We often learn about slavery in early America through broad economic or political terms—cotton, sugar, markets, revolutions. But what happens when we turn our focus to the lived experiences of enslaved people themselves?

What did slavery feel and look like on the ground? What did survival look like day to day? And what do we make of the enslaved people who were forced into positions of authority over others, like the plantation drivers who were tasked with extracting labor from their fellow enslaved workers?

Randy Browne, an award-winning historian and Professor of History at Xavier University, joins us to investigate plantation slavery and its driving system with details from his book The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery.

Randy’s Website | Book

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/418
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 281: The Business of Slavery
🎧 Episode 282: Tacky's Revolt
🎧 Episode 289: Maroonage & the Great Dismal Swamp
🎧 Episode 295: The Whitney Plantation & Museum
🎧 Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade
🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland & Slavery

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