The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered

Timothy R. Buckner

ISBN 10: 0807179949 / ISBN 13: 9780807179949

Editore: Louisiana State University Press, US, 2023

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Winner of the Jules and Frances Landry AwardHistorians have long considered the diary of William Johnson, a wealthy free Black barber in Natchez, Mississippi, to be among the most significant sources on free African Americans living in the antebellum South. Timothy R. Buckner's The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered reexamines Johnson's life using recent scholarship on Black masculinity as an essential lens, demonstrating a complexity to Johnson previously overlooked in academic studies.While Johnson's profession as a barber helped him gain acceptance and respectability, it also required his subservience to the needs of his all-white clientele. Buckner's research counters earlier assumptions that suggested Johnson held himself apart from Natchez's Black population, revealing instead a man balanced between deep connections to the broader African American community and the necessity to cater to white patrons for economic and social survival.Buckner also highlights Johnson's participation in the southern performance of manliness to a degree rarely seen in recent studies of Black masculinity. Like many other free Black men, Johnson asserted his manhood in ways beyond simply rebelling against slavery; he also competed with other men, white and Black, free and enslaved, in various masculine pursuits, including gambling, hunting, and fishing. Buckner's long-overdue reevaluation of the contents of Johnson's diary serves as a corrective to earlier works and a fascinating new account of a free African American business owner residing in the prewar South.

Codice articolo LU-9780807179949

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered
• Editore: Louisiana State University Press, US
• Data di pubblicazione: 2023
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0807179949
• ISBN 13: 9780807179949
• Rilegatura: Hardback
• Condizione: New
• Dimensioni: 15,24 L x 1,78 A x 22,86 P centimetri 15,24 centimetri di larghezza per 1,78 centimetri di altezza per 22,86 centimetri di profondità
• Peso: 272 grammi

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Winner of the Jules and Frances Landry Award

Historians have long considered the diary of William Johnson, a wealthy free Black barber in Natchez, Mississippi, to be among the most significant sources on free African Americans living in the antebellum South. Timothy R. Buckner’s The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered reexamines Johnson’s life using recent scholarship on Black masculinity as an essential lens, demonstrating a complexity to Johnson previously overlooked in academic studies.

While Johnson’s profession as a barber helped him gain acceptance and respectability, it also required his subservience to the needs of his all-white clientele. Buckner’s research counters earlier assumptions that suggested Johnson held himself apart from Natchez’s Black population, revealing instead a man balanced between deep connections to the broader African American community and the necessity to cater to white patrons for economic and social survival.

Buckner also highlights Johnson’s participation in the southern performance of manliness to a degree rarely seen in recent studies of Black masculinity. Like many other free Black men, Johnson asserted his manhood in ways beyond simply rebelling against slavery; he also competed with other men, white and Black, free and enslaved, in various masculine pursuits, including gambling, hunting, and fishing. Buckner’s long-overdue reevaluation of the contents of Johnson’s diary serves as a corrective to earlier works and a fascinating new account of a free African American business owner residing in the prewar South.

Informazioni sull?autore

Timothy R. Buckner is associate professor of history at Troy University and coeditor of Fathers, Preachers, Rebels, Men: Black Masculinity in U.S. History and Literature, 1820–1945.