Race Relations at the Margins

"Taking a broad geographic scope from Virginia to South Carolina between 1820 and 1860, Jeff Forret scrutinizes relations among rural poor whites and slaves, a subject virtually unexplored and certainly under-reported until now. Forret's findings challenge historians' long-held assumption that mutual violence and animosity characterized the two groups' interactions. Evidence he draws from numerous sources reveals that while poor whites and slaves sometimes experienced bouts of hostility, often they worked or played in harmony and camaraderie." "As Forret makes apparent, colonial-era flexibility in race relations never entirely disappeared despite the institutionalization of slavery and the growing rigidity of color line. His book offers a complex and nuanced picture of the shadowy world of poor white-slave interactions, demanding a refined understanding and new appreciation of the range of interracial associations in the Old South."--BOOK JACKET.

Jeff Forret is an assistant professor of history at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.