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Degrees of Freedom: Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Cuba History > Item 198
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Degrees of Freedom: Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery
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by Rebecca J. Scott
Sales Rank: 682963
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$29.95
At Amazon
on 6-19-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 392 pages
Published by: Belknap Press October 17, 2005
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0674019326
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0674019324
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
Weighs: 1.5 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Tracing the parallel histories of post-slavery Louisiana and Cuba, Scott, a University of Michigan professor of history and law, uses court cases, activist profiles and heart-pounding runaway narratives to slowly draw the reader into the lives of slaves, freedmen and slaveowners (both black and white) of the late nineteenth century Gulf, but dense clots of legal-historic scholarship can prove difficult to navigate for readers not already studied on the subject. Her back and forth cultural contrasts between Louisiana and Cuba are well-crafted, early on laying out her tale's direction: "In Louisiana itself, the space for the discussion of civic and political equality had narrowed almost to the vanishing point. In Cuba in that same year, the space for discussion was still quite open, and different groups of activists debatedthe best strategy for asserting their full rights." Though similar economically (both Cuba and Louisiana had agricultural economies that heavily depended on slave labor), the two areas' divergent political climates at the turn of the century saw Louisiana's blacks continue to lose rights, while across the Gulf, voter rolls swelled. Casual history readers may get bogged down by Scott's text, as it assumes more than a nodding familiarity with court precedents and nineteenth century legislation, but oral histories of slaves and their descendants provide refreshing counterpoints to the admirable, though daunting, scholarship.
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Product Review
Tracing the parallel histories of post-slavery Louisiana and Cuba, Scott uses court cases, activist profiles and heartpounding runaway narratives to slowly draw the reader into the lives of slaves, freedmen and slaveowners (both black and white) of the late nineteenth century Gulf Her back and forth cultural contrasts between Louisiana and Cuba are well-craftedThough similar economically (both Cuba and Louisiana had agricultural economies that heavily depended on slave labor), the two areas' divergent political climates at the turn of the century saw Louisiana's blacks continue to lose rights, while across the Gulf, voter rolls swelled. (Publishers Weekly )
[Scott] gracefully brings the limitations of historical knowledge to our attention. For example, from the fact that census records reveal their residences and common last names, she infers that several individuals who resided near each other after emancipation were slaves on the same plantation, and notes that inferential step. Her subtle references to what we do not and cannot know about the past remind us that there is much we do not--and probably cannot--know about the present or about the general propositions economists urge on us.
--Mark Tushnet (Michigan Law Review )
Rebecca Scott's book, Degrees of Freedom, is a major historical contribution to the comparative study of Slavery and race relations in the Americas by a senior and pre-eminent historianThrough painstaking research of court records and legal proceedings, and riveting accounts of individual and collective struggle, Scott has assembled a formidable argument to support her thesis that "degrees of freedom" can make an enormous difference in the evolution of two broadly similar sugarcane regions.
--Helen I. Safa (European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies )
Rebecca Scott's Degrees of Freedomsdistinguishes itself from earlier comparative works by taking "the construction of postemancipation society, rather than Slavery and race relations, as the subject of comparison." It is solidly grounded in primary sources from a variety of archival sites, and its methodological approach and general style also distance Scott's book from earlier comparative studies. The book raises important issues for debate, and even those differing from the author's conclusions or emphases would recognize that it is a groundbreaking study and a remarkable piece of historical research and analysis.
--Jorge Giovannetti (International Review of Social History )
This awesome work will not only satisfy Latin Americanists but also demand attention from the much greater (and historically insular) scholarly audience of U.S. historians. Degrees of Freedom eloquently explores the political, social, and economic worlds of Cuba and Louisiana after slavery, bringing Scott's nuanced interpretative lens to both societies, while also setting a new standard for comparative and connected history that will force historians of the United States to engage Latin American history (and historiography)This work will be both an inspiration and touchstone for scholars studying life after slavery.
--James E. Sanders (Journal of Social History )
Rebecca Scott‘s compelling examination of the making of new postemancipation social orders in Louisiana and Cuba, while not dismissive of an earlier post-World War II scholarship pioneered by Frank Tannenbaum’s Slave and Citizen, pointedly criticizes the misleading objectivism of this earlier work. The result is a study whose exploration of the dynamics of postemancipation social mobilizations not only vividly illuminates local, particular features of the reconstruction of politics and labor in the sugar growing districts of Cienfuegos and Santa Clara in central Cuba and in southern Louisiana’s sugar parishes of Terrebonne and Lafourche west of New Orleans. It also identifies divergences in the histories of the nations that oversaw these emancipations.
--Julie Saville (Law and History Review )
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Degrees of Freedom: Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery
Available from Amazon
Price: $29.95
Updated on 6-19-2008.
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