Book Review
Reviewed by PEGGY BARNETT

Swing the Sickle for

the Harvest is Ripe By DAINA RAMEY BERRY Daina Ramey Berry dedicates her book to her grandmothers, and expresses hope that her "ancestors are pleased with this work."

Using evidence in the records of individuals and the communities of Wilkes County and Glynn County, Georgia, she has sought to "illustrate how gender, labor skill, and economy dictated every bondperson's way of life and influenced all familial relationships."

In her numerous acknowledgements, she thanks Dale Couch of the Georgia Archives and Celeste Stover of the Mary Willis Library in Washington, Georgia, for their help. Libraries all across the Southeast are also included in her list. She has done extensive research. Those who attended the first Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts in 2002 benefitedfrom her lecture, "We Sho was Dressed Up." That presentation forms part of one of the chapters in this book.

Berry's lengthy bibliography and end notes indicate that she has used county census records, tax records, family histories, and slave memoirs, as well as secondary sources like Eugene Genvese's Roll Jordan Roll and Kenneth Stampp's The Peculiar Institution.

The words of the enslaved persons and the slaveholders themselves add poignancy to an already moving story. Berry seeks to show that women were skilled in many areas besides household duties, and that it was the skill, not the gender, that was important to the plantation owners and the society.

She draws an interesting distinction between the "upcountry" situation and coastal Georgia. Because of the size of the rice and cotton plantations in Glynn County, there was a "closed nature" of the system there, i.e., slaves did not travel from their home often. In areas like Wilkes County, however, farms were smaller, and there was interaction among bondpeople sometimes. Here, "mate selection often transcended plantation boundaries because most slaveholding units contained fewer than 15 slaves."

She covers many topics such as work parties and socializing among the enslaved people, and the advantages and disadvantages of nonagricultural labor, as well as religious instruction and preaching. Discussion of "paid" labor and the informal economy help the reader understand more about the lives she describes.

Berry has written a scholarly work; she introduces each chapter by telling what will be covered and closes with a summary. Transitions are not always clear. However, the powerful, well-researched content compensates for lapses in style.

Swing the Sickle is available at the Mary Willis Library.

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