ENGLISH

Planters, Merchants, and Slaves: Plantation Societies in British America, 1650-1820

By Trevor Burnard

Book information

Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Year
2015
ISBN
9780226286242
DOI
10.7208/9780226286242
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (2375047 bytes)
Pages
360\368
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-15 05:55:06

Description

As with any enterprise involving violence and lots of money, running a plantation in early British America was a serious and brutal enterprise. In the contentious Planters, Merchants, and Slaves, Burnard argues that white men did not choose to develop and maintain the plantation system out of virulent racism or sadism, but rather out of economic logic because—to speak bluntly—it worked. These economically successful and ethically monstrous plantations required racial divisions to exist, but their successes were measured in gold, rather than skin or blood. Sure to be controversial, this book is a major intervention in the scholarship on slavery, economic development, and political power in early British America, mounting a powerful and original argument that boldly challenges historical orthodoxy.

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