The Reputation of the Slave Trader in Southern History and the Social Memory of the South
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16769039 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Tadman (Huntington's Disease Association, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 247-271 |
| Publication date | 2007-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Nineteenth Century History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1466-4658 • E-ISSN: 1743-7903 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14664650701505117 |
| OpenAlex | W2053104761 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
Proslavery propagandists developed a standard line on the domestic slave trade: the trade was of only marginal importance to the system of slavery, and the trader was an outcast. In recent decades, historians have recognised a strong propaganda element in this position but—even in recent specialist studies of the trade—the assumption has been that notions of paternalism must have caused owners to feel a measure of unease in dealing with the trader. The present study brings new evidence to dispute this assumption and suggests that traders found no difficulty in being accepted as respected citizens of the Old South. The essay points to two key elements in the proslavery position on the trade—first, the notion of the trader as outcast, and second the concept that black people were not capable of deep and lasting emotional suffering. The ‘trader as outcast’ operated at the level of propaganda and was not really believed: the concept of superficial black emotions operated at a deeper level and was internalised by owners. Notions about shallow black emotions allowed slaveholders to break up families and to deal comfortably with the trader while still maintaining a self‐image as benevolent paternalists
Economics · Element (criminal law · Law and economics · Paternalism · Political science · Position (finance · Reputation · Sociology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Race, History, and American Society · Finance
Life and labor in the old South
Roll, Jordan, roll
The Peculiar Institution
The Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern States, by Winfield H. Collins
American Negro Slavery
The Merchant in Antebellum Southern Literature and Society
The shadow of the civil war
Isaac Franklin
The Slave Trade and Sectionalism in South Carolina, 1787-1808
Reading, Intimacy, and the Role of Uncle Remus in White Southern Social Memory
Slave Trading in the Old South
A Troublesome Commerce
Memorials of a Southern Planter
Carry Me Back
American Slavery in History and Memory and the Search for Social Justice
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.08 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2013 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |