Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management

313 Pages·2018·31.449 MB·English

by  Caitlin Rosenthal

accounting for slavery

Accounting for Slavery
Masters and ManageMent
Caitlin Rosenthal
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, england
2018
Copyright © 2018 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Rosenthal, Caitlin, author.
Title: Accounting for slavery : masters and management / Caitlin Rosenthal.
Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : Harvard University Press, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017058060 | ISBN 9780674972094 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Slavery— Economic aspects— United States— History—
18th century. | Slavery— Economic aspects— United States— History—
19th century. | Slavery— Economic aspects— West Indies, British— History—
18th century. | Slavery— Economic aspects— West Indies, British— History—
19th century. | Human capital— United States— History. | Human capital—
West Indies, British— History. | Plantations— United States— Accounting—
History. | Plantations— West Indies, British— Accounting— History. |
Plantation owners— United States— History. | Plantation owners—
West Indies, British— History.
Classification: LCC HT905 .R67 2018 | DDC 331.11/734097309033— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2017058060
Cover Design: Tim Jones
Cover Images:
Background: Ledger book from the Eli J. Capell Family Papers Collection,
courtesy of Louisiana State University.
Inset: Picking cotton near Montgomery, Alabama, c 1860, by J. H. Lakin,
courtesy of the Library of Congress.
For my parents, Jim and Cindy

CONTENTS
List of Figures and T ables ix
Preface xi
Introduction 1
1. Hierarchies of Life and Death 9
2. Forms of L abor 49
3. Slavery’s Scientific Management 85
4. H uman Capital 121
5. Managing Freedom 157
Conclusion: Histories of Business and Slavery 187
Postscript: Forward to Scientific Management 199
Notes 207
Acknowl edgments 277
Index 283

FIGURES AND T ABLES
Figures
P.1. The View from the Planter’s Desk. xiii
1.1. Island Estate “Account of Negroes,” 1767. 10
1.2. Digging or Rather Hoeing the Cane Holes, Antigua, 1823. 15
1.3. Henry Dawkins’s Jamaican Properties, 1779. 18
1.4. Enslaved People and Livestock in Clarendon and Vere Parishes,
1779. 20
1.5. Orga nizational Chart for Parnassus Estate, 1779. 24
1.6. Drivers on Parnassus Plantation, 1779. 32
2.1. Work Log for Prospect Estate, 1787. 52
2.2. Monthly Report for Plantations Hope and Experiment, June 1812. 55
2.3. Monthly Report of Increase and Decrease on Friendship
Plantation, August 1828. 59
2.4. Price Current, 1785. 72
2.5. West Indian Practices Suited for a Southern Plantation, 1835. 77
3.1. Advertisement for Thomas Affleck’s Plantation Rec ord and
Account Books, 1854. 89
3.2. Output and Number of Plantations by Size of Slaveholding, 1860. 93
 ix 