Research Catalog
Masterless men : poor whites and slavery in the antebellum South
- Title
- Masterless men : poor whites and slavery in the antebellum South / Keri Leigh Merritt.
- Author
- Merritt, Keri Leigh, 1980-
- Publication
- Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY,USA : Cambridge University Press, 2017.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFE 17-7348 | Schwarzman Building - Milstein Division Room 121 |
Details
- Description
- x, 361 pages; 24 cm
- Summary
- "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"--
- Series Statement
- Cambridge studies on the American South
- Uniform Title
- Cambridge studies on the American South.
- Subjects
- Slavery > Social aspects > Southern States > History > 19th century
- Southern States > Race relations > History > 19th century
- Poor whites > Southern States > Social conditions > 19th century
- Southern States > Economic conditions > 19th century
- Slavery > Economic aspects > Southern States > History > 19th century
- Poor whites > Southern States > Economic conditions > 19th century
- HISTORY / United States / 19th Century
- Southern States > Social conditions > 19th century
- Land tenure > Southern States > History > 19th century
- Labor > Southern States > History > 19th century
- Social conflict > Southern States > History > 19th century
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- Introduction: The second degree of slavery -- 1. The Southern origins of the Homestead Act -- 2. The demoralization of labor -- 3. Masterless (and militant) white workers -- 4. Everyday life : material realities -- 5. Literacy, education, and disfranchisement -- 6. Vagrancy, alcohol, and crime -- 7. Poverty and punishment -- 8. Race, Republicans, and vigilante violence -- 9. Class crisis and the Civil War -- Conclusion: A duel emancipation -- Appendix: Numbers, percentages, and the census.
- Call Number
- JFE 17-7348
- ISBN
- 9781107184244
- 110718424X
- LCCN
- 2017003313
- 40027280848
- OCLC
- 980599951
- Author
- Merritt, Keri Leigh, 1980- author.
- Title
- Masterless men : poor whites and slavery in the antebellum South / Keri Leigh Merritt.
- Publisher
- Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY,USA : Cambridge University Press, 2017.
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Series
- Cambridge studies on the American SouthCambridge studies on the American South.
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Other Standard Identifier
- 40027280848
- Research Call Number
- JFE 17-7348