Slave owning overseers in eighteenth-century Virginia and South Carolina

Sandy, Laura ORCID: 0000-0002-2054-8159 (2017) Slave owning overseers in eighteenth-century Virginia and South Carolina. Slavery & Abolition, 38 (3). pp. 459-474.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144039x.2017.1327097

Abstract

This article examines the position and experiences of plantation overseers in Virginia and South Carolina in the eighteenth century who, whilst themselves employed by planters to supervise their slaves, were also slave owners in their own right. The current historiography often does little more than dismiss the overseer as a figure drawn from the lower stratum of white society. Notwithstanding the reputation of overseers as poor whites who were dependant, shiftless, and villainous, for many of these hardworking and determined individuals, working as an overseer was a transitory phase. Slave-owning overseers and those who acquired slaves while working as overseers demonstrated their long-term aspirations and the opportunities for social and economic mobility that this employment presented. This study is based upon a range of archival sources from plantation records such as diaries, letter books, account books, legal deeds and contracts.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=fsla20
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Overseers, slaves, slave owners, plantation, Virginia, South Carolina
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	21 May 2019 13:16
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 00:44
DOI:	10.1080/0144039X.2017.1327097
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3041794