| Planters, Merchants, and Slaves: Plantation Societies in British America, 1650-1820 Contributor(s): Burnard, Trevor (Author) |
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ISBN: 022663924X ISBN-13: 9780226639246 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $34.65 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - History | United States - Colonial Period (1600-1775) - History | Caribbean & West Indies - General |
| Dewey: 306.349 |
| Series: American Beginnings, 1500-1900 |
| Physical Information: 0.82" H x 6" W x 9" (1.19 lbs) 360 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Caribbean & West Indies |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Burnard, Trevor: - Trevor Burnard is professor in and head of the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire and Creole Gentlemen, as well as coeditor of The Routledge History of Slavery. |