Title Unfree labor : American slavery and Russian serfdom / Peter Kolchin

Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, [1987] ©1987

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 517 pages) : illustrations, maps Summary Two massive systems of unfree labor arose, a world apart from each other, in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The American enslavement of blacks and the Russian subjection of serfs flourished in different ways and varying degrees until they were legally abolished in the mid-nineteenth century. Historian Peter Kolchin compares and contrasts the two systems over time in this magisterial book, which clarifies the organization, structure, and dynamics of both social entities, highlighting their basic similarities while pointing out important differences discernible only in comparative perspective. These differences involved both the masters and the bondsmen. The independence and resident mentality of American slaveholders facilitated the emergence of a vigorous crusade to defend slavery from outside attack, whereas an absentee orientation and dependence on the central government rendered serfholders unable successfully to defend serfdom. Russian serfs, who generally lived on larger holdings than American slaves and faced less immediate interference in their everyday lives, found it easier to assert their communal autonomy but showed relatively little solidarity with peasants outside their own villages; American slaves, by contrast, were both more individualistic and more able to identify with all other blacks, both slave and free. Kolchin has discovered apparently universal features in master-bondsman relations, a central focus of his study, but he also shows their basic differences as he compares slave and serf life and chronicles patterns of resistance. If the masters had the upper hand, the slaves and serfs played major roles in shaping, and setting limits to, their own bondage. This truly unprecedented comparative work will fascinate historians, sociologists, and all social scientists, particularly those with an interest in comparative history and studies in slavery Analysis United States Slavery, to 1863 Russia Serfdom, to 1860 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 377-383) and index Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL Print version record digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Bancroft Prize in American History 1988 Charles S. Sydnor Award of the Southern Historical Association 1988 Avery O. Craven Prize of the Organization of American Historians Subject Slave labor -- Cross-cultural studies Slavery -- United States -- History. Serfdom -- Russia -- History SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Slavery. HISTORY -- United States -- General. Serfdom Slave labor Slavery Leibeigenschaft Sklaverei Esclavage -- Etats-Unis -- Histoire. Esclaves -- Travail -- Etudes transculturelles. Servage -- U.R.S.S. -- Histoire. Russia United States Russland USA Genre/Form Cross-cultural studies History Form Electronic book ISBN 067492097X 9780674920972 0674920988 9780674920989 9780674039711 0674039718 0674265173 9780674265172

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