Beyond Racism and Poverty

The Truck System on Louisiana Plantations and Dutch Peateries, 1865-1920
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-90-04-44717-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 3, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 417 g

Reihe: Studies in Global Slavery

The truck system was a global phenomenon in the period 1865-1920, where workers were paid through the company store. In Beyond Racism and Poverty Karin Lurvink looks at how this system functioned on plantations in Louisiana in comparison with peateries in the Netherlands. In the United States, the system is often viewed as a 'second slavery' and strongly associated with racism. In the Netherlands, however, not racism but poverty has been seen as the main reason for its continued existence.

By using a variety of historical sources and by analyzing the perspectives of both employers and workers, Lurvink provides new insights into how the truck system worked and can be explained. She reveals how the system was not only coercive but had advantages for the workers as well, which should not be overlooked.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lurvink, Karin

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte Regionalgeschichte der USA: Einzelne Staaten, Städte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Geschichte der Sklaverei
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations and Conventions
Glossary
Introduction
The Truck System—A Nineteenth-Century Global Phenomenon
American Historians Discussing the Truck System—Racism
Dutch Historians Discussing the Truck System—Poverty
Selecting the Research Cases
Rational Choice-Approach
Voice from the Past: Source Material
Outline
1 Bayous and Bogs—The Geography of Isolation
The Louisiana Countryside
Louisiana Rivers, Creeks, Lakes, and Bayous
Railroads—An Improved Connection to the Outside World
Dutch Roads and Highways of Water
2 Truck Payments
Fields of Cotton and Sugarcane
Permanent and Seasonal Peat Lands
Truck Payments
Direct Non-Cash—Something to Eat and a Few Rags to Wear?
Indirect Non-Cash—The Company Store
Colorful Tokens and Handwritten Store Notes
Living off Future Income
Piles of Greenbacks, Dollars, and Guilders
Conclusions
3 Abuse? The Effects of the Truck System
Whiskey, Jenever, and Alcoholics
High Price, Low Quality
Usurious Interest Rates
Debt Peonage
Conclusions
4 Costs and Benefits—The Employer’s Perspective
Costs—The Opposite of the Truck System
Economic Forces and Financial Difficulties
Strapped for Cash
Miserable Years and Declining Profits
‘The Queerest Looking Creatures’—Labor Supply and Productivity
‘The Misery of this Time’ and Truck Payment Methods
Conclusions
5 Carrots, Cake, and Candy—The Store as a Positive Incentive
Presents ‘Joyfully Accepted’
Facilitating Commerce
Self-sufficient Little Worlds of Their Own?
The Alternative Marketplace –‘A Welcome Sight to the Rural Resident’
Credit Scarcity
Consumerism and the Physical Artifacts of Modern Life
‘From Something to Eat, to Something to Work, to Something to Wear’
Shopping in the Peat Employer’s Store—‘The More We Take, the More We Have’
Access to Desires
Conclusions
6 Sticks and Strikes—The Store as a Negative Incentive
Debating and Denouncing the Truck System
‘No Way to Check the Honesty of the Records’
Lack of Freedom
Racist Truck System?
Conclusions
7 The Power of Racism and Class
Increasing Terror
Declining Resistance
Racism and the Truck System
No Truck, No Job
Lowest Class of Society
Conclusions
Conclusion
Main Conclusions
Racism and Poverty
Beyond Louisiana and the Netherlands: Suggestions for Future Research
Appendices
Appendix 1. Louisiana Database and Method of Analysis
Creating the Database
Method of Analysis
Appendix 2. Dutch Database and Method of Analysis
Appendix 3. Harry Baptiste and Samuel Taylor—Oral History Interview 2011
Appendix 4. Isolation and Infrastructure
Sources
Unpublished Sources
Peateries
Plantation Administrations
Photographs
Tokens
Interviews
Printed Sources
Newspapers
Dutch Newspapers
Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit
Government Documents
Dutch Government Documents
Second Chamber Reports
First Chamber Reports
Maps
Miscellaneous
Published sources
Price Data
Travel Accounts
Miscellaneous
Bibliography
Literature
Unpublished Studies
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dr. Karin Lurvink (1987), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, obtained her Ph.D. in 2016 and is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher. She works on the project ‘Slaves, Commodities, and Logistics’, which is looking at the impact of slavery on the Dutch economy.