Enslaved Africans’ Rivalry with White Overseers in Plantation Culture

An Unconventional Interpretation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID18976306
AutoresWilliam E Wiethoff (Indiana University, autor correspondente)
Ano2006
Volume36
Fascículo3
Páginas429-455
Data de publicação2006-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Black Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0021-9347 • E-ISSN: 1552-4566
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0021934704273958
OpenAlexW2034962419
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas50

Conventional wisdom about the Old South excludes slaves from the ranks of plantation overseers. However, a preference for restrictive types of evidence and a race-sensitive system for assigning titles in plantation culture raise questions about the accuracy of conventional wisdom. Reexamining conventional scholarship and supplementing it with slave narratives and legal resources suggest that slaves served as overseers more frequently and more competently than previously reported. First, an analysis of both Black and White narratives across the Old South reveals many instances where slaves performed the duties of overseers without carrying that title. Second, drawing on a comparison with the rivalry between Black and White urban workers, an analysis of salary data for White overseers suggests that their competition for work with slaves contributed to other factors that depressed their value to planters

Art · Competition (biology) · Economics · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Preference · Race (biology) · Rivalry · Salary · Scholarship · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · White (mutation) · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law