Joining Places The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture Waldo E. Martin Jr. and Patricia Sullivan, editors Anthony E. Kaye A Joining Places Slave Neighborhoods in the Old South The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill ∫ 2007 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Designed by Jacquline Johnson Set in Janson by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. This book was published with the assistance of the John Hope Franklin Fund of the University of North Carolina Press. Parts of this book originally appeared in ‘‘Neighbourhoods and Solidarity in the Natchez District of Mississippi: Rethinking the Antebellum Slave Community,’’ Slavery and Abolition 23 (April 2002): 1–24, reprinted in revised form by permission of Routledge; and ‘‘Slaves, Emancipation, and the Powers of War: Views from the Natchez District of Mississippi,’’ in The War Was You and Me: Civilians in the American Civil War, edited by Joan E. Cashin, 60–84 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002). The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kaye, Anthony E. Joining places : slave neighborhoods in the old South / Anthony E. Kaye. p. cm. — (The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-8078-3103-8 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Slaves—Mississippi—Natchez (District)—Social life and customs. 2. Slaves—Mississippi—Natchez (District)—Social conditions. 3. Community life—Mississippi—Natchez (District)—History. 4. Neighborhood—Mississippi—Natchez (District)—History. 5. African American neighborhoods—Mississippi—Natchez (District)—History. 6. Natchez (Miss.: District)—Social life and customs. 7. Natchez (Miss.: District)—Social conditions. 8. Slaves—Southern States—Social life and customs—Case studies. 9. Slaves—Southern States—Social conditions— Case studies. 10. Community life—Southern States—Case studies. I. Title. e445.m6k29 2007 307.3%36208996073076226—dc22 2007003201 11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1 To Melissa This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 Neighborhoods 21 2 Intimate Relations 51 3 Divisions of Labor 83 4 Terrains of Struggle 119 5 Beyond Neighborhood 153 6 War and Emancipation 177 Epilogue 209 Appendix: Population, Land, and Labor 221 Notes 223 Bibliography 311 Index 343 Maps 1 Natchez District of Mississippi 2 2 Slave Neighborhoods East of Second Creek 122 3 Slave Neighborhoods along Second Creek 125 Acknowledgments This book has benefited from the help of many people, and it is a pleasure, at long last, to thank them in print. Several archivists went beyond the call of duty. Gordon Cotton kindly put me up during a research visit to the Old Courthouse Museum in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Anne Lipscomb Webster an- swered queries for years after my work at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Mimi Miller of the Historic Natchez Foundation af- forded me the rare pleasure of working all night in the archives. I received financial support from several institutions. Primary research got off the ground during fellowships at the National Museum of American His- tory. The Princeton University Committee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences provided a grant for work in the Natchez Trace Collec- tion. Time for sustained work on revisions was provided by a semester leave courtesy of the Pennsylvania State University College of Liberal Arts and by a course release funded by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities and the Richards Civil War Era Center. Several people at these and other institutions took me under wing and contributed to this book in their own singular ways. Pete Daniel, famous for his boon companionship, is also a gifted teacher who taught me what I needed to know about the South but did not know to ask and would never have read in books. Dale Tomich initiated me into the Caribbean history of slavery. John M. Murrin showed me what historical problem solving looked like and what a comparative approach to American history could accomplish. Leslie S. Rowland and Steven F. Miller of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project at the University of Maryland, College Park, renewed my engagement with the history of emancipation and Reconstruction. Nan E. Woodruff brought me to Penn State, a kindness for which I repaid her by—I kid you not— buying the house next door. That she responded by making our neighborhood the warmest place I have ever lived will surprise no one who knows her. William A. Blair has made collaborating with the Richards Center a pro-