What do you think?
Rate this book
Enslaved Archives: Slavery, Law, and the Production of the Past
Explores the relationship between the production of enslaved property and the production of the past in the antebellum United States.
It is extraordinarily difficult for historians to reconstruct the lives of individual enslaved people. Records—where they exist—are often fragmentary, biased, or untrue. In Enslaved Archives, Maria R. Montalvo investigates the legal records, including contracts and court records, that American antebellum enslavers produced and preserved to illuminate enslavers' capitalistic motivations for shaping the histories of enslaved people. The documentary archive was not simply a by-product of the business of slavery, but also a necessary tool that enslavers used to exploit the people they enslaved.
Building on Montalvo's analysis of more than 18,000 sets of court records, Enslaved Archives is a close study of what we can and cannot learn about enslaved individuals from the written record. By examining five lawsuits in Louisiana, Montalvo deconstructs enslavers' cases—the legal arguments and rhetorical strategies they used to produce information and shape perceptions of enslaved people. Commodifying enslaved people was not simply a matter of effectively exploiting their labor. Enslavers also needed to control information about those people. Enslavers' narratives—carefully manipulated, prone to omissions, and sometimes false—often survive as the only account of an enslaved individual's life.
In working to historicize the people at the center of enslavers' manipulations, Montalvo outlines the possibilities and limits of the archive, providing a glimpse of the historical and contemporary consequences of commodification. Enslaved Archives makes a significant intervention in the history of enslaved people, legal history, and the history of slavery and capitalism by adding a qualitative dimension to the analysis of how enslavers created and maintained power.
It is extraordinarily difficult for historians to reconstruct the lives of individual enslaved people. Records—where they exist—are often fragmentary, biased, or untrue. In Enslaved Archives, Maria R. Montalvo investigates the legal records, including contracts and court records, that American antebellum enslavers produced and preserved to illuminate enslavers' capitalistic motivations for shaping the histories of enslaved people. The documentary archive was not simply a by-product of the business of slavery, but also a necessary tool that enslavers used to exploit the people they enslaved.
Building on Montalvo's analysis of more than 18,000 sets of court records, Enslaved Archives is a close study of what we can and cannot learn about enslaved individuals from the written record. By examining five lawsuits in Louisiana, Montalvo deconstructs enslavers' cases—the legal arguments and rhetorical strategies they used to produce information and shape perceptions of enslaved people. Commodifying enslaved people was not simply a matter of effectively exploiting their labor. Enslavers also needed to control information about those people. Enslavers' narratives—carefully manipulated, prone to omissions, and sometimes false—often survive as the only account of an enslaved individual's life.
In working to historicize the people at the center of enslavers' manipulations, Montalvo outlines the possibilities and limits of the archive, providing a glimpse of the historical and contemporary consequences of commodification. Enslaved Archives makes a significant intervention in the history of enslaved people, legal history, and the history of slavery and capitalism by adding a qualitative dimension to the analysis of how enslavers created and maintained power.
184 pages, Hardcover
Published July 16, 2024
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 28, 2025
I picked up Enslaved Archives for the Book Review Assignment I needed to complete for my Archives and Manuscripts course. Despite reading because of an assignment, I found myself fully encapsulated by the narrative that Montalvo put on paper.
The specific cases used and examined are those that focus on warranty disputes and freedom suits because these specific kinds of cases centered on the histories and backgrounds of the individual enslaved person. These cases showcase at what points and to what lengths enslavers would go to manipulate paper and archives to control what others were able to know and learn of the people they bought, sold, and owned. Montalvo centers on discussing when information regarding enslaved people became worth controlling and recording, explores what it meant to be enslaved, and the long-term consequences of scholars invested in historicizing enslaved people. The efforts of enslavers to control information yielded important ramifications and consequences for those that they enslaved, a cardinal consideration for those that wish to learn about the past.
The work Montalvo does to contextualize the written record is to give life and agency to enslaved peoples because past histories have denied them this. The only records of enslaved people come from legal documentation and the Archival record of the time is biased and fragmented because of enslaver manipulation and fabrication. Montalvo’s examination of these cases is valuable; it shows that while researchers and scholars may not have infinite power over the data and information provided, an individual still has the ability to choose the lessons “we wish to learn and unlearn."
As researchers and scholars, we choose the context and narrative we see and take from primary sources. It becomes a responsibility to pick up the pieces and rip control of the historical narrative from the enslavers, creating a physical analog to the record, and engaging with enslaved persons, fighting for enslaved people’s histories. It becomes, in ways, a manner of returning agency to those that had it viciously taken from them.
Enslaved Archives made me think deeply of archival record, and the ways it was a segregated and racist institution for so long. Give Montalvo's work a read, not just to deconstruct the five lawsuits examined, but to think about the scope of archives in the United States before the 20th Century. Think about what is able and not able to be learned about enslaved individuals from the written record when many records from the time regarding enslaved peoples are biased, fragmented, or untrue.
The specific cases used and examined are those that focus on warranty disputes and freedom suits because these specific kinds of cases centered on the histories and backgrounds of the individual enslaved person. These cases showcase at what points and to what lengths enslavers would go to manipulate paper and archives to control what others were able to know and learn of the people they bought, sold, and owned. Montalvo centers on discussing when information regarding enslaved people became worth controlling and recording, explores what it meant to be enslaved, and the long-term consequences of scholars invested in historicizing enslaved people. The efforts of enslavers to control information yielded important ramifications and consequences for those that they enslaved, a cardinal consideration for those that wish to learn about the past.
The work Montalvo does to contextualize the written record is to give life and agency to enslaved peoples because past histories have denied them this. The only records of enslaved people come from legal documentation and the Archival record of the time is biased and fragmented because of enslaver manipulation and fabrication. Montalvo’s examination of these cases is valuable; it shows that while researchers and scholars may not have infinite power over the data and information provided, an individual still has the ability to choose the lessons “we wish to learn and unlearn."
As researchers and scholars, we choose the context and narrative we see and take from primary sources. It becomes a responsibility to pick up the pieces and rip control of the historical narrative from the enslavers, creating a physical analog to the record, and engaging with enslaved persons, fighting for enslaved people’s histories. It becomes, in ways, a manner of returning agency to those that had it viciously taken from them.
Enslaved Archives made me think deeply of archival record, and the ways it was a segregated and racist institution for so long. Give Montalvo's work a read, not just to deconstruct the five lawsuits examined, but to think about the scope of archives in the United States before the 20th Century. Think about what is able and not able to be learned about enslaved individuals from the written record when many records from the time regarding enslaved peoples are biased, fragmented, or untrue.
July 21, 2025
In this nonfiction history book, Maria Montalvo discusses the legal contracts and redhibition laws of New Orleans through five lawsuits involving enslavers.
Montalvo argues that the redhibition laws had reinforced the commodification of people. She highlights the ways enslavers manipulated those laws to their advantage, "incentivizing sales, securing advantageous terms, and managing risk" by controlling the histories and biographies of the enslaved (13).
In the beginning pages, some parts of the introduction felt somewhat repetitive; nevertheless, the book is interesting, and Montalvo's writing is accessible. At just 158 pages it is not difficult to read, yet she provides insightful information about how the institution of slavery deprived Black people of even the most basic autobiographical knowledge.
This provides further context for the grief many of the authors of the slave narratives express about not knowing their birth date or parentage.
I recommend it, especially if you have any interest in the history of slavery in the US.
Montalvo argues that the redhibition laws had reinforced the commodification of people. She highlights the ways enslavers manipulated those laws to their advantage, "incentivizing sales, securing advantageous terms, and managing risk" by controlling the histories and biographies of the enslaved (13).
In the beginning pages, some parts of the introduction felt somewhat repetitive; nevertheless, the book is interesting, and Montalvo's writing is accessible. At just 158 pages it is not difficult to read, yet she provides insightful information about how the institution of slavery deprived Black people of even the most basic autobiographical knowledge.
This provides further context for the grief many of the authors of the slave narratives express about not knowing their birth date or parentage.
I recommend it, especially if you have any interest in the history of slavery in the US.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews