Mastered by the Clock: Time, Slavery, and Freedom in the American South.(Review)

Mastered by the Clock: Time, Slavery, and Freedom in the American South. By Mark M. Smith. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. 303 pp. $45 cloth, $16.95 paper.

Mastered by the Clock takes us to early eighteenth century plantation life in colonial South Carolina, not as an excursion into the interesting high-lights of another place and time; but more like a fact-finding expedition that helps us solve a mystery about ourselves and current world. The author carefully details everyday life built on the foundations of pre-clock natural time: from the rituals at sunrise, the brief rest from the scorching mid-day sun, chores at dusk, relief of the …