Accounting for slavery : masters and management /
Rosenthal, Caitlin,
Accounting for slavery : masters and management / Caitlin Rosenthal. - Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, (c)2018. - 1 online resource (xiv, 295 pages) : illustrations, facsimiles
Includes bibliographies and index.
Hierarchies of life and death -- Forms of labor -- Slavery's scientific management -- Human capital -- Managing freedom -- Conclusion: Histories of business and slavery -- Epilogue: Forward to scientific management.
Accounting for Slavery offers a history of business and management practices on slave plantations in the British West Indies and the American South, covering the century from approximately 1780-1880. Far from lagging behind Northern manufacturers, the most sophisticated Southern planters used complex management techniques, measuring and monitoring their human capital with precision. More broadly, the book explores the complex relationship between slavery and capitalism in American history. The traditional story of modern management focuses on the factories of England and New England, largely ignoring plantation economies. Drawing on extensive archival research into plantation accounting practices, the author argues that the harsh realities of slavery were compatible with a highly quantitative, calculating style of management. Planters allocated and reallocated slaves' labor from task to task, precisely monitored their productivity, and depreciated their "human capital" decades before depreciation became a common accounting technique.--
9780674988590 9780674988576
Slavery--Economic aspects--History--United States--18th century.
Slavery--Economic aspects--History--United States--19th century.
Slavery--Economic aspects--History--West Indies, British--18th century.
Slavery--Economic aspects--History--West Indies, British--19th century.
Human capital--History.--United States
Human capital--History.--West Indies, British
Plantations--Accounting--History.--United States
Plantations--Accounting--History.--West Indies, British
Plantation owners--History.--United States
Plantation owners--History.--West Indies, British
Electronic Books.
HT905 / .A236 2018
Accounting for slavery : masters and management / Caitlin Rosenthal. - Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, (c)2018. - 1 online resource (xiv, 295 pages) : illustrations, facsimiles
Includes bibliographies and index.
Hierarchies of life and death -- Forms of labor -- Slavery's scientific management -- Human capital -- Managing freedom -- Conclusion: Histories of business and slavery -- Epilogue: Forward to scientific management.
Accounting for Slavery offers a history of business and management practices on slave plantations in the British West Indies and the American South, covering the century from approximately 1780-1880. Far from lagging behind Northern manufacturers, the most sophisticated Southern planters used complex management techniques, measuring and monitoring their human capital with precision. More broadly, the book explores the complex relationship between slavery and capitalism in American history. The traditional story of modern management focuses on the factories of England and New England, largely ignoring plantation economies. Drawing on extensive archival research into plantation accounting practices, the author argues that the harsh realities of slavery were compatible with a highly quantitative, calculating style of management. Planters allocated and reallocated slaves' labor from task to task, precisely monitored their productivity, and depreciated their "human capital" decades before depreciation became a common accounting technique.--
9780674988590 9780674988576
Slavery--Economic aspects--History--United States--18th century.
Slavery--Economic aspects--History--United States--19th century.
Slavery--Economic aspects--History--West Indies, British--18th century.
Slavery--Economic aspects--History--West Indies, British--19th century.
Human capital--History.--United States
Human capital--History.--West Indies, British
Plantations--Accounting--History.--United States
Plantations--Accounting--History.--West Indies, British
Plantation owners--History.--United States
Plantation owners--History.--West Indies, British
Electronic Books.
HT905 / .A236 2018