Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction"

Richmond was not only the capital of Virginia and of the Confederacy, it was also one of the most industrialized cities south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Boasting ironworks, tobacco-processing plants, and flour mills, the city by 1860 drew half of its male workforce from the local slave population. "Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction" examines this unusual urban labor system from 1782 until the end of the Civil War. Richmond's urban slave system offered blacks a level of economic and emotional support not usually available to plantation slaves. "Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction" offers a valuable portrait of urban slavery in an individual city that raises questions about the adaptability of slavery as an institution to an urban setting and, more importantly, the ways in which slaves were able to turn urban working conditions to their own advantage.

First sentence: IN 1782 when Richmond received its formal recognition as a city, it had only a thousand inhabitants and hardly resembled a bustling metropolis; incorporated or not, it was little more than a small port town.

Year

1999

Language

English

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

Editions

4

Pages

187

ISBN

9780813920993

Data source: Wikidata