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lukescalone 's review for:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
by Frederick Douglass
Douglass's autobiography here does an excellent job of depicting lives experienced by enslaved people in Maryland during the antebellum period. I was particularly interested in the way that Douglass became literate--a topic in which he offers a lot of depth--and the way in which Douglass found his freedom--which had notably less depth (for a fully understandable reason: he didn't want slaveholders to crack down more heavily on their slaves).
I also found it curious that Douglass remarks that freed people often lived in more wealth than the average southern slaveholder. On one level, this makes sense, as slaveholders basically relied on credit for every purchase they made--fronting future revenues, their property, and slaves as collateral (see [b:River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom|16241458|River of Dark Dreams Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom|Walter Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361744745l/16241458._SY75_.jpg|22253117] for more on this). Yet, I'd be really interested in seeing a comparative study of socioeconomic conditions between slaveholders, enslaved peoples, northern yeomen, and northern merchants, if at all possible.
I also found it curious that Douglass remarks that freed people often lived in more wealth than the average southern slaveholder. On one level, this makes sense, as slaveholders basically relied on credit for every purchase they made--fronting future revenues, their property, and slaves as collateral (see [b:River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom|16241458|River of Dark Dreams Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom|Walter Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361744745l/16241458._SY75_.jpg|22253117] for more on this). Yet, I'd be really interested in seeing a comparative study of socioeconomic conditions between slaveholders, enslaved peoples, northern yeomen, and northern merchants, if at all possible.