Book

Accounting for slavery : masters and management

Rosenthal, Caitlin, author

Overview

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.-- Provided by publisher

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Subject: Slavery Economic aspects United States History 18th century. / Slavery Economic aspects United States History 19th century. / Slavery Economic aspects West Indies, British History 18th century. / Slavery Economic aspects West Indies, British History 19th century. / Human capital United States History. / Human capital West Indies, British History. / Plantations United States Accounting History. / Plantations West Indies, British Accounting History. / Plantation owners United States History. / Plantation owners West Indies, British History.
• ISBN: 9780674972094

Item info:

1 item available

1 item total in all locations

Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
HT905.R67 2018	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE