The waterman's song : slavery and freedom in maritime North Carolina

cover image

Where to find it

Davis Library (5th floor)

Call Number
E444.N8 C43 2001 c. 5
Status
Available
Call Number
E444.N8 C43 2001
Status
Available

North Carolina Collection (Wilson Library)

Call Number
C326 C388w
Status
In-Library Use Only
Item Note
With author's autograph. Dustjacket.
Call Number
C326 C388w c. 2
Status
Available

Stone Center Library

Call Number
E444.N8 C43 2001 c. 4
Status
Available

Authors, etc.

Names:

Summary

The first major study of slavery in the maritime South, The Waterman's Song chronicles the world of slave and free black fishermen, pilots, rivermen, sailors, ferrymen, and other laborers who, from the colonial era through Reconstruction, plied the vast inland waters of North Carolina from the Outer Banks to the upper reaches of tidewater rivers. Demonstrating the vitality and significance of this local African American maritime culture, David Cecelski also reveals its connections to the Afro-Caribbean, the relatively egalitarian work culture of seafaring men who visited nearby ports, and the revolutionary political tides that coursed throughout the black Atlantic.



Black maritime laborers played an essential role in local abolitionist activity, slave insurrections, and other antislavery activism. They also boatlifted thousands of slaves to freedom during the Civil War. But most important, Cecelski says, they carried an insurgent, democratic vision born in the maritime districts of the slave South into the political maelstrom of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Contents

  • Preface: The Waterman's Song p. xi
  • Prologue p. 3
  • Part 1. Working on the Water
  • 1 As Far as a Colored Man Can There Be Free: A Slave Waterman's Life p. 25
  • 2 Common as Gar Broth: Slave Fishermen from Tidewater Plantations to the Outer Banks p. 57
  • 3 Like Sailors at Sea: Slaves and Free Blacks in the Shad, Rockfish, and Herring Fishery p. 83
  • 4 A March Down into the Water: Canal Building and Maritime Slave Labor p. 103
  • Part 2. The Straggle for Freedom
  • 5 All of Them Abolitionists: Black Watermen and the Maritime Passage to Freedom p. 121
  • 6 The Best and Most Trustworthy Pilots: Slave Watermen in Civil War Beaufort p. 153
  • 7 A Radical and Jacobinical Spirit: Abraham Galloway and the Struggle for Freedom in the Maritime South p. 179
  • Afterword: The Last Daughter of Davis Ridge p. 203
  • Glossary of North Carolina Watercraft, 1790-1865 p. 213
  • Notes p. 221
  • Acknowledgments p. 287
  • Index p. 289

Other details