Reputation and 'reputational entrepreneurship' in the colonial South and early republic

The Case of Plantation Overseers

Bibliographic Data

ID4558084
AuthorsLaura R Sandy (0000-0002-2054-8159, Manchester Metropolitan University), Laura Sandy (Manchester Metropolitan University), Gervase Phillips (0000-0002-6522-5417, University of Liverpool)
Year2021
Volume94
Issue263
Pages96-116
Publication date2021-03-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistorical Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0950-3471 • E-ISSN: 1468-2281
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hisres/htaa033
OpenAlexW3112284115
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

Overseers were essential both to the profitability of North American slave plantations and to maintaining white racial hegemony. Yet they and their families were frequently condemned by planters as shiftless, incompetent, dishonest and brutal. Drawing on the sociology of reputation, and in particular the concept of 'reputational entrepreneurship', this article argues that the damning claims made by planters, and the responses of overseers and their wives, reveal an ongoing and significant social conflict within white colonial society between wealthy, but insecure, planter 'patriarchs' and their free, ambitious and independently minded employees

Capitalism · Colonialism · Economic history · Economics · Entrepreneurship · Hegemony · Political science · Politics · Profitability index · Reputation · Social science · Sociology · White (mutation) · American History and Culture · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Finance · Law · Race, History, and American Society

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