Unfree markets : the slaves' economy and the rise of capitalism in South Carolina

Author / Creator

Hill Edwards, Justene, author

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Online

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Summary

"Centering the slaves' economy in the rapid growth of capitalist enterprise in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American South, Justene Hill Edwards explores the detrimental influence of capi...

"Centering the slaves' economy in the rapid growth of capitalist enterprise in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American South, Justene Hill Edwards explores the detrimental influence of capitalist innovation on slaves' economic pursuits in South Carolina, the most pro-slavery state in America. Examining the strategies enslaved people used to make money and obtain goods for themselves, and one of the fullest accounts to date of slaves' market practices, Edwards argues that the slaves' economy helped to fuel South Carolina's economic growth--which meant a continuation of the violent and exploitative regime that shaped slave's lives. Enslaved peoples' slow loss of economic autonomy coincided with the capitalist evolution of slavery. Edwards starts by looking at the economic activity of slaves during colonial era South Carolina, considering how they navigated the laws and institutions of slavery in trading with both free and enslaved people. She looks at how the social unrest of the American Revolution provided opportunity for increased trade, and explores the growing autonomy enslaved people saw in trade, often formalized through the courts. However, as the plantations turned their attention to increased profitability, plantation owners increasingly looked to their slave's economic activity as an source of profit. So began the erosion of economic autonomy, as the gains from trade were increasingly captured by slave owners"--

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