ePub Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern Asia: Explorations in the Intellectual History of India and Tibet; 1500–1800 by From Brand: Duke University Press Books in History

Description

New Masters: Northern Planters during the Civil War and Reconstruction; analyzes the North’s efforts to transform the South; both during and after the war; into a free labor economy and society. In this ground-breaking work; Lawrence N. Powell addresses the role that the twenty to fifty thousand "new masters;" or northern planters; had on the post-reconstruction system. Covering evidence of over five hundred northern planters; Powell asserts that northern emigrants provided much of the capital that hard-pressed southern planters used to stave off bankruptcy; showing that these planters became both the catalyst that perpetuated the plantation system of servitude and debt; as well as became the reason behind the revitalization of the South. New Masters deals with a variety of issues; including race relations; Northern planters’ motivations; work habits; capital investment patterns; and the planters’ gradual disillusionment as problems mounted and profits declined.