The Slave Community

John. W. Blessingame, The Slave Community: The Plantation Life in The Antebellum South (Oxford University Press, Inc: 1972, 1979). John Wesley Blassingame was a scholar, historian, educator, writer, and leading pioneer in the study of American slavery. He received a bachelor's degree at Fort Balley State College in 1969, a master's degree at Howard University in 1961, and a doctorate at Yale University in 1971. He then became a history professor at his alma mater in 1974 at Yale University. He was a professor of history, African-American studes, and American Studies for 29 years. His repatoir of books that he has written and published include: The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, Black New Orleans 1860-1880, Frederick Douglass, The Clarion Voice, and Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies. In additon to publishing his own books, he also co-authored and co-edited two other published works. The Slave Community is one of Blessingames more recognized books that he has written. This book was the first time that any historian has written according to the slaves perspective rather than the slave owners'. The authors purpose in writing this book was to present a different prespective of history that had previously been unavailable. He wanted to show how the slaves felt, how they were treated and all of it was presented through the slaves' eyes. He described their living situations, their personalities and their daily battle for survival. Some of the book is hard to read because of the reality of their lives; but, Blassingame wants you to feel the slaves' pain and understand that life was hard for them but they still had their own culture and traditions while enslaved. Blessingame approaches the topic of slavery different than any other historian had ever done before him. As mentioned earlier he writes from the perspective of the slaves rather than the slave owners. He delves