This item family or freedom people of color in the antebellum south new directions in southern history by emily west hardcover 6000 only 1 left in stock more on the way ships from and sold by amazoncom. Family or freedom is a sophisticated and subtle work that sheds important new light on the legal and social complexities that underpinned both slave and free societies in the late antebellum and civil war south west locates the uneasy and little understood subject of enslavement petitions within the broader history of the hardening of the color line and the growth of the proslavery argument. Buy family or freedom people of color in the antebellum south new directions in southern history by west emily isbn 9780813136929 from amazons book store everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. What is surprising to modern sensibilities and perplexing to scholars is that some individuals did petition to rescind their freedom family or freedominvestigates the incentives for free african americans living in the antebellum south to sacrifice their liberty for a life in bondage author emily west looks at the many factors influencing these dire decisions from desperate poverty to the threat of expulsion and demonstrates that the desire for family unity was the most important . West e 2012 family or freedom free people of color in the antebellum south new directions in southern history university of kentucky press lexington kentucky usa pp256 isbn 9780813136929 full text not archived in this repository