Accounting for Slavery

Masters and Management

By: Caitlin Rosenthal

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

The story of modern management generally looks to the factories of England and New England for its genesis. But after scouring through old accounting books, Caitlin Rosenthal discovered that Southern planter-capitalists practiced an early form of scientific management. They took meticulous notes, carefully recording daily profits and productivity, and subjected their slaves to experiments and incentive strategies comprised of rewards and brutal punishment. Challenging the traditional depiction of slavery as a barrier to innovation, Accounting for Slavery shows how elite planters turned their power over enslaved people into a productivity advantage. The result is a groundbreaking investigation of business practices in Southern and West Indian plantations and an essential contribution to our understanding of slavery's relationship with capitalism.

©2018 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2022 Tantor

Incredible, detailed connections from slavery to modern business practices.

This book links the practices than underlie slavery to coercion andand control through the use of data. It shows the way accounting practices can hide immense horrors.

Good Account of the Business of Slavery

This is good account of the business of slavery. It focuses of bookkeeping of slavery and not the brutality of forced labor that achieved high productivity and profits.