Laura R. Sandy - 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.

Laura R. Sandy is a Senior Lecturer in American history at the University of Liverpool and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of International Slavery.

Routledge Advances in American History

The Other Side of Vietnam

The Pragmatic Tradition in the Age of McCarthyism

U.S. World War II Memory, 1984 and Beyond

Spears of Promise, Shields of Truth

Of Handcuffs and Bootstraps

Georgia and South Carolina, ca. 1700ca. 1820

Supervisors, Enslaved Labourers, and the Plantation Enterprise

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Supervisors, Enslaved Labourers, and the Plantation Enterprise

First published 2020

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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2020 Taylor & Francis

The right of Laura R. Sandy to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Names: Sandy, Laura R., author.

Title: The overseers of early American slavery : supervisors, enslaved labourers, and the plantation enterprise / Laura R. Sandy.

Other titles: Routledge advances in American history ; 17.

Description: New York, NY : Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. |

Series: Routledge advances in American history ; 17 |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019059771 | ISBN 9780367419646 (hardback) |

ISBN 9780367817015 (ebook) | ISBN 9781000048865 (adobe pdf) |

ISBN 9781000048940 (mobi) | ISBN 9781000048964 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Plantation overseersUnited States

History18th century. | SlaveryUnited StatesHistory

18th century. | United StatesRace relationsHistory 18th century.

Classification: LCC E443 .S26 2020 | DDC 306.3/620973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059771

ISBN: 978-0-367-41964-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-81701-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon

by codeMantra

Frontispiece: Advertisement for a plantation overseer with a wife, 17 September 1765, South Carolina Gazette. Charleston Library Society Collections

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This book is dedicated to my grandfather, William, my Uncle Peter, my dear friend Anthony Carrigan, and my god-daughter, Maja, who all serve as constant inspirations. My mother, father, and brother have provided the love and support, through thick and thin, which keeps me going.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Routledge, especially Max Novick, Jennifer Morrow, and Megan Hiatt, who have been exceedingly efficient and fantastic to work with. Fred Kameny and David Laber both deserve a special mention for doing an excellent job of helping me polish the final draft and catch anything my eyes had missed.

I am very grateful to Norris Nash and Natalie Zacek for the quality of their guidance and unending patience with me at the beginning of this project and for the continued support over the years. I would also especially like to thank Gervase Phillips and Emily West, for being both brilliant and dedicated colleagues and friends. Their care and attention to every word that this book contains and their unending support with the most trying aspects of producing this book have been instrumental in its completion. Words cannot express my gratitude.

The intellectual engagement and overwhelming generosity of colleagues have been vital along the way. Many, many wonderful conversations and shared knowledge have helped inform and expand my way of thinking over the years. Numerous colleagues across the globe have offered input, and advice, and persistent encouragement. In particular, I would like to thank Mary Thompson, Lorena Walsh, Rhys Isaac, Gwenda Morgan, Catherine Clinton, Trevor Burnard, Andrew OShaughnessy, Sowande Mustakeen, Christa Dierksheide, Gabriele Rausse, Crystal Ptacek, Derek Wheeler, and the Archaeology team at Monticello, Jennifer Black, Jessica Stern, Hunt Boulware, Daniel Livesay, Majorie Spruill, Don Doyle, Marie Molloy, Mary Elliot, Sally Hadden, Susan-Mary Grant, Sylvia Frey, Connie Schulz, Becky Fraser, David Gleeson, David Brown, Viv Caruana, Jenifer Gross, Alfred Brophy, Stephen Mullins, Allison Wickens, Bill Abbott, Shannon Eaves, Adam Domby, Whitney Pippen, Gay Wilson, Niya Bates, Gayle Jessup-White, Jack White, Frank Cogliano, Faye Sayer, April Pudsey, Glyn Redworth, Ana Carden-Coyne, Elizabeth Toon, Atreyee Sen, Rachel Rich, Rosie Knight, Kevin Butterfield, Phil McCluskey, Kirt von Daacke, Rabia Belt, John Bell, Bonnie Effros, Anna Bocking-Welch, Beth Johnson, Clare Barker, Nick Seager, Emma Anderson, Claire Eldridge, Christienna Fryar, Sam Caslin, Tamson Pietsch, Glen O Hara, James Cateridge, Cam Addis, Mike Klapka, Leon Rocha, Stephen Kenny, Liz Barnes, Beth Wilson, Stephanie Lawton, Stephen Mullins, Abi Stone, Claire Eldridge, Liz Bracken, Frank Lennon, Neil McDonald, Val Brennan, and Viv Caruana. Thank you all for spurring me on and expanding my horizons during the course of this project.