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Unrequited Toil: A History of United States Slavery. By Calvin Schermerhorn. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. 258. Cloth, $99.99; paper, $24.99.)
In Unrequited Toil, Calvin Schermerhorn emphasizes slavery's central role in United States history before the twentieth century. Scores of familiar and less familiar vignettes drive its unflinching account of human, lived, and bonded experiences. By rooting a narrative history in biographies, Schermerhorn reminds readers that slavery took many different forms and influenced people's lives in many different ways. As he concludes, "Slavery was never one thing, and enslaved people were never homogenous. There was no stagnation or sleepy plantation" (3).
Schermerhorn creates a sweeping narrative of bonded people in the United States. In twelve highly readable chapters, Unrequited Toil explores topics as diverse as Nat Turner's Rebellion, the Triangular Trade, and the Trail of Tears. While teachers and students will already be familiar with many of these pivotal developments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some of Unrequited Toil's subjects might be less well known. Chapter 4, "Black Insurgency," for example, traces escapes from the Virginian Corotoman plantation during the War of 1812 era, and Chapter 8, "Industrial Discipline," includes a discussion of Anchor brand Cavendish tobacco sold in Australian markets during the 1850s. Schermerhorn contributes to conversations about this range of familiar and less familiar events when he highlights African American experiences within the events. Stories...