The content and impact of this book are clear (and correct) from its description. My real enjoyment and appreciation (as an Appalachian) came from the journalistic detail given to an enormous number and variety of everyday patterns of life in the slaveholding society: The commercialization and staffing of mineral springs, the few but vibrant community gatherings afforded to (or seized by) enslaved laborers, and the diverse artisan occupations of a large minority of the enslaved, to name a few. Particularly helpful for understanding present-day racism and disparities were the accounts of slaveholders' methods of redirecting enslaved black and homeless white resentment from themselves to each other and the disciplined organization of surveillance, subterfuge, and sabotage by enslaved families against their masters and other oppressors.

I hadn't been inculcated with most of the myths Dunaway debunks, so the book was perhaps not as mind-blowing an experience as it is for many others (and i'll be sharing it with family to find out). Though that's not to say i didn't come away having learned some profound lessons, most notably among them the inverse association between the sizes of plantations and the brutality to which their workforces were subjected. I also don't have the background to appreciate the theoretical frame of Dunaway's study, in particular Berlin's distinction between societies with slavery and "slave societies", but the introductory and conclusory chapters were just enough to help lay readers like myself understand the significance of its impact on such theories.

Disclosure: Several years ago, though outside my majors, the author taught one of the most impactful courses i took at Virginia Tech, which i valued enough to sign up for a second of her courses the following semester.

Personal enjoyment rating: ****