Elsewhere, we learn how the plantation impacted the lives of rural black fami-
lies in both the antebellum and postbellum periods and how the plantation system
continues to exercise a powerful influence over the cultural representations, nar-
ratives, and traditions (as found in plantation tours) by which we, as a society,
define our past. Perhaps most generally, it has been argued that social inequality
in the slave plantation significantly contributed to the creation and institutional-
ization of racial and class divisions that have endured and influenced relations
between blacks and whites for several centuries.

Of course, one book cannot explore all the ways that plantation society influ-
enced the social history of America, nor can it investigate all aspects of the plan-
tation system. This is not the book's purpose. Rather, by directing attention to
these topics, we attempt to heighten sensitivity to and understanding of these
issues. By doing so, a basis is established for further research, which could build
upon this collection of investigations and interpretations of plantation society,
race relations, and social inequality.

Durant Thomas J., Jr. "The Enduring Legacy of an African-American Plantation Church."
Journal of Negro History LXXX ( 1995). 81-95.

Giddens Anthony. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuralism.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984.

Knottnerus J. David. "Social Structure: An Introductory Essay." Special Issue of The
Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 22 ( 1996). 7-13.

Knottnerus J. David, and Christopher Prendergast, eds. Recent Developments in the The-
ory of Social Structure. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1994.

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