What was it like to be a slave in colonial South Africa? What difference did freedom make? The questions themselves are simply put, but John Edwin Mason has found complex answers after delving deeply into the slaves’ experience within the slaveholding patriarchal household, the work that slaves performed, the families they created, and the religions they practiced. Grounding his analysis within the context of South Africa’s incorporation into the British Empire―primarily examining the period of 1820–50―Mason investigates a wealth of documentation from the British Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Colonial officials, particularly the slave protectors, created and preserved a rich archive within which the voices of slaves and slaveholders, free blacks, and poor whites are recorded, and from which Mason presents vividly descriptive and telling accounts of slave life.  In Social Death and Resurrection Mason draws upon Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson’s theory that a slave’s social degradation rendered him socially dead. "Social death" defined slavery in the ideal, slavery as it would have been had the slaves played along. But in colonial South Africa slaves did not play along: they fought the lash and resisted domination, retaining a cultural and moral community of their own. Mason investigates the subsequent "resurrection" of slaves following their successful struggle to preserve family, faith, community ties, and human dignity, despite their class domination and racial subjugation by slaveowners.Although slavery officially came to an end with a series of reforms during a mid-nineteenth-century period of modernization and reform, the British colonial state’s commitment to formal equality was in fact compatible with continued class domination. As a result, slaves did not entirely cease to be slaves, but through their own efforts and some governmental assistance, they achieved at least a partial victory over slavery’s violence, marginalization, and degradation.Reconsiderations in Southern African History

Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa (Reconsiderations in Southern African History)

History

Mason, Professor John Edwin

Africa

University of Virginia Press

What was it like to be a slave in colonial South Africa? What difference did freedom make? 
The questions themselves are simply put, but John Edwin Mason has found complex answers after delving deeply into the slaves’ experience within the slaveholding patriarchal household, the work that slaves performed, the families they created, and the religions they practiced. Grounding his analysis within the context of South Africa’s incorporation into the British Empire―primarily examining the period of 1820–50―Mason investigates a wealth of documentation from the British Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Colonial officials, particularly the slave protectors, created and preserved a rich archive within which the voices of slaves and slaveholders, free blacks, and poor whites are recorded, and from which Mason presents vividly descriptive and telling accounts of slave life.
 In Social Death and Resurrection Mason draws upon Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson’s theory that a slave’s social degradation rendered him socially dead. "Social death" defined slavery in the ideal, slavery as it would have been had the slaves played along. But in colonial South Africa slaves did not play along: they fought the lash and resisted domination, retaining a cultural and moral community of their own. Mason investigates the subsequent "resurrection" of slaves following their successful struggle to preserve family, faith, community ties, and human dignity, despite their class domination and racial subjugation by slaveowners.
Although slavery officially came to an end with a series of reforms during a mid-nineteenth-century period of modernization and reform, the British colonial state’s commitment to formal equality was in fact compatible with continued class domination. As a result, slaves did not entirely cease to be slaves, but through their own efforts and some governmental assistance, they achieved at least a partial victory over slavery’s violence, marginalization, and degradation.
Reconsiderations in Southern African History

One Love, Ghoema Beat: Inside the Cape Town Carnival takes readers behind the scenes of one of the world’s least known and most colorful carnivals. Similar in many ways to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, the Cape Town Carnival is unique in its history, which is rooted in South Africa’s troubled past, and in its music, which is propelled by the mesmerizing ghoema beat.
 In 2006, historian and photographer John Edwin Mason joined the Pennsylvanians Crooning Minstrels, one of the best known of Cape Town’s sixty-plus Carnival troupes. For the next four seasons, he took part in the troupe’s rehearsals, street marches, and competitions. He also spent time with other troupes, getting to know their members and traditions. This unprecedented access allowed him to photograph every phase of the troupe’s life―the spectacular parades and grueling late-night practice sessions, the frenetic workshops of drum makers and tailors, the rituals of donning costumes and makeup, and the joy and agony of inter-troupe competitions. His photos simultaneously dazzle the eye and engage the mind.
 Mason lived in Cape Town in 1989 and 1990 and has visited the city yearly ever since. One Love, Ghoema Beat is his second book about the city’s culture and history.

One Love, Ghoema Beat: Inside the Cape Town Carnival (Reconsiderations in Southern African History)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mason, Professor John Edwin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mason, Professor John Edwin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mason, Professor John Edwin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa (Reconsiderations in Southern African History)

Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa (Reconsiderations in Southern African History)

One Love, Ghoema Beat: Inside the Cape Town Carnival (Reconsiderations in Southern African History)