Emancipation brought an end to many of the evils of slavery; but it did not do away with involuntary servitude in the South. Even during Reconstruction; state legislatures passed laws that bound laborers to the landowner with a nearly unbreakable tie―which still chains many a rural black to what a 1914 Supreme Court ruling called an "ever-turning wheel of servitude."Daniel Novak shows how federal; state; and local regulations combined in an undisguised effort to keep southern agriculture supplied with black labor. A freedman who did not immediately enter into a labor contract was subject to arrest as a vagrant. Once a contract was agreed upon; it was a criminal offense for a laborer to fail to carry it out; no matter how unfair the terms might be.If; as was almost inevitable; the freedman fell into debt to the landowner; he could be kept in service until repayment-and exorbitant interest rates and judicious bookkeeping could often postpone that day indefinitely. Novak traces the sporadic efforts of the federal government to do away with this kind of peonage. In studying the details of the legal basis for peonage in the South; he breaks new ground. The institution has aroused surprisingly little interest in the past; this compelling account should do much to establish that peonage is one of the most severe and widespread violations of civil rights in the nation.
#1690466 in Books The University Press of Kentucky 1996-03-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .49 x 5.51l; .67 #File Name: 0813108640201 pages
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. The Liberty Line is must reading for scholars of 19th century American historyBy Thyra RussellThis book effectivdely shows that most of the information circulated about the UGRR is based on folklore; exaggerated accounts magnifiied by telling; and faulty memories of those who furnished early data to earlier historians of the UGRR. It is a pleasant antidote to late 20th century political correctness views of history.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. A level-headed masterpieceBy bibliophileThe truth about the Underground Railroad is difficult to establish; because the operators were violating federal law and consequently kept few records. Most of the early books about it were based on recollections of participants or their children; collected long after Emancipation; and most of these reflected the perspectives of the whites who helped the escaping slaves. It is to Gara's book and his other writings that we owe the major reexamination of the entire phenomenon. He refocuses the discussion on the fugitives themselves; giving a much more balanced picture of how it all happened. It is true; of course; that thousands of whites helped to spirit the fugitives to safety; but it was the slaves themselves who risked everything; who traveled hundreds of miles on foot; in the dark; through swamps and rivers and fields; in search of freedom. The whites--at great personal risk; too--simply helped. Gara has revolutionized our understanding of the UGRR; and his little book is a genuine classic.
