Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800

by Allan Kulikoff

Tobacco and Slaves is a major reinterpretation of the economic and political transformation of Chesapeake society from 1680 to 1800. Building upon massive archival research in Maryland and Virginia, Allan Kulikoff provides the most comprehensive study to date of changing social relations--among both blacks and whites--in the eighteenth-century South. He links his arguments about class, gender, and race to the later social history of the South and to larger patterns of American development.
Allan Kulikoff is professor of history at Northern Illinois University and author of The Agrarian Origins of American Capitalism .

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, 18th Century, 17th Century

449 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

By 1765, Virginians argued they had more than enough slaves to cover their
labor needs but far too many to safeguard them from potential revolts. In
1774, the crisis in Britain had imposed higher taxes and stronger regulations on
the American debt payers. Jefferson, who inherited debts himself, complaint
that they “had become hereditary from father to son for many generations, so
that planters were a species of property annexed to certain mercantile houses
in London” (Kulikoff, 2012). Virginians urged they could only safeguard their
personal freedom by keeping the blacks enslaved. The Patriots slowly began
to anticipate the idea of a English invasion to enforce imperial control by
means of slave recruitment and rebellion. British colonial governor in
America, Lord Dunmore, doubled down on the perceived white fear and black
danger by intimidating and threatening the planters. His plan backfired as this
eventually led the Virginians to take up arms in full force and join the New
Englanders in pleading for a war for independence. In 1775, a year before the
declaration of independence on July 4th, Dunmore in turn, offered freedom
to slaves who would help defeat the Patriot rebellion. By early 1776, “about
800 enslaved men, and an equal number of women and children, flocked to
Dunmore’s encampments and ships” (Taylor, 2013). Rumours were spread
about how the King of England would set the slaves free from the American
oppressors. Most runaways escaped from riverside farms and plantations in
small, stolen boats or canoes from their previous masters. To discourage new
runaways, public hangings or brutal beatings would be inflicted upon the
slaves to set examples. The Virginians released wishful propaganda that
warned the slaves of the possibility of being sold by the English to the West
Indies, where they would be met by far worse conditions. It is remarkable that
in the end, “Dunmore did not sell any runaways to the West Indies, but the
vengeful Patriots did as punishment. Others they sentenced to a short life of
hard labor in the mines of Fincastle County, where the prisoners dug the lead
that became bullets for the Patriots to fire at Dunmore’s men” (Taylor, 2013).

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently had an assignment for my European Conquest of the New World class-my final class. I had to do an assignment on transatlantic interactions between Indigenous people and Europeans. I chose tobacco for this assignment. Tobacco cultivation at that time required a massive amount of manpower. While some of those working on tobacco plantations were convicts sent from Europe, enslaved Indigenous people, and indentured servants, the bulk of the manpower came from enslaved Africans. The tobacco industry really boosted the African slave trade. The exchange of tobacco between Indigenous and Europeans had a snowball effect on the rest of the world that continues to this day. People all over the world still purchase and use tobacco products, despite the health risks and addictive nature. (And despite the disgusting stench.) This book was a wonderful reference material for that assignment. I thought it was very educational in regards to how enslaved people had to labor on tobacco plantations.