1-24-18

Defenders of slavery argued it was a family-style relationship, but they were increasingly wrong

by the mid 19th century slave trading had become more capitalist (modern)

• slaves were treated as a consumer good (separate question, slaves as consumers, here)
• slave prices
• owning slaves was a status symbol for middle class people
• reinforcing whiteness
• ego boost of dominance
  

• medieval economy was not capitalist, based on customary prices
• early modern era saw freer market and institutions like banking, Local economies didn't have a lot of competition, long distance trade was capitalist/free market
• Industrial revolution in England, 1780-mid 19th century: industrial revolution produces many more low cost consumer goods, more focus on earning cash to buy things instead of making things for yourself
• Industrial revolution in the United States begins: 1790-1830, canals
  
• boom in factories and railroads 1830-1860: cast iron stoves, oil lamps, furniture
  
• shift towards wage labor rather than family production (all members of the family worked on a family farm or business--at least in the north) with middle class women becoming managers of consumption rather than producers--half way to consumer society
  
• Civil War 1861-1865
• department stores and a national railroad system become important after the civil war--full consumer society
  

Strategies of enslaved people:

• go back to auction
• appeals to paternalism
• emotional relationships--this still sometimes worked but created a lot of contradictions
  

how did slave owners have such mixed views of people who were slaves?

sense of identity was very much as members of a family:

• less thought of themselves as individuals
• less as members of a class such as poor farmers or slaves
• what was strong was consciousness of whiteness