The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South

Content Warning: The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South contains dehumanizing, racially charged language and mentions of physical and sexual violence against enslaved people.

The preface to the second edition of The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South explains why John W. Blassingame revised and expanded the text after its initial publication in 1972. Specifically, he describes learning about a Black preacher named George Bentley who preached to a white congregation at the Hardshell Baptist Church. George was also a slave who refused to let the Church buy him. Nonetheless, he was supported by his white congregants.

Blassingame claims the “questions raised by George Bentley were innumerable” (viii) and led him to consult new primary sources. These sources and their data especially focused on religion in the Southern United States, folklore, “the African impact on American language”, and “sexual attitudes” (viii). Blassingame also credits questions and more recent work by students, researchers, and others in the new edition.

In particular, Blassingame examined how Christianity, especially the activities of white preachers and missionaries, shaped Southern plantation life. He wanted to investigate how enslaved Africans themselves reacted to enslavement. Overall, the preface argues that both religion and Africans’ own thoughts on their enslavement and Southern society are crucial to understanding slavery.