Masterless Men - Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Paperback)

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Keri Leigh Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton - and thus, slaves - in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete - for jobs or living wages - with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war.

General

Imprint:	Cambridge UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Cambridge Studies on the American South
Release date:	December 2017
Authors:	Keri Leigh Merritt
Dimensions:	230 x 153 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	371
ISBN-13:	978-1-316-63543-8
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Economic history Books > History > History of specific subjects > Economic history Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history
LSN:	1-316-63543-0
Barcode:	9781316635438

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