Genovese

Interestingly enough this is my favorite book so far, but also the one I least understand.  I really enjoyed the thorough description and analysis of slave life in the antebellum period.  It gave me a much better understanding of the complexities of the variety of relationships that were formed during this era.  Having said that, I am really having a hard time pin pointing Genovese's central argument.  I believe that he is arguing that paternalism was successful in keeping slaves in a system of servitude, but also recognized their humanity and provided fuel to for them to change their situation.  Similarly, I think he argues that religion also acted as mechanism to continue the slaveholders hegemony, but also provided a support system for slaves that factored into a yearning for freedom.  Hopefully these hypotheses are not completely wrong!