Bound by bondage : slavery and the creation of a northern gentry

During the first generations of European settlement in North America, a number of interconnected Northeastern families carved out private empires. In __Bound by Bondage__, Nicole Saffold Maskiell argues that slavery was a crucial component to the rise and enduring influence of this emergent aristocracy. Dynastic families built prestige based on shared notions of mastery, establishing sprawling manorial estates, and securing cross-colonial landholdings and trading networks that stretched from the Northeast to the South, the Caribbean, and beyond. The members of this elite class were mayors, governors, senators, judges, and presidents, and they were also some of the largest slaveholders in the North. Aspirations to power and status, grounded in the political economy of human servitude, ameliorated ethnic and religious rivalries, and united once antagonistic Anglo and Dutch families, ensuring that Dutch networks endured throughout the English and then Revolutionary periods. Using original research drawn from archives across several continents in multiple languages, Maskiell expertly traces the origin of these private familial empires back to the founding generations of the Northeastern colonies and follows their growth to the eve of the American Revolutionary War. Maskiell reveals a multi-racial Early America, where enslaved traders, woodsmen, millers, maids, bakers, and groomsmen developed expansive networks of their own that challenged the power of the elites, helping in escapes, in trade, and in simple camaraderie. In __Bound by Bondage__, Maskiell writes a new chapter in the history of early North America and connects developing Northern networks of merit to the invidious institution of slavery.

During the first generations of European settlement inNorth America, a number of interconnected Northeastern familiescarved out private empires. In Bound by Bondage,Nicole Saffold Maskiell argues that slavery was a crucial componentto the rise and enduring influence of this emergent aristocracy.Dynastic families built prestige based on shared notions ofmastery, establishing sprawling manorial estates and securingcross-colonial landholdings and trading networks that stretchedfrom the Northeast to the South, the Caribbean, and beyond. Themembers of this elite class were mayors, governors, senators,judges, and presidents, and they were also some of the largestslaveholders in the North. Aspirations to power and status,grounded in the political economy of human servitude, amelioratedethnic and religious rivalries, and united once antagonistic Angloand Dutch families, ensuring that Dutch networks endured throughoutthe English and then Revolutionary periods. Using original researchdrawn from archives across several continents in multiplelanguages, Maskiell expertly traces the origin of these privatefamilial empires back to the founding generations of theNortheastern colonies and follows their growth to the eve of theAmerican Revolutionary War. Maskiell reveals a multiracial EarlyAmerica, where enslaved traders, woodsmen, millers, maids, bakers,and groomsmen developed expansive networks of their own thatchallenged the power of the elites, helping in escapes, in trade,and in simple camaraderie. In Bound by Bondage, Maskiellwrites a new chapter in the history of early North America andconnects developing Northern networks of merit to the invidiousinstitution of slavery.

"This book traces several elite Anglo-Dutch families back to the founding generations of the Northeastern colonies and follows their growth to the eve of the American Revolutionary War, showing how family power, racial views of mastery, and slaveholding linked a divided Northeast. Examining government documents, runaway slave ads, and letters in both Dutch and English, Maskiell foregrounds the gaze of such captive peoples and argues for a reevaluation of the legacies and narratives of the Northeastern elites who held them in bondage"-- Provided by publisher