Social Control in Slave Plantation Societie: A Comparison of St. Domingue and Cuba book by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall

Gwendolyn Midlo Hall

ISBN 10: 0801812526 / ISBN 13: 9780801812521

Published by Johns Hopkins Univ Press, 1972

About this Item

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Pages in good condition. Pages excellent . Hardcover. English. See images for condition. About the book >.>.> From a new approach to the uses of history and to the comparative study of slavery, Gwendolyn Hall shatters longstanding misconceptions about slave systems and the origins of racism in the Americas. Slave systems have traditionally been viewed as static or as evolving toward increasing humanitarianism; and they have been studied in isolation from each other. Slaves have been regarded as passive elements in society, and European colonizers as omnipotent. By comparing two flourishing sugar plantation systems-St. Domingue in the eighteenth century and Cuba in the nineteenth century-Professor Hall draws quite different conclu-sions. Sugar production required an unusually large labor force, and slaves in rural areas of these sugar colonies often outnumbered whites ten or twenty to one. Far from being passive, slaves were such a dynamic force in society that controlling them proved the colonizers' most severe problem. Policies toward the slave population, toward their religious conversion and education.

Seller Inventory # Batch-FM645-VG-13330

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Social Control in Slave Plantation Societie: A Comparison of St. Domingue and Cuba book by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Press
• Publication Date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801812526
• ISBN 13: 9780801812521
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Regional and National History

About this title

Synopsis

First published in 1971, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's comparison of two developing sugar plantation systems-St. Domingue's (Haiti) in the eighteenth century and Cuba's in the nineteenth century-changed the focus in comparative slavery studies. Hall establishes that slavery and race relations in any given time and place were determined by strategic needs, the raison d'etre of the colony, evolving economic and demographic factors, and above all, by the need to preserve social order in colonies where the slave population was large, active, competent, resourceful, and independent minded. She delineates a pattern of racism rising and entrenching itself as a matter of public policy, as a means of bolstering the exploitative system, a pattern that recurred throughout the hemisphere.

From the Back Cover

First published in 1971, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's comparison of two developing sugar plantation systems - St. Domingue's (Haiti) in the eighteenth century and Cuba's in the nineteenth century - changed the focus in comparative slavery studies: the prevailing static treatment, which assumed that the European colonizer determined the nature of slave systems and that slaves were powerless and insignificant beneficiaries of the paternalism of Latin American masters, gave way to a dynamic, multifaceted approach employed by Hall. In Social Control in Slave Plantation Societies, Hall establishes that slavery and race relations in any given time and place were determined by strategic needs; the raison d'etre of the colony; evolving economic and demographic factors; and above all, by the need to preserve social order in colonies where the slave population was large, active, competent, resourceful, and independent-minded. She delineates a pattern of racism rising and entrenching itself as a matter of public policy, as a means of bolstering the exploitative system - a pattern that recurred throughout the hemisphere.