This first podcast from two tutors at the University of Edinburgh (Mark McLay and Dr Malcolm Craig) looks at the introduction of slavery to the Southern colonies in the seventeenth century. We examine the eternal debate - 'Did slavery lead to racism or did racism lead to slavery?' - and we consider why we even bother trying to answer this question. In addition, we delve into the key debates that surround this question and give our views on the arguments of leading historical works of this period. Finally, we opine on the legacy that the introduction of slavery bequeathed the founders of the United States in the late eighteenth century.
All this - and yet we still manage to dodge an emergency and wrongly predict the outcome of the Scottish Independence Referendum!
We hope you enjoy the podcast and stick around for the next episode - appearing in two weeks time - which will pick apart the debates surrounding the formation of the United States.
Mark & Malcolm
Historiography included in discussion:
- Oscar and
Mary Handlin, 'Origins of the Southern Labor System,' William and Mary Quarterly VI1.2 (April 1950), 199-222
- Edmund
S. Morgan, 'Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox,' Journal of American History 59 (June 1972), 5-29.
- David Eltis, ‘Europeans and the Rise
and Fall of African Slavery in the Americas: An Interpretation’, American
Historical Review 98 (1993): pp.1399-1423.
- Peter
Kolchin, American Slavery, 1619-1877,
(New York, 1993), Chs. 1,2.
- Peter J.
Parish, Slavery: History and Historians,
(New York, 1989), Chs. 1, 2
- T.
H. Breen, 'A Changing Labor Force and Race Relations in Virginia, 1660-1710,'
in T. H. Breen (ed.), Shaping Southern Society: The Colonial Experience
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp.116-134
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