Race Relations at the Margins: Slaves And Poor Whites in the Antebellum Southern Countryside

Taking a broad geographic scope from Virginia to South Carolina between 1820 and 1860, Jeff Forret scrutinizes relations among rural poor whites and slaves, a subject virtually unexplored and certainly under-reported until now. Forret’s findings challenge historians’ long-held assumption that mutual violence and animosity characterized the two groups’ interactions. Evidence he draws from numerous sources reveals that while poor whites and slaves sometimes experienced bouts of hostility, often they worked or played in harmony and camaraderie.

Race Relations at the Margins is remarkable for its focus on lower-class whites and their dealings with slaves outside the purview of the slavemaster. Forret’s research uncovers an interracial subculture of drinking, gambling, clandestine trade, and consensual sex. Daily commingling of poor white men and women with enslaved men and women both reinforced and challenged southern racial boundaries as the groups violated social convention to forge bonds of reciprocal interest, understanding, and affection. Race and class, Forret demonstrates, intersected in unique ways for those at the margins of southern society, challenging the belief that race created an exclusive social cohesion among whites regardless of economic status.

As Forret makes apparent, colonial-era flexibility in race relations never entirely disappeared despite the institutionalization of slavery and the growing rigidity of color line. His book offers a complex and nuanced picture of the shadowy world of poor white–slave interactions, demanding a refined understanding and new appreciation of the range of interracial associations in the Old South.

AUTHOR BIO: Jeff Forret is an assistant professor of history at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.