When we think about slavery in early America, we often rightfully focus on the human toll–the violence, the exploitation, the dehumanization that defined the institution. But slavery wasn’t just a system of forced labor; it was also a business.

Next week, in Episode 418, we’ll be investigating a different facet of the business of slavery: the story of slave drivers–enslaved people who were forced or took up positions of authority over others. To better understand the system slave drivers operated within, I thought we should revisit Episode 281 with historian Caitlin Rosenthal.

Caitlin is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Her book, Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management, won the Simkins Award from the Southern Historical Association and the Economic Historical Society’s First Book Prize.

Caitlin’s Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 173: Colonial Port Cities & Slavery
🎧 Episode 176: The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave
🎧 Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade
🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland and Slavery
🎧 Episode 386: Sleeping with the Ancestors
🎧 Episode 387: California and Slavery
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BFW Revisited: The Business of Slavery