Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management

by Caitlin Rosenthal

A Five Books Best Economics Book of the YearA Politico Great Weekend Read“Absolutely compelling.”—Diane Coyle“The evolution of modern management is usually associated with good old-fashioned intelligence and ingenuity…But capitalism is not just about the free market; it was also built on the backs of slaves.”—ForbesThe story of modern management generally looks to the factories of England and New England for its genesis. But after scouring through old accounting books, Caitlin Rosenthal discovered that Southern planter-capitalists practiced an early form of scientific management. They took meticulous notes, carefully recording daily profits and productivity, and subjected their slaves to experiments and incentive strategies comprised of rewards and brutal punishment. Challenging the traditional depiction of slavery as a barrier to innovation, Accounting for Slavery shows how elite planters turned their power over enslaved people into a productivity advantage. The result is a groundbreaking investigation of business practices in Southern and West Indian plantations and an essential contribution to our understanding of slavery’s relationship with capitalism.“Slavery in the United States was a business. A morally reprehensible—and very profitable business…Rosenthal argues that slaveholders…were using advanced management and accounting techniques long before their northern counterparts. Techniques that are still used by businesses today.”—Marketplace“Rosenthal pored over hundreds of account books from U.S. and West Indian plantations…She found that their owners employed advanced accounting and management tools, including depreciation and standardized efficiency metrics.”—Harvard Business Review

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Economics, Race, Business, American History, Politics

297 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2018

Reviews

[Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was eye opening and quite appalling in the detailed management of people. Owners would place a capital value based on various traits; value created monetary reliance on their slaves.
Once emancipation took place it still didn’t end. The slaves were placed under contract but they were manipulated until in debt to the owners. For example they would penalize their earnings for anything like being sick or lost time for any reason. This quickly erased earnings.
States like Mississippi would add additional laws around contracts to legally constrict their ability to really be free. For example making vagrancy illegal, renting land outside the city was illegal, and dramatically restricted the ability to quit during contract terms. Before emancipation plantation owners were meticulous in analyzing labor efficiently and human value; later they simply focused on keeping people working as much as possible; which lead to long grueling days.
Also, former slaves were often tricked into poor contracts since many could not read or write. They were not equipped to handle freedom; this allowed owners to stop housing and feeding them if they chose profit over efficiency.
Being free did not mean much immediately. Debt peonage allowed plantation owners to manipulate their debt levels; which meant they could decide who stayed or who was let go. Even if they were able to stay out of debt there were laws that constrained their choices. And low and behold just like in 2020 there were campaigns using violence and intimidation of black voters; this helped bring southern planters to control.

The accounting efforts at that time appeared to be extremely detailed before and after emancipation; just a slightly different focus from the value of each slave and measuring human capital depreciation to supporting contract manipulation and complexity. The economy of the region did not support capitalistic ideals after emancipation; it didn’t recover until the New Deal. What is quite interesting is the South has largely remained a low wage region due to plantation owners refusal to increase wages for freedpeople at that time; that culture remains today being a low wage region.

Very detailed book highlighting the link between efficient business practices and managing humans as capital. There are business practices today that reflect these methods; that linkage was eye opening.

[Trey Shipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plantation accounting records in this book are chilling. For example, on “Form I: Inventory of Lives on Canebrake Plantation, 1857,” planter James Green Carson assigned the beginning and end-of-year values to his slaves. Babies under one year were worth $25. A healthy 20-year-old male was worth $800. Most slaves over 60, he thought, were worth nothing.

Planters used these balance sheets to manage operations and to calculate profit and loss. Bankers used them to approve loans. At the time, 40% of mortgages were collateralized by enslaved people.

Rosenthal tells the story of how Caribbean sugar planters developed these systems to manage the first large-scale business operations. Since most sugar planters were absentee owners, often living in England, they put these management tools in place to oversee their plantations from abroad. While they didn’t have to know or see the people they enslaved, they were fully aware from the accounting summaries of the human toll on their workers. The records told them how many slaves died, were sick, or ran away. (It would not be until the end of the 20th century that companies began outsourcing labor to foreign factories, an innovation that saved them from having to see these bothersome details.)

This is an important book. What happens when the law allows the maximization of profit with no constraints? We already know.

[Nils · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A previous generation of historians described the rise of absenteeism as a catalyst for West Indian decline.... [But] examining the rise of absenteeism through the lens of business history offers an alternative to the decline thesis: absentee proprietorship can be seen as an early case of the separation of ownership and management. Business historians have long seen the separation of ownership and management as a characteristic of modern corporate governance, albeit one with potentially high costs. Reconsidering absenteeism through this lens reframed it as a sign of sophistication and managerial complexity.... As owners departed the sugar islands, many continued to take an interest in plantation management. Far from neglecting their operations, men worked to develop management systems that enabled them to maintain control over great distances.” (42-43)

“West Indian plantations thus present a brutal preview of the modern multi divisional organization. Detailed account books offered visibility from the attorney’s office—or the proprietor’s desk back in England—while delegating operating responsibility and day-to-day management to those on the ground. Regular reports enabled owners and attorneys not only to monitor their operations but also to think strategically about capital optimization and allocation.” (48)

“Scholars have argued for years that slavery could be highly profitable and that some planters were adroit business people. However, advanced practices have often been interpreted as scattered exceptions in an otherwise backward economic system. This account makes that interpretation untenable: the list of innovations that structure my chapters includes almost every key development in the history of management during the period. And the overarching portrait that emerges from studying these innovations is of slaveholding entrepreneurs benefiting from the circumstances of slavery.” (191)

“My emphasis on control rather than its subversion is not meant question the resistance of enslaved people—indeed, evidence for resistance is embedded throughout the account books I have studied. Control and resistance are not opposites. Control does not reflect a lack of resistance, nor does it in any way signal consent. To offer an adequate account of chattel slavery, historians need to acknowledge vitality of slave culture without romanticizing it or overstating its scope. What enslaved people accomplished was remarkable but also dramatically circumscribed by systems of violence and surveillance. To understand the significance of moments of resistance, we need to comprehend the system that enslaved people sought to survive.” (194)

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow I never wrote a review to this? Maybe I just didn't know what to say.

It took my ideas about Taylorism and management and slavery and mixed them together in a way that I continue to find horrifying and infuriating. I want everyone to read this, so we can be angry together.

CW: in-depth discussions of how dehumanizing slavery is, so all the content warnings basically

[Andrew Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't recommend more highly. A study on how quantitative systems can be used to rationalize and sanitize horror. Interesting to read right after finishing Eichmann in Jerusalem.

[Porter Broyles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an incredibly difficult to read book. First, the writing was dry. Second, the subject is complex. Let's face it, talking about human beings in terms that defines them as no better than livestock is uncomfortable.

That being said, I am glad to have read this book.

If you want to understand the complexity of slavery and the fruits thereof, this book provides insight into the subject.

I think the general idea that modern American's have of slavery is that they were a bunch of backwater hicks who governed their plantations through brute strength.

This book dispels that notion. The author makes two points up front. First, that she is describing the better run/organized organizations. Just like there are businesses today with great records and bad records, her book describes the ideal. Second, that her book is intended to help understand not only the period in which slaves were held, but how slave owners were able to reassert their influence after the Civil War.

The book in broken into five chapters:

Chapters 1 and 2 dealt with the record keeping. By the 19th century, the level of detail that the good slave owners kept on their slaves was remarkable. Larger plantations only worked effectively because they distributed responsibilities similar to corporations today AND kept meticulous records. Records included details such as matriarchal lineage, number of days sick/hurt, productivity, skills, behavioral issues, aptitudes, and locations. Print shops published books and charts to help slave owners track these stats for organizations of different sizes. If a slave was hurt, ran away, or was sold, the owners had the information immediately available as to what skills/assets that slave had and who could be reassigned to fill in the gap. These records were orginally designed to allow slave owners in England manage their slaves around the globe.

Chapter 3 talked about how these records (and books) were studied and utilized to determine optimal output of not only the slave but the properties profits.

Chapter 4 talks about how slaves were valued. From the moment of birth, slave owners started to capitalize the future value of the slave. This value was derived from the age, sex, physical stamina, mental acuity, height, and many other measurable attirbutes. It also included "soul", which was basically another way to discuss temperament. At a certain point, slaves started to be depreciated. The book talked about how there were laws protecting elderly slaves, but that slave owners would bucket younger slaves with older slaves to rid themselves of unprofitable slaves. In other words, a young vital slave valued at $1,200 bucks might be sold with an older slave for $1,000.

Chapter 5 talks about the economics of slavery AFTER the Civil War. How did the former slave owners succeed in taking advantage of their ex-slaves? This section was very enlightening. For example, the book talked about how the former slave owner would enter into contracts with their former slave that included the following provisions:

* That if the slave quit or left the employment of the slave before their contract was up, that the freeman would sacrafice up to a month's earnings. To ensure that the freeman was on the hook, the owner would withhold the first months earning in an escrow account.
* That the freedman recognized that if they missed a day of work, that the lost day of labor cost the plantation owner money. The former slave thus had to compensate their former master. This compensation could equal up to five days worth of labor if it was an excused absence! Twice that if it was unexcused---and the plantation owner got to decide if the absence was excused!
* That the freedman had to provide the supplies necessary to work the land. If they didn't have the supplies, the owner would be willing to loan them the money to purchase the items. Should the freedman leave before paying off the property, then the former slave owner could claim theft of property.

There were other provisions written into the contract, that undoubtedly made it impossible for the slave to understand that made their lives impossible.

Like I said, this book was incredibly difficult to read---both because of the quality of writing and the difficulty of the subject. BUT I am glad to have the understanding it provides.

If you are a hardcore student of the period, I recommend this book. But for most, I would not.

[Leena · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the book's conclusion:

"...This book brings together two very different kinds of history--business history and the history of slavery. These fields rarely intersect. They are studied by different groups of scholars who attend different conferences and ask different questions. But each field has something new to offer the other..."

The author, Caitlin Rosenthal, started this book after working as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, which offered her a background I found interesting. As I read the book, I found myself frequently jarred by the way she was able to draw lines between current business practices and how things were run on sugar and cotton plantations. Gantt charts were a great example. I won't put her whole analysis here, but I will say that I found this to be a rather quick read (only 200 pages without the endnotes). So if you are interested in these topics, I urge you to give it a read. In a nutshell, when attributing the source of modern business practices in the United States, business schools often omit the rather sophisticated practices of slavery and start with northern factories. But that's wrong. Heck, even the white people overseeing the slaves in the field were literally called "bookkeepers." And I don't mean that to be a knock on my bookkeeper friends, but it's important to know your history.

Given today's political climate, I was particularly interested in the chapter that analyzed how plantations practices adjusted post civil-war (and how the "need" for low-cost labor shifted to Jim Crow, immigrants, convicts, and only with the greatest reluctance - slightly better working environments).

[ilya murychev · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting look at slavery from an accountant's point of view. The difference between the South and the North is that in the North there is a high turnover of personnel; in the South, slaves cannot go anywhere; the slave owner’s problem is to find work for all “hands.” And taking into account the sine wave of work processes, the number of people during the harvest was very important and that they did not run away. The process of converting slave owners to the free market after the Civil War is interesting. It is interesting that at all times there were many ready-made forms with which you can manage the collection of sugar or cotton.

What would I improve? The author, being an economist, should have mentioned the marginality of sugar and cotton harvesting in the American states. She didn't write a word about Eli Whitney's cotton gin. This invention revolutionized cotton production.

Интересный взгляд на рабство с точки зрения бухгалтера. Разница между Югом и Севером в том, что на Севере большая текучка кадров на Юге рабы никуда не могут уйти, проблема рабовладелца найти работу для всех "рук". И с учетом синусоиды рабочих процессов очень важно было количество людей во время сбора урожая и чтобы они не сбежали. Интересен процесс переобувания рабовлядельцев после Гражданской Войны на свободный рынок. Интересно, что во все времена было много готовых бланков, с помощью которых можно управлять сбором сахара или хлопка.

Что бы я улучшил. Автор, будучи, экономистом должна была упомянуть про маржинальность сбора сахара и хлопка в американских штатах. Она не слова не написала про хлопкоуборочную манину Эли Уитни. А это изобретение совершило революцию в производстве хлопка.

[Johnathan Lightfoot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read this book about the management of people during and after slavery, and I must say it was an eye-opening and insightful read. The author explored the detailed accounting practices used to assign value to slaves and how they were managed in order to maximize profits for their owners.

As a descendant of slaves, reading about the mistreatment and manipulation of my ancestors was at times heart-wrenching. However, I found the book to be a fascinating and informative read, as it shed light on the history of slavery and how it impacted the lives of millions of people.

What struck me most was the author's discussion of how business practices from that time have influenced modern practices, particularly in the ways that companies manage their employees. It was sobering to realize how deeply ingrained these practices are and how they continue to shape our world today.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, business, or social justice. It is a powerful reminder of the atrocities of slavery and the ongoing struggle for equality and justice. While it was not an easy read, I learned a great deal and am grateful for the insights and knowledge gained.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A "lost" history of American business; most histories of American management would start with Frederick Winslow Taylor and the business schools. This book goes further back and shows management practices used on slave plantations. The author argues that the slaveholders had more sophisticated practices than are usually recognized.

The author was inspired to write this after doing lots of spreadsheet work at one of the big consulting firms. That's an interesting comparison. I read the book with a lot of that in mind, and she revisits that idea again in the postscript.

But the book goes deeper than most people would want to go into the day-to-day of managing a plantation. The author probably had to do this in order to get this published. I'd be interested to read her perspective on management history more broadly.

[Max M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book highlights some interesting themes at the intersection of slavery and scientific management, including how slaveholders in the US accounted for productivity, depreciation, and profitability. It argues that many of the management techniques commonly thought to be developed in northern industrial settings were actually present on plantations, which for the time were some of the biggest commercial enterprises in the US. I particularly enjoyed the contrast drawn when plantation holders had to cope with the impact of emancipation, and how their techniques for control evolved as newly freed slaves emerged with more agency in the southern labor market. Worth a read for anyone interested in the history of slavery in the US or labor relations.

Like many scholarly monographs, parts of the book feel like a shorter article beefed up with additional examples and further repetition, though there is a stronger through line across the 5 key chapters.

[Andrew Breza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accounting for Slavery offers a quantitative analysis of the business of owning people. The focus on numbers is a rare departure from most books on the topic, which focus on the legalization of human rights abuses and personal narratives. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in American history. Caitlin Rosenthal has done a great service to readers by transforming dry spreadsheets full of numbers into gripping accounts of the humanity that was denied to both enslaved persons and freemen after abolition. Plantation owners not only tracked crop production at an individual level, they pioneered what would later be called Scientific Management to optimize things like how long a mother should be allowed to nurse her children to enable her to reproduce again faster and increase a plantation's slave holdings. "The banality of evil" may be a cliche, but it's definitely applicable.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is exactly what it sounds like--a historical business book that goes into the bookkeeping and business analytics of plantations holding slaves. It details the types of ledgers used to track daily cotton production and how each slave was valued and recorded on the balance sheet. It compares these metrics to non slaveholding industries of the same time period and then tracks how bookkeeping changed after emancipation. Interesting stuff if you've got a background in basic accounting but if you lack that I'd skip this book.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written, well argued, not overlong book on how U.S. slavery's meticulously recorded system of labor management is not as different from modern management practices as perhaps we would like to think. Rosenthal doesn't force the comparison too far, thankfully, and does not shy away from the specific atrocities of slavery like beatings, sexual violence, and the reduction of human life to a monetary asset. Viewing human beings solely by their labor, and the profits you can get out of them, however, is something a plantation manager and a modern capitalist have very much in common.

[Anthony Pignataro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was amazed at the vital history I had never heard before that’s contained in this book. It’s a history of the accounting practices used by slaveholding planters, but it’s anything but dry. Author Caitlin Rosenthal is a meticulous historian, but she’s also a marvelously accessible writer, so even her descriptions of accounting forms are gripping. As are her depictions of slavery itself, which will haunt you (especially when it concerns children). Even people who think they understand slavery, which clearly continues to haunt American society to this day, will learn from this book.

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that allows us an insight into the world of plantation owners and how they managed their farms full of slaves. If found it irritating and disturbing that they had pre-printed books to manage the stock of slaves on farms as they would do with any other animals or valuables.
Those plantations increased their output by methods that a hundred years later would look like Taylors’s scientific management. More rigor (and brutality), less fluctuation but otherwise very similar to modern management ideas. Definitely a must-read for everyone interested in history and economics.

[Marlowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be quite an enlightening look at both the evolution of modern bookkeeping practices (it was interesting to see early forms of the types of spreadsheets I use every day), as well as the dystopian surveillance state nightmare that was North American slavery.

It makes a good case for slave-based economies being at the forefront of innovation, rather than backwards holdouts. And it's a good lens to re-examine the assumption that progress is, by its nature, equitably advantageous.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book I read for class this semester! Very informative and interesting, showing the business side of slavery in the Americas. My only issue with it was the writing itself - the author often repeats herself, to the point where I would take much longer to read a few paragraphs than normal, or rush through what appeared to be repetition and miss something new and important that I had to go back to.

[Kate T · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting non-fiction book about how there are some disturbing parallels between accounting practices of slavery and modern business accounting. I thought it was really comprehensive and approached from different angles. The writing is a bit dry as it is an academic book, but I'm really glad I read it!

[jen]

read this for my accounting and law practicum course. it’s a brand new perspective for me and i do think that accounting classes should at least briefly go over the history of how accounting emerged and manifested itself within capitalism and slavery.

[Mills College Library]

331.11734 R8154 2018

[Jeffrey Wheble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly well-written, and great for anyone interested in economics, history, management, racism, and more.

[Shohini · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an urgent read, specially to students of finance, business, accounting and management. This needs to be in the required reading list at schools across the world.

[Roberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unparallel research! The past slavery is equal to our zero hour contract and uberization. Nothing has changed.

[Megan Hueble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and necessary look at the inseparable histories of business and enslavement.

[Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book describing the roots of many modern (USA) corporate practices. Certainly explained a lot to me lol

[Mary Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

A disturbing and eye opening accounting of the business of slavery and the foundation of record keeping for asset management.

[Emily Fitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

the most eye opening book on the impact slavery has had on modern day business practices.

[Lumpy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very thorough and well-researched, but I was expecting more of a thru-line connecting these practices to those of modern management.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing historical narrative how organizational accounting and management practices evolved, derived from the practices of slavery and the plantation system.