The Nature of Slavery: Environment and Plantation Labor in the Anglo-Atlantic World

Planters in the Caribbean and the American South argued that only Black people could labor on plantations due to biological racial differences. Katherine Johnston's The Nature of Slavery reveals that planters observed no health differences between Black and white people and made their claims about people's ability to labor in spite of their experiences. This helped to construct and circulate a pervasive and groundless theory of race across the Atlantic world.

Format: Hardback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 20 January 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

In the late 18th century, planters in the Caribbean and the American South maintained a strict policy that only Black people were allowed to work on plantations. They argued that Africans, unlike Europeans, had physical characteristics that were well-suited to cultivating crops in hot climates. Historians have largely accepted this claim, assuming that planters observed differences in health between Black and white bodies and that these disparities supported the maintenance of an enslaved Black plantation labor force. However, Katherine Johnston's groundbreaking work in The Nature of Slavery challenges this long-held belief. Through extensive personal correspondence, colonial records, and a wealth of other sources, Johnston reveals that planters did not perceive any significant health differences between Black and white individuals. Instead, they based their arguments on their experiences with these workers, not their biological racial differences.

Planters and physicians in the region believed that local environments, rather than skin color, had a greater impact on bodily health. They also believed that all bodies, regardless of race, responded similarly to various environmental conditions on plantations. However, when slavery and their economic interests were at stake, slaveholders and slave traders propagated a climatic dichotomy that portrayed Africans and Europeans as having distinct physical characteristics. This false notion was used to justify the exploitation and abuse of enslaved laborers, as it was believed that their bodies were inherently weaker and more susceptible to disease.

By placing the health of enslaved laborers at significant risk, the actions of planters contributed to the development of environmental racism as a central aspect of Atlantic slavery. White plantation owners played a significant role in perpetuating historical myths about enslaved bodies that permeated the public imagination and were widely accepted as natural. These myths helped to construct and circulate a pervasive and baseless theory of race across the Atlantic world.

In conclusion, The Nature of Slavery by Katherine Johnston challenges the long-held belief that biological racial differences underpinned the maintenance of an enslaved Black plantation labor force. Instead, she demonstrates that planters observed no health differences between Black and white people and that their claims about the ability of Black workers to labor were based on their experiences rather than any inherent biological differences. By promoting a climatic dichotomy and perpetuating historical myths about enslaved bodies, planters contributed to the development of environmental racism as a central aspect of Atlantic slavery. It is essential to recognize the falsehoods perpetuated by these individuals and to work towards dismantling the legacy of racial inequality and exploitation that continues to impact our society today.

Weight: 510g
Dimension: 240 x 165 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197514603