In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South.

In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South. By John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger. New Narratives in American History. (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. xviii, 286. Paper, $13.95, ISBN 978-0-19-516087-8; cloth, $23.00, ISBN 9780-19-516087-1.)

There is power in small books. In this one, John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger combine an autobiography, court documents, and family letters to reconstruct the life histories of Sally Thomas, her three mulatto sons, and her sons' children. Sally, born on a Virginia tobacco plantation, lived most of her adult life as a quasi-free slave who hired her own time as a laundress in Nashville, Tennessee. Through a combination of hard work, personal sacrifice, political savvy, luck, white patronage, and a willingness to tolerate risk, Sally helped each of her sons to acquire freedom. Her family's stories serve as a prism through which readers can view a full spectrum of decisions and behaviors, many of which might surprise those who think of slavery and freedom as opposite conditions.

On the surface the Thomas-Rapier family appears to be so exceptional that readers might question the utility of the story for students of history. With family members that included a gambler, prospector, runaway slave, surgeon, politician, and barber, the narrative is certain to astonish as well as entertain. But dip below the surface and Sally's family appears more ordinary, more representative of urban slaves, the quasi-free, and free blacks elsewhere. They, for instance, were protective of each other. They understood the importance of family and kept in touch when distance or the threat of arrest or enslavement kept them apart. Sally and her family also understood that they were vulnerable to the whims and ways of whites and took precautions to minimize potential risks. Sally taught her children how to respond to probing questions and how to navigate the sometimes treacherous terrain of racial etiquette. And Sally and her children understood the potential power of social networks and how to cultivate relationships with influential white patrons. Each of Sally's children, whether they lived in the Deep South or Canada, whether they traveled to New Orleans or Nicaragua, whether they escaped to freedom or sought legislative approval for their status, encountered the ambiguities of race relations in an era when being black and being free were antithetical statuses.

The experiences of the Thomas-Rapier family also adds to our understanding of black life before the Civil War in unexpected ways. For instance, the family's discussions and observations about local, national, and international politics underscores the political savvy and information networks of urban blacks. Moreover, the family members' travels, within and outside the United States, push us to think about blacks' worldviews and interests in matters outside of family and local situations. Franklin and Schweninger have garnered a remarkable amount of information on a single family, which they adeptly place into the broader social, economic, and political contexts. In doing so they have given readers an in-depth account of an individual family and also a broad perspective of slavery and freedom during the antebellum period. In short, this is a small book with a powerful punch that is as appropriate for undergraduates as it is for more seasoned scholars of slavery.

PEGGY G. HARGIS

Georgia Southern University