Gleanings of freedom : free and slave labor along the Mason-Dixon Line, 1790-1860 /

Grivno, Max L.

Gleanings of freedom : free and slave labor along the Mason-Dixon Line, 1790-1860 / Max Grivno. - Urbana : University of Illinois Press, (c)2011. - 1 online resource (xiii, 269 pages) : illustrations, map - The working class in American history .

Includes bibliographies and index.

Introduction : Sharpsburg, Maryland, 1803 -- "The land flows with milk and honey" : agriculture and labor in the early republic -- "A strange reverse of fortune" : panic, depression, and the transformation of labor -- "There are objections to black and white, but one must be chosen" : managing farms and farmhands in antebellum Maryland -- " -- how much of oursels we owned" : finding freedom along the Mason-Dixon Line -- "Chased out on the slippery ice" : rural wage laborers in antebellum Maryland -- Conclusion : Sharpsburg, Maryland, 1862.

Late 18th- and early 19th-century landowners in the hinterlands of Baltimore, Maryland, cobbled together workforces from a diverse labour population of black and white apprentices, indentured servants, slaves, and hired workers. The Upper South during this period presents a unique perspective on how free and slave labour systems coexisted and interacted during a time when slavery and free labour were moving apart both geographically and ideologically. This work examines the intertwined lives of the poor whites, slaves, and free blacks who lived and worked in this wheat-producing region along the Mason-Dixon Line in the decades preceding the Civil War.



9780252093562



015864395 Uk


Slave labor--History--Maryland--19th century.
Slavery--History--Maryland--19th century.
Freed persons--History--Maryland--19th century.
Agricultural laborers--History--Maryland--19th century.


Electronic Books.

E445 / .G543 2011