Randy Browne says his "focusing on survival thus not only reminds us how difficult life was in Atlantic slave societies, but also enhances our understanding of the complex social worlds in which enslaved people and their enslavers confronted each other."

Surviving Slavery in the British Caribbean places the struggle to survive at the center of enslaved people's experiences. It focuses on the British colony of Berbice as it transitions from being Dutch to British.

Browne says the focus on freedom in slave studies is a western abstraction that holds little resonance among the enslaved. But by focusing on the challenge of staying alive readers learn more about how it shaped the range of social relationships, cultural practices, and political strategies for slave societies.

The bulk of the source material Brown uses comes from first person testimonies and complaints all lodged by enslaved people. It is the largest single archive of first person testimonies from and about enslaved people in the Americas. It is an intimate study of enslaved people's daily lives and voices. Thanks to the Dutch legal system, enslaved people's testimonies were taken and recorded in full. They offer powerful insights in the perspective enslaved people and reveal painful details about the world of African descendents.

I enjoyed reading Browne's book. It did make me think about the way scholars approach slave studies and what it means for the field and the historical subjects.