The right hand men of the revolution : Albemarle's free black war veterans -- Children of the revolution : post-war free black families, property, and community -- Good blacks and useful men : reputation and free black mobility -- "I'll show you what a free Negro is" : black-on-white violence in Albemarle -- Bawdy houses and women of ill fame : free black women, prostitution, and family -- An easy morality : community knowledge of interracial sex
Summary
This book tells the stories of free blacks who worked hard to carve out comfortable spaces for existence. They were denied full freedom, but they were neither slaves without masters nor anomalies in a society that had room only for black slaves and free white citizens. A typical rural Piedmont county, Albemarle was not a racial utopia. Rather, it was a tight-knit community in which face-to-face interactions determined social status and reputation. A steep social hierarchy allowed substantial inequalities to persist, but it was nonetheless an intimately interracial society