Accounting for Slavery

Learn how Southern planter-capitalists used early forms of scientific management to turn their power over enslaved people into a productivity advantage. Accounting for Slavery challenges the traditional depiction of slavery as a barrier to innovation, revealing how elite planters employed meticulous note-taking and experiments to improve daily profits and productivity. By analyzing old accounting books from Southern and West Indian plantations, the author provides a groundbreaking investigation of business practices in relation to slavery and capitalism.