A review by savannahisarose
"myne Owne Ground": Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676 by T.H. Breen, Stephen Innes

3.0

I taught this book to ~50 students in a U.S. history intro course (I'm a History MA and teaching assistant). This book is excellent for getting students to realize that slavery and servitude are connected to race, but not always in a 19th century 'cotton is king' era way. However, I have to echo what many reviewers have mentioned about the shaky conclusions the authors reach. The book is also somewhat outdated at this point, but could benefit from discussing code-switching (in regards to the court cases and other evidence) and reading the 'silences' in the written record à la Michel-Rolph Trouillot (specifically the book "Silencing the Past").