Hidden in Plain Sight: Slave Capitalism in Poe, Hawthorne, and Joel Chandler Harris

The book explores how free Americans acknowledged the intolerable yet acted as if they did not, and how non-slave-owning Americans imagined a relation to slavery that admitted its iniquity and accepted its benefits. It also examines how the reconfiguration of the plantation system after the Civil War elicit new literary forms for dealing with its perpetuation of racial injustice, expropriation of labor, and exploitation for profit of the land.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 156 pages
Publication date: 15 April 2022
Publisher: University of Georgia Press

The United States' prosperity was built on a New World plantation complex, which led to the development of toxic practices associated with slavery. These practices were a contradiction to the nation's enlightenment ideals and republican ideology, which emphasized liberty, democracy, and individualism. Recent historical scholarship has explored the relation of capitalism to slavery, revealing the depths to which U.S. ascension was indebted to global plantation slave economies. John T. Matthews' book, "Hidden in Plain Sight," examines how exemplary works of literature represented the determination to deny the open secret of a national atrocity. These works hid difficult truths in plain sight, allowing beholders to recognize and disavow knowledge they would not act on.

The book explores the habits of mind that enabled free Americans to acknowledge what was intolerable yet act as if they did not. It also examines how non-slave-owning Americans imagined a relation to slavery that both admitted its iniquity and accepted its benefits. Finally, it explores how the reconfiguration of the plantation system after the Civil War elicit new literary forms for dealing with its perpetuation of racial injustice, expropriation of labor, and exploitation for profit of the land.

The book focuses on signal nineteenth-century works by Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Joel Chandler Harris to show how writers portrayed a nation founded on the unseen seen of slaverys capitalism. These works reveal the complex and contradictory nature of slavery and its impact on American society.

In conclusion, "Hidden in Plain Sight" is a valuable contribution to the study of slavery and its impact on American society. It provides a fresh perspective on the relationship between capitalism and slavery and highlights the ways in which writers portrayed a nation founded on the unseen seen of slaverys capitalism. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of slavery and its legacy in American society.

Dimension: 216 x 140 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780820362595