The Overseers of Early American Slavery : Supervisors, Enslaved Labourers, and the Plantation Enterprise

"Enmeshed in the exploitative world of racial slavery, overseers were central figures in the management of early American plantation enterprises. All too frequently dismissed as brutal and incompetent, they defy easy categorisation. Some were rogues, yet others were highly skilled professionals, farmers, and artisans. Some were themselves enslaved. They and their wives, with whom they often formed supervisory partnerships, were caught between disdainful planters and defiant enslaved labourers, as they sought to advance their ambitions. Their history, revealed here in unprecedented detail, illuminates the complex power struggles and interplay of class and race in a volatile slave society"-- Provided by publisher This book resurrects the history of overseers and illuminates the complex power struggles and interplay of class and race in a volatile slave society. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 8 Table of Contents 10 List of Figures 12 Frontispiece: Advertisement for a plantation overseer with a wife, 17 September 1765, South Carolina Gazette. Charleston Library Society Collections. 6 1.1 Management Hierarchies on Slave Plantations in the Caribbean, Virginia, and South Carolina in the Eighteenth Century. 43 1.2 Management Hierarchies on Henry Laurens’, Landon Carter’s, and George Washington’s Plantations. 44 2.1 George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence: Burgess Mitchell and George Washington, May 1, Contract for Overseer. May 1,1762. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from theLibrary of Congress, 96 4.1 The Payment of Overseers in Virginia, 1740–1800 157 4.2 The Payment of Overseers in South Carolina, 1740–1800. 158 4.3 Method of Payment of Overseers in Virginia and South Carolina, 1740–1800. 167 List of Tables 14 6.1 Overseers Supervising Plantations on the Mount Vernon Estate, 1760–1774 250 A.1 Backgrounds of George Washington’s Overseers 374 A.2 Backgrounds of Henry Laurens’ Overseers 374 Acknowledgements 16 List of Abbreviations 20 Introduction 22 1 One Plantation World: Overseers and Plantation Management in Eighteenth-Century Virginia and South Carolina 40 2 “But Where Shall We Find a Careful Overseer?”: Recruitment and Duties 82 3 The Overseeing Class? Status, Skill, and Experience 119 4 “Respecting Wages & Privileges”: Contracts, Terms, and Conditions 155 5 “Unmerciful Overseers” and Conflicts of Power: Violence, Defiance, and the Practice of Authority 214 6 A “Good Overseer” and an “Excellent Leader”: Enslaved Overseers and the Plantation Enterprise 246 7 “Clever Active” Women and “Mad Bitches”: Overseeing Wives and Female Supervisors of Slavery 264 8 “The Tyranny and Villainy of Overseers”: Slavery, Overseers, and the American Revolution 299 9 Professionals, Pragmatists, and “Horrid Hellish Rogues”: Challenges, Opportunities, and Prospects of Overseeing 322 Conclusion: Overseers Reassessed 363 Appendix 374 Bibliography 376 Index 404 Plantation,World;,Recruitment,and,Duties;,Unmerciful,Overseers;,Plantation,Enterprise;,American,Revolution Plantation World,Recruitment and Duties,Unmerciful Overseers,Plantation Enterprise,American Revolution Overseers were crucial to the management of early American plantations, and defy easy categorisation: rogues and gentlemen, farmers and artisans, free and unfree. Their history, revealed here in unprecedented detail, illuminates the complex interplay of class and race in a volatile slave society.