Though centered on a single Jamaican sugar estate, Worthy Park, and
dealing largely with the period of formal slavery, this book is
firmly placed in far wider contexts of place and time. The
"Invisible Man" of the title is found, in the end, to be not just
the formal slave but the ordinary black worker throughout the
history of the plantation system.
Michael Craton uses computer techniques in the first of three
main parts of his study to provide a dynamic analysis of the
demographic, health, and socioeconomic characteristics of the
Worthy Park slaves as a whole. The surprising diversity and complex
interrelation of the population are underlined in Part Two,
consisting of detailed biographies of more than 40 individual
members of the plantation's society, including whites and mulattoes
as well as black slaves. This is the most ambitious attempt yet
made to overcome the stereotyping ignorance of contemporary white
writers and the muteness of the slaves themselves.
Part Three is perhaps the most original section of the book.
After tracing the fate of the population between the emancipation
of 1838 and the present day through genealogies and oral
interviews, Craton concludes that the predominant feature of
plantation life has not been change but continuity, and that the
accepted definitions of slavery need considerable modification.
General
Imprint: |
Harvard University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
May 1978 |
First published: |
May 1978 |
Authors: |
Michael Craton
|
Dimensions: |
279 x 210 x 35mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
466 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-674-79629-4 |
Categories: |
Books >
Earth & environment >
Geography >
General
Promotions
|
LSN: |
0-674-79629-2 |
Barcode: |
9780674796294 |
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