A Review of Camp's Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South
Stephanie M. H. Camp's Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South is a book whose central theme is premised on the idea of slavery. The book takes an approach that explains the relationship between masters and slaves as one that was guided by the use of different geographical spaces for both parties. Therefore, the author presents a scenario that introduces the concept of 'black spaces' and 'white spaces' that are antagonistic. The book goes a step further to examine the role that such geographical spaces played in the emancipation process. Camp takes the position that holds the idea that slaves' actions …show more content…
"They held secret parties where they danced, performed music, drank alcohol, and courted" (Camp, 60). The book's take on such instances is one that sees them as the catalysts for the quest for freedom. Slaves felt the need to be freed more and more after experiencing the excitement and contentment that filled their souls after taking part in the secret ceremonies. In what Camp calls ‘the politics of the body,' she explains the influential and vital role of the body that would compel persons to act in a particular manner. For example, the pleasures of the body that enslaved persons experienced once in a while at the secret dances made them feel the need to be freed strongly than another who had not experienced such pleasures. The book seals its case by highlighting the increased instances where the blacks developed a liking for a print culture that openly expressed resistance to slavery. In these cases, the women made little effort to conceal the texts they had obtained; their audacity is key to the survival of documentary evidence about acts that in other instances were much more carefully concealed" (Camp, 95). According to the author, the exhibition of abolitionists material may appear trivial but played a central role in the fight against
Stephanie M. H. Camp's Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South is a book whose central theme is premised on the idea of slavery. The book takes an approach that explains the relationship between masters and slaves as one that was guided by the use of different geographical spaces for both parties. Therefore, the author presents a scenario that introduces the concept of 'black spaces' and 'white spaces' that are antagonistic. The book goes a step further to examine the role that such geographical spaces played in the emancipation process. Camp takes the position that holds the idea that slaves' actions …show more content…
"They held secret parties where they danced, performed music, drank alcohol, and courted" (Camp, 60). The book's take on such instances is one that sees them as the catalysts for the quest for freedom. Slaves felt the need to be freed more and more after experiencing the excitement and contentment that filled their souls after taking part in the secret ceremonies. In what Camp calls ‘the politics of the body,' she explains the influential and vital role of the body that would compel persons to act in a particular manner. For example, the pleasures of the body that enslaved persons experienced once in a while at the secret dances made them feel the need to be freed strongly than another who had not experienced such pleasures. The book seals its case by highlighting the increased instances where the blacks developed a liking for a print culture that openly expressed resistance to slavery. In these cases, the women made little effort to conceal the texts they had obtained; their audacity is key to the survival of documentary evidence about acts that in other instances were much more carefully concealed" (Camp, 95). According to the author, the exhibition of abolitionists material may appear trivial but played a central role in the fight against