The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery

The Drivers Story illuminates the predicament and harrowing struggles of enslaved Black drivers in the Caribbean and the Americas, who were tasked with supervising and punishing other enslaved laborers while also protecting them and organizing rebellions. It shows that drivers were at the center of enslaved peoples working lives, social relationships, and struggles against slavery, and that they played a crucial role in maintaining the system of enslavement.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 07 May 2024
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

The story of the driver is a crucial part of the Atlantic slavery narrative, as enslavers developed the driving system in the seventeenth-century Caribbean to address their fundamental challenge of extracting labor from captive workers who had every reason to resist. In this system, enslaved Black drivers were responsible for supervising and punishing other enslaved laborers. Randy M. Browne's insightful and unsettling account of slavery and racial capitalism, "The Drivers Story," sheds light on the predicament and harrowing struggles of these men and sometimes women at the heart of the plantation world. Browne explores the question of what it meant to be caught between the insatiable labor demands of white plantation authorities and the constant resistance of one's fellow enslaved laborers. Through his meticulous research, Browne reveals that drivers played a pivotal role in enslaved peoples' working lives, social relationships, and struggles against slavery. They enforced labor discipline, confronted the resistance of their fellow enslaved laborers, and sought to maintain a position that helped them survive in a world where enslaved people were treated as disposable. Drivers also protected the people they supervised, negotiating workloads and customary rights to essentials like food and rest with white authorities. Within the slave community, drivers helped other enslaved people create a sense of belonging, as husbands and fathers, as Big Men, and as leaders of diasporic African "nations." Sometimes, drivers even organized rebellions, sabotaging the very system they were appointed to support. "The Drivers Story" is a compelling and original work that enriches our understanding of the never-ending war between enslavers and enslaved laborers by focusing on its front line. It also brings us face-to-face with the horrors of slavery and the resilience of the enslaved people who fought against it.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781512825862