
'I Felt All This'
Enslaved People's Emotional Lives in the Antebellum US South
Beth R. Wilson(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 25. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
243 pages
978-1-009-70945-3 (ISBN)
Description
Drawing on methods from the history of emotions to study enslaved people's lives, Beth R. Wilson exposes the social, cultural and political role that emotion played in the US South. Exploring both individual and collective emotions, Wilson shows how enslaved people resisted white people's attempts to restrict their feelings and expressions by developing their own emotional ideals and expectations. Moving through case studies that examine a range of underexplored forms of testimony, the book introduces readers to slave narratives, letters, written interviews and recorded testimony to show that emotion was central to how enslaved people resisted, survived and remembered the system of slavery. Enslaved people's descriptions of their individual experiences of love, pain, grief and joy are woven throughout this study, which provides a framework that historians can use to paint a nuanced, detailed and empathetic picture of the complex emotional impact of slavery.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Weight
25 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-70945-3 (9781009709453)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
approx. 06/2026
Cambridge University Press
€117.50
Not yet published
Person
Beth R. Wilson is a Lecturer in American History at Cardiff University. She is co-editor (with Emily West) of Slavery and Emotions in the Atlantic World (2024).
Content
Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Romantic and maternal emotion in formerly enslaved women's nineteenth century autobiographies; 2. Family love and networks of affection in enslaved people's letters; 3. Collective styles of emotional expression in WPA and Fisk interviews; 4. Emotional memories of labour and violence in 1930s 'oral histories'; 5. The archival afterlives of enslaved people's emotional testimonies; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.