Belonging: An Intimate History of Slavery and Family in Early New England
Gloria McCahon Whiting
University of Pennsylvania Press
New England is often considered a cradle of liberty in American history, but it was also a cradle of slavery. From the earliest years of colonization, New Englanders bought and sold people, most of whom were of African descent.
In Belonging, Gloria McCahon Whiting tells the region’s early history from the perspective of the people who belonged to others and who struggled to maintain a sense of belonging among their kin. Through a series of meticulously reconstructed family narratives, Whiting traces the contours of enslaved people’s intimate lives in early New England, where they often lived with those who bound them but apart from kin.