Daina Ramey Berry has combined largely untapped sources with thoughtful analysis to produce an innovative approach to issues of bondage and slavery. "Swing the Sickle for the Harvest Is Ripe" shows how gender, labor, and social relationships were interwoven in the complicated world of slaves and slave owners in Georgia. Although the book focuses on Georgia, it can easily be used as a microcosm for much of the agrarian South prior to the Civil War. The majority of the text focuses on the mid-1800s, but Berry draws on sources dating back as early as the 1700s and as late as the 1870s. The introduction carefully lays out the historical context, geographic scope, and methodology, piquing the interest of the reader and presenting a blueprint for the entire book. Berry also defines the key terms of "slavery/bondage," "open/closed system," and "skilled/unskilled labor."
In the first two chapters, Berry explores agricultural and nonagricultural modes of slavery and the gendered divisions of labor and family life. She primarily uses two Georgia counties to…show more content… The phrase “fictive kin” is used to describe the mix of biological, extended, and nonbiological familial units that slaves formed to create and maintain a sense of identity and security. The chapter investigates courting rituals, marriages, social gatherings, religion, and holidays. Despite the sprawling range of topics covered, Berry is able to weave a loose thread among them all. She does not divide men and women in a comparative approach but rather treats them as complements of one another. This chapter provides the best insight into the ordinary lives of people in bondage. Berry shows how slaves fashioned community and social relationships despite the despair that often crept into their lives and the fundamental inability of enslaved peoples to choose with whom they
