Abstract

Overseers were essential both to the profitability of North American slave plantations and to maintaining white racial hegemony. Yet they and their families were frequently condemned by planters as shiftless, incompetent, dishonest and brutal. Drawing on the sociology of reputation, and in particular the concept of ‘reputational entrepreneurship’, this article argues that the damning claims made by planters, and the responses of overseers and their wives, reveal an ongoing and significant social conflict within white colonial society between wealthy, but insecure, planter ‘patriarchs’ and their free, ambitious and independently minded employees.

中文翻译：

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南方殖民地和早期共和国的声誉和“声誉企业家精神”：种植园监督者*

摘要

监督者对于北美奴隶种植园的获利能力和维持白人种族霸权都至关重要。然而，他们和他们的家人经常遭到种植者的谴责，认为他们是一成不变的，无能的，不诚实的和残酷的。利用声誉的社会学，尤其是“声誉企业家精神”的概念，本文认为，种植者提出的令人发指的主张以及监督者及其妻子的反应揭示了白人殖民社会之间持续不断的重大社会冲突。富有但不安全的种植园“族长”及其自由，雄心勃勃且有独立见识的员工。