African American studies overview

African-American Studies

The Claims of Kinfolk

Author Dylan Penningroth in "In the Claims of Kinfolk," exposes a wide informal economy of property rights among slaves. The book also sheds new light on African-American family and community life from the prime of plantation slavery to the "freedom generation" of the 1870s. The focus on relationships among blacks, along with familiar struggles between the races is also discussed. In addition, the book includes process of community and family definition with a comparative analysis of slavery and slave property ownership along the Gold Coast in West Africa, which reveals important differences between the African and American background (J. William, Journal of American History).

Summary of the Book

Dylan commenced the first half of the book by examining the questions brought up about property claims and kinship followed by the elimination of slavery in the Gold Coast in 1874 by the British. Prepared with a number of questions, the author turns to the U.S. South. The second half of the book looks at the property after liberation. Both landlords and freedmen disputed the ownership of crops, as well as husbands and wives the ownership of private items (James, History Services).

Their property was then identified by formal law, where freedmen turned to courts in order to declare claims against both whites and each other (J. William, Journal of American History). While, sometimes they continued to depend on traditional ways of establishing claims and settling disputes, for example church meetings or "public displays of argument and insult" (pg. 116).

According to the author relationship between property ownership and kinship was mutual. For instance, kinship made property in a number of ways, especially in the family labor which makes possible significant property buildup and kin groups from time to time use overlapping claims to property, particularly land. He further argued that property "helped 'make' kinship" (p. 192) (James, History Services).

In the book, the author has used the word "make" that implies ambiguity of his argument, that not always explained by his proof. To quote such examples are those that described arguments between former masters and freedmen over the rights to the labor power of family members or between husbands and wives in broken marriages. They however, did not evidently support his argument that kinship was redefined in the process (James, History Services).

Sometimes, his analyses appeared to conflate "family" and "household" in a more incomprehensible manner rather than illumination. This might be due the African case, where slaves were usually acknowledged part of the slave-holders' kin group, and led him lost. Overall, the Claims of Kinfolk is a unique piece of study that will have an important impact and influence on future scholarship (J. William, Journal of American History).

Conclusion