Masters of Violence , livre ebook

Masters of Violence
The Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World Sponsored by the Program in the Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World of the College of Charleston
Masters of Violence
The Plantation Overseers of Eighteenth-Century
Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia
Tristan Stubbs

The University of South Carolina Press
2018 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
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ISBN 978-1-61117-884-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-61117-885-2 (ebook)
Front cover image by Benjamin Henry Latrobe
For Gertrud, Hanna, and Elias
Contents
Acknowledgments
A Note on Terminology
Introduction
To treat them inhumanly -Overseeing in the Eighteenth Century
- Chapter One -
A continual exercise of our Patience and Economy
The Structure of Oversight, Patriarchism, and Dependence in Pre-Revolutionary Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia
- Chapter Two -
Douptfull of my Diligence
Overseer Recruitment and Character Requirements
- Chapter Three -
Nothing pleases me better than to see them in good order
Contractual Relationships between Overseers and Planters
- Chapter Four -
Under the shadow of my own Vine my own Fig-tree
Relations between Overseers and Slave Owners
- Chapter Five -
At their uttermost perils
Relations among Overseers, Bondpeople, and Servants
- Chapter Six -
Insurgents disappointed in their villainous Stratagems
Plantation Overseeing during the American Revolutionary War
Epilogue
Little better than human brutes -The Consolidation of Anti-overseer Stereotypes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
By far my greatest debt of acknowledgement is to Betty Wood, who offered sage advice, friendship, and professionalism. My work owes an incalculable debt to her inspiration. Professor Tim Lockley, Dr. Ben Marsh, and Professor Michael O Brien provided valuable comments on my early writing on plantation overseers and helped me identify certain weaknesses and potential new avenues of research. Looking further back Clive Trebilcock and Mark Kaplanoff introduced me to ideas that have shaped my understanding of social history, agricultural history, and American colonial history; it is a matter of regret that they and Professor O Brien will not see the finished product. Neil Whiskerd was the reason that I ever decided to study history. Though his modesty would prevent him from acknowledging the impact that his teaching continues to have, he can be sure that his influence runs through this work.
During the last few years, Toyin Falola, Amanda Warnock, Edward E. Baptist, and Alan Johnson have published small sections of my research. For the invitation to present papers and the opportunity to have my ideas challenged and tested, I am grateful to the organizers of the Atlantic Slavery in the Age of Revolution conference at the University of Leeds; the Slavery: Unfinished Business conference at the University of Hull; the Scottish Association for the Study of the Americas conference at the University of Edinburgh; the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference at the University of Oxford; and the Consent in Early America conference at the Rothermere American Institute. I am indebted also to the conveners and members of research seminars at the following institutions for their helpful and constructive responses to my work: the University of Sussex, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the University of Cambridge, and the Virginia Historical Society. The College of Charleston s Program in the Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World was kind enough to award this work the Hines Prize for the best first manuscript on lowcountry or Atlantic history, to invite me to the college s beautiful campus to give a Wells Fargo lecture, and to name me an affiliate faculty member. The feedback that I received at that lecture and at subsequent meetings in Charleston-and the comments and support of Alex Moore, Linda Fogle, and the anonymous reviewers of the University of South Carolina Press-have shaped the final manuscript for the better. Olivia Durand of the University of Oxford was an exemplary indexer, and I look forward to reading her future work.
Staff at archives in two countries were exceptionally helpful, and this book would never have appeared without their conscientiousness and enthusiasm. I am indebted to librarians and archivists at the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina; the Virginia Historical Society; the South Carolina Historical Society; the Georgia Department of Archives and History; the Georgia Historical Society; the University of Georgia; the Library of Virginia; the Earl Greg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary; the University of Virginia; the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina; the Warwickshire County Record Office; Birmingham Central Library; the Vere Harmsworth Library at the University of Oxford s Rothermere American Institute; and, of course, Cambridge University Library.
For their invaluable contributions to the funding needed to complete my research, I am sincerely grateful to Pembroke College, and especially to Michael Kuczynski and Jon Parry, who encouraged me to apply for a variety of crucial bursaries and travel grants. My gratitude extends to the University of Cambridge, who awarded an Allen Meak and Read studentship and a Worts traveling scholarship; to Cambridge history faculty, who awarded a Prince Consort and Thirlwall Fund studentship and a Sarah Norton Fund travel grant; to the Sir John Plumb Charitable Fund, who provided a young historian s grant; and to the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford awarded me a Visiting Research Fellowship that gave me access to the institute s wonderful library and the resources that I needed to finish the manuscript.
At vital stages in my research, a host of institutions in the United States appointed me to research fellowships. These included a Gilder Lehrman Fellowship at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Virginia Historical Society; a Lewis P. Jones Visiting Research Fellowship at the South Caroliniana Library; and a fellowship at the University of South Carolina Institute for Southern Studies. The staff who offered guidance on everything from archival research to the location of supermarkets are too numerous to mention. I hope that by giving the following individuals the special credit that they deserve they will be encouraged to pass on my thanks: Jim Horn in Williamsburg; E. Lee Shepard in Richmond; and Herb Hartsook and Thomas Brown in Columbia. Taking over Trevor Burnard s lecture program at the University of Sussex taught me a very great deal, and I thank him, Clive Webb, and my former students for that invaluable experience.
Barb and John Orsolits were the consummate hosts in Atlanta-welcoming, generous, and forgiving of a callow visitor s ignorance of his surroundings. Barb also shared the plat that is reproduced below, as well as countless fascinating observations on southern landscape and agriculture. My sincerest thanks go to the Orsolitses, as they do to John Houghton, who was kind enough to lend me his house during my stay in Athens. Also in Athens Professor Allan Kulikoff provided me with lunch and invaluable comments, and Professor John Inscoe gave me a warm welcome, counsel, and dinner. For taking the time to discuss my work, I am grateful to David Barry Gaspar, Fredrika Teute, Michael Trinkley, and Chuck Lesser.
I owe a significant debt to friends who gave me something else to talk about during the course of the research. This applies in particular to John Bew, who put me up in Cambridge and supplied advice whenever I needed it, as well as to Sean McGovern, Stuart Snelus, Ben Rabb, Mathieu Apotheker, Martin Brown, Mike Franklin, Pete Hall, Richard Plumb, John Cummings, Jeff Knezovich, Liam Thompson, John Clarke and Chaminda Seneviratne. It applies, too, to the many other friends that I have made through my work at four think tanks and two parliaments in London and Brussels and to Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge, who trusted me to manage the research team for their book on Gordon Brown. I hope that my understanding of slavery has improved since I began working in politics; my conviction that enslaved resistance is fundamentally a political act has certainly been fortified by the epistemic linkages that I have drawn between the two halves of my career.
My family s support has been remarkable Though my maternal grandparents died before the project was complete, they and my paternal grandparents would have been delighted to read the finished project. My sister, Tara, not only typed up research notes but offered sound guidance on American literature. Her intelligence and diligence make her an inspiration for her twin. Without the incredibly generous spiritual, material, and financial support provided by my parents, this book would never have seen the light of day. I hope that they are as happy with the final outcome as I am. My father and sister were brave enough to proof the final draft-any remaining mistakes are mine alone. Last, for her unwavering encouragement and unstinting belief in me and this project, I owe my wife, Gertrud Malmersj , much more than she could know.
A Note on Terminology
The proliferation of contemporary terms that describe overseeing and its practitioners often cause difficulties for the researcher. Overseers are variously referred to as overlookers or bailiffs ; at ot