From Slavery to Agrarian Capitalism in the Cotton Plantation South

Central Georgia, 1800-1880

Joseph P. Reidy

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2000
• Print ISBN: 9780807845523, 9780807820612
• eBook ISBN: 9780807864067
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

“Reidy has produced one of the most thoughtful treatments to date of a critical moment in southern history, placing the social transformation of the South in the context of 'the age of capital' and the changes in the markets, ideologies, etc. of the Atlantic world system. Better than anyone perhaps, Reidy has elaborated both the large and small narratives of this development, connecting global forces with the initiatives and reactions of ordinary southerners, black and white.” — Thomas C. Holt, University of Chicago

“Joseph Reidy’s detailed analysis of social and economic developments in central Georgia during and after slavery will take its place among the standard works on these subjects. Its discussions of the expansion of the cotton kingdom and of the changes after emancipation make it necessary reading for all concerned with southern and African-American history.” — Stanley Engerman, University of Rochester

“Successfully places the experience of one region’s people into the larger theoretical context of world capitalist development and in the process challenges other scholars to do the same.” — Rural Sociology

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• From Slavery to Agrarian Capitalism in the Cotton Plantation South
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Maps
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. The World of the Yeoman Settlers, 1800–1835
• 2. The World of the Planters, 1820s–1850s
• 3. The World of the Slaves, 1820s–1850s
• 4. Impending Crisis: The 1850s
• 5. The Civil War and the Demise of Slavery, 1861–1865
• 6. The Origins of Compensated Labor, 1865–1868
• 7. Creating a New Body Politic, 1865–1867
• 8. The Rise and Decline of Radical Republicanism, 1867–1872
• 9. Capitalist Transformation, 1872–1880
• Conclusion From Slavery to Agrarian Capitalism in Larger Perspective
• Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index