Strategies for Survival

William Dusinberre, Reader in History, Emeritus, at the University of Warwick in England, is the author of Slavemaster President: The Double Career of James Polk, Henry Adams: The Myth of Failure (Virginia) and the award-winning Them Dark Days: Slavery in the American Rice Swamps.

With Strategies for Survival William Dusinberre solidifies his reputation as one of our finest historians of southern slavery. His unusually sensitive reading of interviews with Virginia's ex-slaves returns us to basic questions, but offers startling fresh answers. Like his classic study of slavery on the rice plantations, Strategies for Survival will quickly become a must-read for all students of antebellum American history." —James Oakes, author of Slavery and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Old South"This remarkable study of antebellum Virginia slavery displays all the qualities we have come to expect from William Dusinberre— impeccable research, creative questioning, elegant writing, and persuasive interpretations. This is a major contribution from a major historian." —Charles Joyner, author of Down By the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community