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

Burnard, Trevor

Authors



Citation

Burnard, T. (2015). Planters, Merchants and Slaves: Plantation Societies in British America, 1650–1820. University of Chicago Press

Book Type Authored Book
Publication Date 2015-10
Deposit Date May 27, 2020
Series Title American Beginnings, 1500-1900
ISBN 9780226286105
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3512995
Publisher URL https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo21163243.html
Additional Information 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.