"Mastering Emotions examines the role emotions played in the power dynamics between enslaved people and slaveholders in the antebellum South. Drawing on a variety of sources, Mastering Emotions explores how emotions were deployed to both reinforce and resist enslavement, and the post-Emancipation reverberations of the emotional politics of slavery" --

Introduction. The Emotional Politics of Slavery
Chapter 1. "To Change Their Sentiments"
Chapter 2. "Born and Reared in Slavery"
Chapter 3. "The Pursuit of Happiness"
Chapter 4. "Breach of Confidence"
Chapter 5. "Fear No Lash, nor Worse"
Chapter 6. "Enjoying Freedom"
Epilogue. "The Sentiment Left by Slavery Is Still with Us"
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments

Erin Austin Dwyer is Assistant Professor of History at Oakland University.