Plantation Society and Race Relations

Thomas J. Durant, J. David Knottnerus

For more than three hundred years, the American South was essentially a plantation society, in which the plantation system penetrated all aspects of social, cultural, economic, and political life. During this period, plantation slavery evolved into the key institutional component of Southern society and played an integral role in its development. This interdisciplinary collection of essays provides a sociological framework for the interpretation of historical data on plantation slavery by addressing different questions concerning four broad areas of research-theoretical perspectives; social institutions; race, gender, and social inequality; and social change and social transformations. The contributors depict slave plantations as organized social systems that contributed significantly to the racial stratification of the Southern plantation society, and in this way served as the origin of contemporary race relations and social inequality in America.

Analyzes the social organization of slave plantations and its influence on race relations and social inequality in Southern plantation society and in today's America.

PrefaceIntroductionTheoretical PerspectivesThe Slave Plantation Revisited: A Sociological Perspective by Thomas J. Durant, Jr.The Slave Plantation System from a Total Institution Perspective by J. David Knottnerus, David L. Monk, and Edward JonesPlantation-Style Social Control: Oppressive Social Structures in the Slave Plantation System by Donald L. YatesThe Social Construction of Racial Meaning by Blacks and Whites in Plantation Society by Beverly M. JohnSocial InstitutionsThe Social Influence of Plantation Religion among Anglo-American Colonists and African Slaves by Rupe SimmsUp from the Plantation: The Survival of Rural Black Farm Families of Northeastern Louisiana 1930-1970 by Francis Staten"I Looked for Home Elsewhere": Black Southern Plantation Families 1790-1940 by Lenus Jack, Jr.The Profitability of Slavery: A Review of the Classical Economic Position by Donald R. Andrews and Ralph D. ChristyLaw and Race in the Slave Plantation System by Joyce M. PlummerRace, Gender, and Social InequalityPlantation Slavery among Native Americans: The Creation of a Red, White, and Black America by Thomas J. Durant, Jr. and Nicole MoliereGender Roles in Slave Plantations by Julia BurkartStatus Structures and Ritualized Relations in the Slave Plantation System by J. David KnottnerusThe Social Demography of Plantation Slavery by Ollie Gary ChristianSocial Change and Social TransformationsThe Plantation Lifeworld of the Old Natchez District: 1840-1880 by Ronald L.F. DavisThe Social Transformation of Plantation Society by Clarence R. TalleyPlantations without Slaves: The Legacy of Louisiana Plantation Culture by Katherine Bankole"Gone with the Wind" Versus the Holocaust Metaphor: Louisiana Plantation Narratives in Black and White by Jean Muteba Rahier and Michael HawkinsConclusionsBibliographyIndex