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

Burnard, Trevor

Trevor Burnard

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.

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