| Description |
1 online resource (xi, 267 pages) : illustrations. |
| Series |
Gender and American culture |
|
Gender & American culture.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction: imagining freedom in the slave South -- City of contrasts: Charleston before the Civil War -- A way out of no way: Black women and manumission -- To survive and thrive: race, sex, and waged labor in the city -- The currency of citizenship: property ownership and Black female freedom -- A tale of two women: the lives of Cecille Cogdell and Sarah Sanders -- A fragile freedom: the story of Margaret Bettingall and her daughters -- Epilogue: the continuing search for freedom. |
| Summary |
"For black women in antebellum Charleston, freedom was not a static legal category but a fragile and contingent experience. In this deeply researched social history, Amrita Chakrabarti Myers analyzes the ways in which black women in Charleston acquired, defined, and defended their own vision of freedom. Drawing on legislative and judicial materials, probate data, tax lists, church records, family papers, and more, Myers creates detailed portraits of individual women while exploring how black female Charlestonians sought to create a fuller freedom by improving their financial, social, and legal standing. Examining both those who were officially manumitted and those who lived as free persons but lacked official documentation, Myers reveals that free black women filed lawsuits and petitions, acquired property (including slaves), entered into contracts, paid taxes, earned wages, attended schools, and formed familial alliances with wealthy and powerful men, black and white--all in an effort to solidify and expand their freedom. Never fully free, black women had to depend on their skills of negotiation in a society dedicated to upholding both slavery and patriarchy. Forging Freedom examines the many ways in which Charleston's black women crafted a freedom of their own design instead of accepting the limited existence imagined for them by white Southerners"--Provided by publisher. |
| Note |
Print version record. |
| Subject |
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Women's Studies.
|
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African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- 19th century.
|
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History.
|
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African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc.
(OCoLC)fst00799632
|
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Antislavery movements -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
|
| Chronological Term |
1775-1899
|
| Subject |
Charleston (S.C.) -- Race relations -- History -- 19th century.
|
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Freed persons -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- History -- 19th century.
|
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African American women -- Social conditions.
(OCoLC)fst00799467
|
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African American women -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
|
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Freedmen. (OCoLC)fst00933987
|
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Charleston (S.C.) -- History -- 1775-1865.
|
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African American women. (OCoLC)fst00799438
|
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HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV)
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African Americans -- History -- 1863-1877.
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African American women -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- History -- 19th century.
|
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Enslaved persons -- Emancipation.
(OCoLC)fst01120540
|
|
Freed persons -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
|
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Enslaved persons -- Emancipation -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
|
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Charleston (S.C.) -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
|
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African American women -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
|
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United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
|
| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
|
| Subject |
African Americans. (OCoLC)fst00799558
|
|
Freedmen -- Social conditions.
(OCoLC)fst00934004
|
|
Social conditions. (OCoLC)fst01919811
|
|
South Carolina -- Charleston.
(OCoLC)fst01204603
|
|
Antislavery movements. (OCoLC)fst00810800
|
|
Race relations. (OCoLC)fst01086509
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Myers, Amrita Chakrabarti. Forging freedom. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, ©2011 9780807835050 (DLC) 2011015961 (OCoLC)711043275 |
| ISBN |
9780807869093 (electronic bk.) |
|
0807869090 (electronic bk.) |
|
9781469602592 (electronic bk.) |
|
1469602598 (electronic bk.) |
