Customer Reviews

Slaves without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South

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I guess I am not reading the same book as the other guy. I saw this book as well written, well reasearched, relevant and extremely factual. Berlin's entire book is based on nothing but facts, and he has tons of sources that he refered to. He hs a lot of great refrences, old news papers(which are interesting to read), cogress meeting records, the laws of that time, the census, and lots of other great forms of accurate facts. "Slaves Without Masters" exposed a lot about a time period in american life that was very interesting for a "free" African-American. The book is about the free negroes in the antebellem south, which in most southern states were between 60 and 80 percent of the "free" African-American population, this would explain why we hear a lot in this book about Mulattos. THE MAIN BENEFIT OF THIS BOOK IS THAT IN A DOCUMENT PROVEN AND FACTUAL WAY, EVEN "FREE" PEOPLE CAN BE SLAVES.

Berlin is dishonest when he claims to be writing about blacks. About 75% of "free colored" in the antebellum period were visibly mixed-race or whiter. Some "mulattoes" were Indians with no African ancestry at all.