Description
Book SynopsisJustene Hill Edwards illuminates the inner workings of the slaves’ economy and the strategies that enslaved people used to participate in the market. Focusing on South Carolina from the colonial period to the Civil War, she examines how the capitalist development of slavery influenced the economic lives of enslaved people.
Trade ReviewCentering enslaved men, women, and children as actors on the grand stage of South Carolina’s economy, Hill Edwards demonstrates that the entrepreneurial enterprises of the enslaved did not undermine the institution of bondage but instead reinforced it. Beautifully written and researched,
Unfree Markets is a welcome addition to the history of African Americans and capitalism. -- Erica Armstrong Dunbar, author of
Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona JudgeA rich study of an important and understudied topic.
Unfree Markets illuminates the many ways enslaved people participated in the expanding markets of early America. Justene Hill Edwards brings new insights to our understanding of how markets changed enslaved people's day-to-day economic lives, never losing sight of the profound ways that these same markets continued to undermine their freedom. -- Caitlin Rosenthal, author of
Accounting for Slavery: Masters and ManagementUnfree Markets deserves distinctions and superlatives for treating enslaved people as economic agents rather than participants in a slave economy segregated from larger processes of commercial life and capitalist development. Edwards brilliantly and convincingly argues that enslavers protected enslaved people’s moneymaking ventures because they realized that the slaves’ economy helped to safeguard their investments in slavery. -- Calvin Schermerhorn, author of
Unrequited Toil: A History of United States SlaveryUnfree Markets is a clearly written, persuasive study that will appeal to anyone interested in slavery, early
capitalism, and the antebellum South. -- Frank J. Byrne, SUNY Oswego * EH.net *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Capitalism in the Economic Lives of Enslaved People
1. “Negroes Publickly Cabaling in the Streets”: The Enslaved Economy and the Culture of Slavery in Colonial South Carolina
2. “This Infamous Traffick”: The Slaves’ Trade in the Age of Revolution
3. “A Dangerous and Growing Practice”: Enslaved Entrepreneurship and the Cotton Economy in the New Nation
4. “The Facility of Obtaining Money”: Violence, Fear, and Accumulation in the Vesey Era
5. “The Negroes’ Accounts”: Capitalist Influences in the Slaves’ Economy
6. “A Monstrous Nuisance”: Enslaved Enterprises, Class Anxieties, and the Coming of the Civil War
Conclusion: “Freedom Ain’t Nothin”: Capitalism and Freedom in the Shadow of Slavery
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
