Uncommon Ground

Matt McKeon

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Uncommon Ground by Leland Ferguson

To try to recreate the world of the enslaved communities in the colonial southeast, Leland Ferguson uses archaeology to gain insight into the customs and material culture of these people.

He concludes that in South Carolina more than Virginia and Maryland, the Middle Passage didn't entirely blast off African culture, but in naming, food, household items and shelter, a surprising amount was recreated.

I enjoy archaeology and this book very much.
 

Matt McKeon

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Ferguson said that enslaved people(and not just in Antebellum America) have three ways to resist their oppressors: economically, militarily and ideologically. In antebellum slave society, the enslaved resisted somewhat economically by withholding or manipulating labor in some way. Rarely did they attempt the hopeless military challenge. Their victory was ideological: they didn't accept they deserved to be slaves and should hope for nothing more.
 

rittmeister

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Uncommon Ground by Leland Ferguson

To try to recreate the world of the enslaved communities in the colonial southeast, Leland Ferguson uses archaeology to gain insight into the customs and material culture of these people.

He concludes that in South Carolina more than Virginia and Maryland, the Middle Passage didn't entirely blast off African culture, but in naming, food, household items and shelter, a surprising amount was recreated.

I enjoy archaeology and this book very much.

the pic is from the publisher(penguin randomhouse)

 

5fish

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Ferguson said that enslaved people(and not just in Antebellum America) have three ways to resist their oppressors: economically, militarily and ideologically. In antebellum slave society, the enslaved resisted somewhat economically by withholding or manipulating labor in some way. Rarely did they attempt the hopeless military challenge. Their victory was ideological: they didn't accept they deserved to be slaves and should hope for nothing more.
Fogel said plantations were efficient... https://www.jggscivilwartalk.online/index.php?threads/fogel-a-“time-on-the-cross-”.356/

Fogel’s bean-counting approach led to his discovery that plantations, organized in a business-like fashion with their “gang system,” had an assembly line-like efficiency. Hence Southern slavery was fantastically profitable. He calculated, in his books Time on the Crossand Without Consent or Contract, that Southern slavery was 36% more efficient than free Northern farms even though, generally, the soil in the North is better.


Alfred Chandler, who’s probably the most renowned American business historian, wrote in his book “The Visible Hand,” which is the most prominent business history, that plantation overseers were in many ways the first salaried managers in the country. He didn’t conclude then that that made plantations particularly modern. But as I continued to pour through plantation records, I found that not only do we have overseers, but we have under them white managers sometimes called bookkeepers, and beneath them you have enslaved managers – head drivers, head watchman, head smiths and carpenters – each of whom are responsible for managing different aspects of plantation production.

My point is I do not think slaves did much direct resisting...
 

Matt McKeon

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Fogel said plantations were efficient... https://www.jggscivilwartalk.online/index.php?threads/fogel-a-“time-on-the-cross-”.356/

Fogel’s bean-counting approach led to his discovery that plantations, organized in a business-like fashion with their “gang system,” had an assembly line-like efficiency. Hence Southern slavery was fantastically profitable. He calculated, in his books Time on the Crossand Without Consent or Contract, that Southern slavery was 36% more efficient than free Northern farms even though, generally, the soil in the North is better.

Alfred Chandler, who’s probably the most renowned American business historian, wrote in his book “The Visible Hand,” which is the most prominent business history, that plantation overseers were in many ways the first salaried managers in the country. He didn’t conclude then that that made plantations particularly modern. But as I continued to pour through plantation records, I found that not only do we have overseers, but we have under them white managers sometimes called bookkeepers, and beneath them you have enslaved managers – head drivers, head watchman, head smiths and carpenters – each of whom are responsible for managing different aspects of plantation production.

My point is I do not think slaves did much direct resisting...
Ferguson cited some examples. As noted, resistance brought intense retaliation.
 

5fish

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Here is a letter from one of James Polk slaves named blacksmith Bill to Polk... notice he mention he has 12 children implying he increase Polk's wealth by 12 new slaves... Letter has other details like calling James Polk , Master Jimmy... Implying he has known James Polk as a child...

 
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