Slavery, Fatherhood, and Paternal Duty in African American Communities over the Long Nineteenth Century by Libra R. Hilde

Abstract

Reviewed by: Slavery, Fatherhood, and Paternal Duty in African American Communities over the Long Nineteenth Century by Libra R. Hilde John Patrick Riley (bio) Slavery, Fatherhood, and Paternal Duty in African American Communities over the Long Nineteenth Century. By Libra R. Hilde. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Pp. 400. Cloth, $95.00; paper, $37.50.) Slavery, Fatherhood, and Paternal Duty explores the myriad obstacles that faced enslaved Black family men in the U.S. South, with the main goal of countering "the enduring stereotypes of black men's irresponsibility within the family" (3). Libra Hilde draws on primarily Black sources, notably the Federal Writers' Project interviews and autobiographies. She is particularly interested in finding the importance that Black families placed on the fatherly role; despite slavery's denial of Black masculinity, [End Page 568] the constraints on material provisioning, and rejection of parental authority, Black "men, and their children, invested fathers and fatherhood with consequence" (11). In demonstrating this, Hilde succeeds wonderfully. She aptly reveals the tremendous importance and high expectations enslaved children placed on their fathers, even when living separately on other plantations. Hilde's work builds on recent trends in the history of the enslaved family by moving away from the matrifocality so central in post-Moynihan historiography, toward one where Black men belong at the center of the family unit, even if distance and the constraints of slavery kept them on the physical periphery. Crucially, it does this without returning to the nuclear household thesis of Genovese or diminishing the important role played by enslaved mothers. Hilde's analysis expands on Edward Baptiste's characterization of enslaved men in the role of caretaker. Providing for one's children, both spiritually and materially, represented resistance as well as emotional investment. The heart of Hilde's monograph is her first four chapters, which focus on the obstacles slave society placed before Black fathers and how enslaved men overcame them. The distance inherent in cross-plantation marriages, white interference in family discipline, and difficulty providing food or clothing all combined to test Black fatherhood. But as Hilde correctly points out, these men were not passive in response. Interviews with formerly enslaved people revealed that they held fondness for caretakers—for men who provided a sense of stability and enmeshed themselves in larger fictive kin networks. Pride in a father's accomplishments was common, whether celebrating prowess at fishing or hunting, the skill of his trade, or even his ability to evade patrollers and move unnoticed between plantations. Through a host of actions both subtle and obvious, Black men left an indelible impression on their children and grandchildren. Hilde divides direct fatherly support into three categories: material, ideological, and cultural provisioning. Providing children with extra food or homemade clothes, or using earned money to purchase candy and treats, fit the antebellum role of father as provider. Hilde expands her argument by demonstrating the ways fathers prepared children for the harsh realities of enslaved life through important lessons and oral traditions, a role typically reserved for mothers in much of the literature on slave families. Hilde fails to explore the ways in which enslaved men sought to train their children, especially sons, in a skilled trade or to covertly help them acquire literacy skills. A trade such as blacksmithing or the ability to read and write would do much to improve a child's quality of life, enabling opportunities to earn additional money and afterward provide for their own children. [End Page 569] While Hilde does emphasize the importance that freedmen placed on education for children postwar, she misses an opportunity to demonstrate continuity with fatherhood behaviors during slavery. Hilde breaks important ground with her fifth chapter, which moves away from Black men as fathers to examining attitudes and recollections toward white fathers and children of mixed race. Black fathers' treatment of children born of liaisons with and sexual assault of enslaved women ran the gamut from preferential treatment to extra punishment or cold indifference. With its emphasis on white parentage, it is at once an important yet odd chapter in a volume so focused on showcasing Black fatherhood. Similarly, chapter 6 delves into enslaved mothers' expectations of white...