Credit Market Discipline and Capitalist Slavery in Antebellum South Carolina
Clegg, John J. LU
(2018)
In Social Science History
42(2).
p.343-376
- Abstract
Historians and economists have increasingly identified capitalist patterns of behavior among antebellum slave owners, yet no consensus has emerged about the explanation for this finding. I argue that US slave owners were driven to behave like capitalists in part because of their dependence on credit. The ability of creditors to seize the land and slaves of insolvent debtors generated selection pressures that led to both aggregate patterns of capitalist development and the adaptation of individual slave owners to the logic of capitalist competition. I refer to this process as credit market discipline. In a case study of South Carolina in the 1840s, I show that the threat and reality of foreclosure was capable of stimulating recognizably... (More)
Historians and economists have increasingly identified capitalist patterns of behavior among antebellum slave owners, yet no consensus has emerged about the explanation for this finding. I argue that US slave owners were driven to behave like capitalists in part because of their dependence on credit. The ability of creditors to seize the land and slaves of insolvent debtors generated selection pressures that led to both aggregate patterns of capitalist development and the adaptation of individual slave owners to the logic of capitalist competition. I refer to this process as credit market discipline. In a case study of South Carolina in the 1840s, I show that the threat and reality of foreclosure was capable of stimulating recognizably capitalist behaviors among even the most aristocratic and prebourgeois slave owners.
(Less)
- author
- Clegg, John J.
LU
- publishing date
- 2018
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Social Science History
- volume
- 42
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 34 pages
- publisher
- Duke University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85045190569
- ISSN
- 0145-5532
- DOI
- 10.1017/ssh.2017.39
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Social Science History Association.
- id
- 87dcdef0-858d-4e2f-878d-dec9d48884e5
- date added to LUP
- 2022-03-18 13:39:55
- date last changed
- 2022-04-18 22:12:09
@article{87dcdef0-858d-4e2f-878d-dec9d48884e5,
abstract = {{<p>Historians and economists have increasingly identified capitalist patterns of behavior among antebellum slave owners, yet no consensus has emerged about the explanation for this finding. I argue that US slave owners were driven to behave like capitalists in part because of their dependence on credit. The ability of creditors to seize the land and slaves of insolvent debtors generated selection pressures that led to both aggregate patterns of capitalist development and the adaptation of individual slave owners to the logic of capitalist competition. I refer to this process as credit market discipline. In a case study of South Carolina in the 1840s, I show that the threat and reality of foreclosure was capable of stimulating recognizably capitalist behaviors among even the most aristocratic and prebourgeois slave owners.</p>}},
author = {{Clegg, John J.}},
issn = {{0145-5532}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{343--376}},
publisher = {{Duke University Press}},
series = {{Social Science History}},
title = {{Credit Market Discipline and Capitalist Slavery in Antebellum South Carolina}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2017.39}},
doi = {{10.1017/ssh.2017.39}},
volume = {{42}},
year = {{2018}},
}