I’m writing a book that takes place in Charleston in 1861, and one of the main characters is a young slave girl. I want to present her and her family accurately, as I know a lot of history regarding the personal lives of enslaved black people gets watered down and ignored. Especially as a white girl, I don’t want to misrepresent the true history, and really want black people to be a part of creating characters to represent them. Thanks!
There has been a lot of work done on the history of slavery in South Carolina. Some good starting points for your research would be:
Cynthia Kennedy, Braided Relations, Entwined Lives: The Women of Charleston's Urban Slave Society (2005) This one is probably most closely linked to your topic.
John Garrison Marks, Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery: Race Status, and Identity in the Urban Americas (2020) This book takes a comparative view, comparing slavery in urban South Carolina with slavery in Cartagena, Columbia.
Stephanie McCurry, Masters of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households, Gender Relations, and the Political Culture of the the Antebellum South Carolina Lowcountry (1995) This book does an amazing job of portraying the world-view of antebellum white Southerners -- which was very different indeed from the world-view of modern Americans! I would say it is a must-read for anyone who is thinking about writing a novel set in this time and place.
Catherine Taylor Matthews, The Leverett Letters: Correspondence of a South Carolina Family, 1851-1868 (2000) This book is a collection of primary sources, letters written by an elite South Carolina family before, during, and after the Civil War.
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