of bondspeople in the antebellum South, Berry discusses several elements of the plantation experience, from its informal agricultural economy to "working socials," where bondspeople were allowed to mingle with others on the plantation. "Swing the Sickle for the Harvest Is Ripe" also makes new arguments about gendered differences between skilled and unskilled labor and how possession of certain skills allowed for greater mobility, protection, and other benefits. In demonstrating how gender roles and work roles shaped each other, Berry highlights that women did perform skilled labor, which changes our ideas of women and men's roles on the plantation and their identities, both as workers and as members of the slave community.

"Swing the Sickle demonstrates how far gender has come as a category of historical analysis in slave studies. It displays refinement, nuance, and balance . . . it brings together gender, work, family, and economy in an easily accessible, readable account useful to slave scholars and students of Georgia slavery in particular."--Georgia Historical Quarterly

"Reconstructing the practices of slavery from plantation records, memoirs, and newspapers and the encounter with those practices through folk songs and ex-slave testimonies, Berry succeeds in capturing commonalities and differences in slavery in white-majority communities and African American-majority communities. . . .[An] important contribution to historiography. Recommended."--Choice

"Berry's fresh approach to studying slavery in Georgia includes new discussions of gender exploitation, family, and worker's skills. 'Swing the Sickle for the Harvest Is Ripe' makes a tremendous contribution to the field, as it makes important connections between labor, skill and gender, forced breeding, and the informal economy."--Deborah Gray White, author of Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Antebellum South and Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994

"An appeal of this book is that it compares communities in upcountry and lowcountry Georgia to provide a gendered analysis of the family, labor, and economy of enslaved women and men during the antebellum period. Berry's distinctive focus will be useful for scholars and students in the fields of African American history, women's studies, gender studies, family history, and U.S. history before 1876."--Wilma King, author of The Essence of Liberty: Free Black Women during the Slave Era

Daina Ramey Berry is an associate professor of history at Michigan State University.

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Series:
Women in American History

Subjects:
Southern History & Culture / Black Studies / Women's Studies / Gender Studies / History, Am.: 19th C. / Labor Studies

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