A sobering excavation of how deeply nineteenth-century American
banks were entwined with the institution of slavery. It's now
widely understood that the fullest expression of nineteenth-century
American capitalism was found in the structures of chattel slavery.
It's also understood that almost every other institution and aspect
of life then was at least entangled with-and often profited
from-slavery's perpetuation. Yet as Sharon Ann Murphy shows in her
powerful and unprecedented book, the centrality of enslaved labor
to banking in the antebellum United States is far greater than
previously thought. Banking on Slavery sheds light on precisely how
the financial relationships between banks and slaveholders worked
across the nineteenth-century South. Murphy argues that the rapid
spread of slavery in the South during the 1820s and '30s depended
significantly upon southern banks' willingness to financialize
enslaved lives, with the use of enslaved individuals as loan
collateral proving central to these financial relationships. She
makes clear how southern banks were ready-and, in some cases, even
eager-to alter time-honored banking practices to meet the needs of
slaveholders. In the end, many of these banks sacrificed themselves
in their efforts to stabilize the slave economy. Murphy also
details how banks and slaveholders transformed enslaved lives from
physical bodies into abstract capital assets. Her book provides an
essential examination of how our nation's financial history is more
intimately intertwined with the dehumanizing institution of slavery
than scholars have previously thought.
General
Imprint: |
University of Chicago Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
American Beginnings, 1500-1900 |
Release date: |
April 2023 |
First published: |
2023 |
Authors: |
Sharon Ann Murphy
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
448 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-226-82513-7 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-226-82513-2 |
Barcode: |
9780226825137 |
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