David Brion Davis. In the Image of God: Religion, Moral Values, and Our Heritage of Slavery.

New Haven: Yale UP, 2001. 260 pp. $35.00.

On the cover of Davis's book is Theodore Chasseriau's Study of a Nude Black (ca. 1836-38). While produced during the same period, Chasseriau's depiction of the black body lacks the serenity and composure one finds in Nathaniel Jocelyn's Cinque (1839). Chasseriau's Study is marked by angst and dread--stemming from what one might regard as the tension between the subject's physical reality as "other" and the transcendent hope for "freedom." It is a dread, one might argue, stemming from wrestling against efforts to deny self-transcendence. Visually framing In the Image of God with such an image makes sense when one considers the theoretical sensibilities, a hermeneutical preoccupation with paradox and irony, that guide this book.

Davis informs readers that his interest in the historical development of slavery and racism is shaped by a longstanding concern with "both religion and the history of moral values." In fact, religion by its very nature serves "as the base or foundation, leading on to questions of moral values and then to our legacy of African-American slavery." Human slavery (especially racial slavery), hence, represents the archetype of pride as sin and contempt by which some seek to associate their limited interests and concerns with God's objectives in a misguided effort to push beyond the "chaos and contradictions of modern life." Martin Luther King, Jr., who was well aware of Reinhold Niebuhr's work, puts the Niebuhrian paradox guiding Davis's text in full relief by framing it in terms of the race problem: Is it possible for the United States to hold in creative tension private gain and communal good? What is not clear, however, in regard to Davis's appropriation of Niebuhrian thought is how closely Davis wants to follow the sense of praxis present, for example, in Niebuhr's The Nature and Destiny of Man. That is to say, in light of the tenacious nature of race and racism, what are the possibilities for renewed life? On a basic level, what does Davis's depiction of the heritage of slavery and the role of religion and moral vision in this heritage say about the nature and meaning of religion and ethics? (Regarding such issues, it would be interesting to put Davis in conversation with Stephen Carter, Derrick Bell, and Glenn Loury.)

Placing this discussion within the context of African Americans and Jews allows for an important example of this paradox. Through critical reflection on a series of books written during the course of twenty-one years, Davis discusses the progress of American Jews and the legacy of the Atlantic slave trade. While acknowledging the participation of Jews in the slave system, he wants to place this participation in context as a way of combating the historically questionable text The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews. While providing a critique of all participants in the slave trade and the continued attempt to dehumanize those of African descent, Davis argues against, in a rather unconvincing way, notions of collective guilt. What remains unclear is the manner in which we, in the twenty-first century, understand and work through the paradox of historical distance from the slave trade and the continuing reality of privilege not completely disconnected from the benefits of the trade in human flesh. Davis acknowledges that slavery had a long historical legacy, during which the existential and ontological positioning of the enslaved was altered to meet the needs of growing world powers. But what is unique about New World slavery is the manner in which moral perception shifted to a consideration of slavery as evil, as opposed to a natural state for some, as of the eighteenth century. Yet, this view was balanced by a pro-slavery perspective that considered perpetual servitude the proper position for those of African descent. Mindful of these competing claims, it becomes clear that slavery in the New World collapsed not solely because of economic and political considerations, but because of its "inherent" contradictions.

For Davis, New World slavery must be placed in the context of world developments, of a larger world economy--the relationship between slavery and growing capitalism that depended upon "capital, credit, insurance, and the manufactured goods, including firearms, that were exchanged in Africa for slaves." And so, for example, "Caribbean sugar plantations linked Pennsylvania farmers and New England fishermen with the iron manufacturers of Birmingham and the textile workers of Nantes." These connections between slave regimes provide a much "thicker" depiction of slavery and race, one that more fully appreciates the paradox and irony that marked this institution (and particular episodes such as the Amistad revolt and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787) as an "unjust system of labor" and as an economic boon. As Davis points out regarding England, capitalism and a resulting theory of labor entailed a growing recognition of disparities between life in England and in the colonies. The slave system allowed for new labor arrangements in England that gave merit to abolitionist sensibilities, but the struggle to end slavery abroad was disconnected from the numerous forms of oppression felt within growing capitalist societies such as England. In short, one could not own laborers, but one could buy the labor of adults and children and employ them under horrendous conditions.

Within the realm of historical studies, Davis suggests that C. Vann Woodward and Eugene D. Genovese are able to deal with this irony and paradox that have always marked life in the United States by giving equal attention to both human error and ambition. Woodward and Genovese achieve this by making race and slavery paramount issues in historical study, and by exposing the hypocrisies of Christian doctrine within the world of the Atlantic slave trade. But even the important work of Woodward and Genovese must be combined with firsthand accounts of the peculiar institution. Late in the text, Davis turns his attention to those who critiqued the institution of slavery based on personal experience. Davis's reading of William S. McFeely's Frederick Douglass explores the themes one would expect, such as the changing nature of Douglass's relationship with abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison and the dynamics of Douglass's growing public stature. However, one is left to wonder about the public impact of his private dealings and relationships. Furthermore, should not Davis's concern with the religious and theological sensibilities expressed in the ideology of slavery have resulted in his paying some attention to the skepticism that seems to mark Douglass's perspective?

The basic themes established in works discussed in In the Image of God, including the centrality of racial exploitation and conflict, are given additional texture as Davis highlights the manner in which various modalities of rebellion and revolt serve to buttress worth and value within a context of oppression. Both Melton McLaurin's Celia: A Slave and Thomas Slaughter's Bloody Dawn speak to the dangerous consequences of failing to hold in tension human ambition and limitations. Ironically, a sense of entitlement and omnipotence on the part of slaveholders results in the destruction of white being in order to establish black humanity.

Davis cautions readers to remain mindful of the manner in which the construction of race in the New World has links to attitudes and developments in other parts of the globe, such as the subjugation of the European underclass. But there is again something ironic about this ideology of race in that "negrophobia has sometimes been closely related to negrophilia." And this has had profound consequences even for those seeking to "uplift" the black race because a concern for progress continuously confronts a desire to keep blacks "in their place." One gets a sense of this in the concluding chapter's discussion of the Women's Movement as an international campaign during which the political struggle of women comes into conflict with the enfranchisement of African Americans.

What is most intriguing about this book is the hermeneutic of paradox and irony that Davis employs in the reading of more than forty-five books dealing with various aspects of the history of race and slavery. Rather than seeking to smooth out the inconsistencies in the history of slavery, Davis points them out for their importance, for what they say about the significance of race in the development and ultimately destruction of human imagination and progress. However, Davis does this in a way that requires background that readers are left to secure on their own. Hence, those without an extensive knowledge of New World history will find this book a challenge to read at best, but one worth undertaking with Davis's earlier, prize-winning books close by.

Anthony B. Pinn 

Macalester College