The introduction presents an overview of the literature on the family and masculinity within slavery, arguing that in order to appreciate the adaptability and multiplicity of enslaved families, scholars should focus on how kin units functioned rather than on the form of households. To fully understand fatherhood within slavery, it is critical to recognize multilocal kin networks and to assess the contributions of non-resident, but engaged fathers. This book builds on recent scholarship that posits multiple masculinities in enslaved communities and explores the masculine hierarchy of slavery. In the Old South, masculinity took on a public and private dichotomy with public expressions of manhood available only to white men. Enslaved men could at times exhibit masculinity privately and within the bounds of the plantation and slave quarters. One consistent ideal of manhood in African American communities was that of caretaker. The introduction refutes misperceptions of African American families and missing Black fathers, arguing that because enslaved and postwar freedmen lacked access to recognized patriarchal power, their hidden caretaking behavior has long been obscured.
