Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier

Abstract

Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and Settlement of Cotton Frontier. By Carolyn Earle Billingsley. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004. Pp. xi, 215. Acknowledgments, illustrations, maps, tables, appendix, notes, bibliography, index, credits. $49.95, cloth; $19.95, paper.) In Communities of Kinship, Carolyn Earle Billingsley argues that kinship-particularly in study of antebellum South-should be considered a discrete category of analysis complementary to and potentially as powerful as race, class, and gender (p. 1). Billingsley sets out her case in an introductory chapter entitled A New Category of Analysis. remainder of book combines development of this argument with a case study of slaveholding Keesee family of Arkansas intended to illustrate Billingsley's claims for the explanatory power of kinship, informed by genealogical methodology (p. 8). Billingsley suggests that because they left no family papers Keesees offer an especially instructive example of how genealogical method and kinship analysis can expand historical understanding of groups that, similarly, have left little private record of their affairs. Billingsley focuses instead on sources such as census, court, marriage, and land office records to piece together Keesees' family history. While a later chapter follows Keesees into post-Civil War period, study's major focus is earlier in century as it follows ever-expanding Keesees across slave states, addressing, in turn, kinship's relationship to migration and settlement patterns, to religion, and to economic and political power. concluding chapter offers thoughts on The Prospects for Kinship Studies. Billingsley's rigorous research is impressive. Her case for extensive character of kinship connections and patterns that helped frame lives of white southerners is persuasive, as is her argument that serious genealogical work can effectively reveal connections and patterns likely to remain hidden in other kinds of historical research. While Billingsley's claims for kinship's potential to complement more familiar analytical categories is borne out, her argument that genealogical method and kinship analysis offer potential to match explanatory range and power of those categories is less persuasive. If we take example of westward emigration, Billingsley's research into land purchases, marriages, and naming patterns shows that white southerners frequently chose to move and settle together and that emigration was far from being just a young man's game. Emphasis on how, when, and where of westward movement allows Billingsley to challenge elements of some existing interpretations of such migration offered by Joan Cashin and Jane Turner Censer. …