The Economy and Material Culture of Slaves

This pioneering study examines in extensive detail the economies and material cultures that slaves built among themselves in two of the most heavily developed plantation regions in the Americas. Focusing on two geographical areas that led in the production of sugar - Jamaica in the eighteenth century and Louisiana in the mid-nineteenth century - Roderick A. McDonald presents a fascinating picture of the resourceful efforts slaves on sugar plantations made to better their circumstances under working conditions that were among the most taxing endured by slaves anywhere. McDonald draws on a wide range of primary documents in repositories in the United States, Jamaica, and Great Britain to show that the slaves had well-developed and integrated economic systems that let them accumulate and dispose of capital and property within economies they themselves created and administered. Their economic systems were probably in operation on every sugar estate in Jamaica and Louisiana, with an importance far outweighing the often limited pecuniary benefits the slaves realized. The slaves' internal economy not only reflected the ways they earned and spent money but also influenced the character and