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Unrequited Toil: A History of United States Slavery. By Calvin Schermerhorn. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. 258. Paper, $24.99.)
Reviewed by Kelly Houston Jones
Historian Calvin Schermerhorn, known for his work tracing American capitalism s rise via the business of slavery, has produced in Unrequited Toil a readable, compact story of American slavery. This accessible, affordable book comes at the perfect moment to serve not only academics but also readers whose interest in the history of slavery has been stoked by recent media like the New York Times' 1619 Project. Characterized by punchy topic sentences and an absorbing pace, the book emphasizes what was robbed from enslaved people-not only stolen wages but also stolen lives and legacies. This approach, which highlights the calculations of the system s managers at every turn, does not, however, translate into a cold interpretation void of bondspeople s culture and humanity. Rather, Schermerhorn tells a dynamic history with rich detail. Even familiar individuals travails, such as the ones of Frederick Douglass and Charles Ball, are imbued with new narrative
power in Schermerhorn s hands. Schermerhorn builds his narrative by drawing together established and recent themes in the historiography of American slavery. He gracefully synthesizes established concepts like Atlantic Creole society, set out...