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‘[A] Continual Exercise of…Patience and Economy’: Plantation Overseers, Agricultural Innovation, and State Formation in Eighteenth-Century North America

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Global Plantations in the Modern World

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on plantation overseers in eighteenth-century North America. It considers the role that the technologies of the Agricultural Revolution played in determining overseer recruitment and dismissal, and how these developments affected overseers’ relations with slaveholders and enslaved people. The paper uncovers the reasons for the general vilification of overseers by the end of the 1700s, while in the earliest decades of the century these men were subjected to little similar criticism. This shift in opinion grew out of an expectation for more profitable yields on the part of large plantation owners who had invested much capital in tricky late-century agricultural innovations. The chapter therefore refocuses the developing historiography of the plantation enterprise towards the key contribution made by overseers not only to production techniques, but also to the refinement of relations of patronage, hierarchy, and discipline within the plantation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter draws in particular on Chapters 1 and 4, and the epilogue.

  2. 2.

    Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 14 May 1794, Notes (Jefferson 1904).

  3. 3.

    George Washington to Arthur Young, 18 June 1792 (Washington 1970).

  4. 4.

    Virginia Gazette (Purdie), 2 February 1776 (italics original).

  5. 5.

    George Washington to Frances B. Washington, 18 August 1793 (Washington 1970).

  6. 6.

    Virginia Gazette (Purdie), 5 April 1776 (italics original).

  7. 7.

    The nineteenth-century salience of overseers’ reputation for incompetence is evidenced by the large number of times that this prejudice appeared in industrial lawsuits.

  8. 8.

    Virginia Gazette (Purdie), 5 April 1776 (italics original).

  9. 9.

    Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), 14 January 1768: 3.

  10. 10.

    Entry for March 1776, John Page diary, Manuscripts Department, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. See also entries for April, May, June, August, September, October, and November 1776.

  11. 11.

    Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 14 May 1794 (Jefferson 1904); entry for 2 August 1762 (Washington 1976–1979, I: 304); Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 18 June 1792 (Jefferson 1904).

  12. 12.

    Washington (1976–1979, I: xviii); Tobias Lear to Alexander Robertson, 16 December 1792 (Washington 1970).

  13. 13.

    Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 14 May 1794 (Jefferson 1904); entry for 2 August 1762 (Washington 1976–1979, I: 304); Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 18 June 1792 (Jefferson 1904); Carter, “Landon Carter’s crop book,” 282; Thomas Jefferson to William Pearce, 15 December 1792 (Jefferson 1904).

  14. 14.

    Henry Laurens to Richard Oswald & Co., 26 May 1756 (Laurens 1970–1974, II: 203).

  15. 15.

    Henry Laurens to John Smith, 9 May 1766 (Laurens 1970–1974, V: 125).

  16. 16.

    Entry for 3 February 1777, Margaret Colleton account, 25 September 1776 to 28 August 1780, Margaret Colleton papers, folder 5, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

  17. 17.

    John Hampton to John Bynum, Richard Hampton papers, folder: Major John Hampton, 1743–1808, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina; John Couturier to John Ewing Colhoun, 17 April 1792, John Ewing Colhoun papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

  18. 18.

    George Washington to Arthur Young, 18 June 1792 (Washington 1970).

  19. 19.

    George Washington to Henry Lee, 16 October 1793 (Washington 1970).

  20. 20.

    George Washington to Arthur Young, 18 June 1792 (Washington 1970).

  21. 21.

    Robert Bristow to Thomas Booth, 30 September 1719, Robert Bristow copybook, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, 758.

  22. 22.

    Joseph Ball to Joseph Chinn, 15 March 1755, Joseph Ball letterbook, John D. Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.

  23. 23.

    Edward Ambler to Charles Dabney, 14 July 1767, Charles William Dabney papers, 1715–1845, folder 9, box 1, subseries 1.1: 1716–1775, Manuscripts Department, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

  24. 24.

    Pierce Butler to Messrs Thomas Fraser & Co., 13 April 1787, Butler plantation papers, folder 9, box 2, collection 1447; Pierce Butler to Messrs Simpson & Davison, 14 July 1787, Butler plantation papers, folder 9, box 2, collection 1447.

  25. 25.

    John Lloyd to George Champion, 28 September 1796, John Lloyd papers, folder 1, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

  26. 26.

    William Lee letterbook, 5 August 1783 to 1 April 1787, Lee family papers, 1638–1867, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia, 295.

  27. 27.

    Henry Laurens to James Lawrence, 1 January 1763 (Laurens 1970–1974, III: 203).

  28. 28.

    William Ancrum to Marlow Pryor, 30 October 1776; cf. William Ancrum to Marlow Pryor, 4 October 1776, William Ancrum account book and letterbook, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

  29. 29.

    Henry Laurens to Timothy Creamer, 25 January 1765 (Laurens 1970–1974, IV: 570).

  30. 30.

    Henry Laurens to James Lawrence, 1 January 1763 (Laurens 1970–1974, III: 203).

  31. 31.

    William Lee to Mr. Ellis, 24 June 1778, William Lee’s letterbook, 1769–1793, Lee family papers, 1638–1867, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia, 265.

  32. 32.

    William Lee to Mr. Ellis, 24 June 1778, William Lee’s letterbook, 1769–1793, Lee family papers, 1638–1867, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia, 265.

  33. 33.

    Henry Fitzhugh to James Buchanan, 22 April 1755, Henry Fitzhugh papers, 1746-69, Duke University Perkins Special Collections Library, Durham, North Carolina.

  34. 34.

    Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., 24 June 1793 Notes (Jefferson 1904: XI).

  35. 35.

    William Lee to Mr. Ellis, 24 June 1778, William Lee’s letterbook, 1769–1793, Lee family papers, 1638–1867, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia, 265.

  36. 36.

    Habersham cited in (Wood 1984: 138).

  37. 37.

    Josiah Smith to George Austin, 30 July 1772, Josiah Smith, Jr. lettercopy book, 1771–1784, Manuscripts Department, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 105.

  38. 38.

    Josiah Smith to George Austin, 22 July 1773, Josiah Smith, Jr. lettercopy book, 1771–1784, Manuscripts Department, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 227.

  39. 39.

    George Washington to Lund Washington, 26 November 1775 (Washington 1970, n. 18).

  40. 40.

    George Washington. “A view of the work at the several plantations in the year 1789 and general directions for the execution of it,” Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia.

  41. 41.

    Robert Carter III to Edward Hunt & Son, 13 May 1765, letterbook of Robert Carter III of Nomini Hall, 1760–1764, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.

  42. 42.

    Joseph Ball to Joseph Chinn, 30 June 1749, Joseph Ball letterbook, John D. Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.

  43. 43.

    Robert Carter to Edward Ransdale, 24 June 1767, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall letterbook, 9 vols., Chauvenet collection, John D. Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, 63.

  44. 44.

    Henry Laurens to Abraham Schad, 18 April 1766, in Laurens, Papers of Henry Laurens, V, 101.

  45. 45.

    William Ancrum to Mr. Geeving, 17 October 1778, William Ancrum account book and letterbook, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

  46. 46.

    Henry Fitzhugh to John Bland, 11 August 1768, Henry Fitzhugh to John Bland, October 1763, Henry Fitzhugh papers, 1746–1769, Duke University Perkins Special Collections Library, Durham, North Carolina.

  47. 47.

    John Palmer to John Ewing Colhoun, 23 May 1792, John Ewing Colhoun papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

  48. 48.

    Robert Carter Diary (Carter 1701–1732).

  49. 49.

    17 July 1745, Joseph Ball letterbook, John D. Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.

  50. 50.

    Henry Laurens cited in (Wood 1984: 140).

  51. 51.

    A. Norris to H. Keylor, 23 January 1795, John Ewing Colhoun papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

  52. 52.

    Henry Laurens to John Jackson, 19 March 1766 (Laurens 1970–1974, V: 90).

  53. 53.

    Jacob Fendin to Edward Telfair, 20 March 1774, Edward Telfair papers, 1762–1831, Duke University Perkins Special Collections Library, Durham, North Carolina.

  54. 54.

    Thomas Mitchell to Francis Jerdone, 9 July 1789, Jerdone family papers, folder 2, box 2, Manuscripts Department, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.

  55. 55.

    William Ancrum to Marlow Pryor, 27 March 1776, William Ancrum account book and letterbook, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina. Cf. Josiah Smith to George Austin, 20 September 1771; Josiah Smith to James Poyas, 3 September 1779, Josiah Smith, Jr. lettercopy book, 1771–1784, Manuscripts Department, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 25, 115.

  56. 56.

    Robert Carter to Thomas Olive, 8 May 1781, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall letterbook, Chauvenet collection, John D. Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, VIII, 75.

  57. 57.

    Rutledge cited in Schwartz, A History of the Supreme Court, 5; 22 April 1776, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall letterbook, Chauvenet collection, John D. Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, III, 18.

  58. 58.

    Copy of Letter from Young Men of Augusta, Georgia to President Adams, 2 July 1798, Colonial Dames Collection, folder 94, box 10, Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Georgia.

  59. 59.

    Thomas Jefferson to William Wirt, 5 August 1815 (Jefferson 1904: XI).

  60. 60.

    Laurens cited in (Sandy 2014: 365).

  61. 61.

    Solomon Betton to John Mercer, 6 September 1791, letters from Solomon Betton, Mercer papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia.

  62. 62.

    Solomon Betton to John Mercer, 6 September 1791, letters from Solomon Betton, Mercer papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia.

  63. 63.

    Solomon Betton to John Mercer, 19 September 1791, letters from Solomon Betton, Mercer papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia.

  64. 64.

    Entry for 9 September 1784, daybook, VI, 31, Robert Carter papers, 1772–1794, Duke University Perkins Special Collections Library, Durham, North Carolina.

  65. 65.

    Robert Carter to Newyear Branson, 16 April 1785, daybook, VI, 138; entry for 22 April 1785, daybook, VI, 194, Robert Carter papers, 1772–1794, Duke University Perkins Special Collections Library, Durham, North Carolina.

  66. 66.

    John Irby to Henry Banks, 7 November 1797, Banks papers, 1781–1817, section 1, “John Irby” folder, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia.

  67. 67.

    Jonathon Boucher to George Washington, 21 May 1770, in (Washington 1970).

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  1. Affiliate Faculty Member, College of Charleston, USA

    Tristan Stubbs

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  1. Tristan Stubbs
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  1. Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Colette Le Petitcorps

  2. Institute of Contemporary History, NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lisbon, Portugal

    Marta Macedo

  3. Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Irene Peano

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Stubbs, T. (2023). ‘[A] Continual Exercise of…Patience and Economy’: Plantation Overseers, Agricultural Innovation, and State Formation in Eighteenth-Century North America. In: Le Petitcorps, C., Macedo, M., Peano, I. (eds) Global Plantations in the Modern World. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08537-6_6

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