| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 217 words from this article are provided below; about 395 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Sugar Masters: Planters and Slaves in Louisiana's Cane World, 1820–1860. By Richard Follett. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. xii, 290 pp. $54.95, ISBN 0-8071-3038-9.)
Richard Follett's important study examines the relationship between sugar planters and their slaves as the key to understanding the world they built together in the swamps of southern Louisiana. The Sugar Masters traces the origins of this world to the market revolution of the early nineteenth century, when sugar growers made a viable commercial enterprise of growing a tropical staple in a region beset by annual frosts. Their system of "market paternalism" combined entrepreneurial skill, mechanical innovation, and close—often draconian—management of the enslaved laborers (p. 155).	1
Follett argues that "the antebellum sugar mill stood within a transitional phase of industrial development, anchored in the social relations of slavery though mimicking aspects of northern capitalism" (p. 94). Masters and slaves alike demonstrated tendencies of both systems, apparently oblivious to the contradictions that might strike the twenty-first-century eye. The masters invested liberally in heavy machinery to increase profits, and they applied the principles of mechanical efficiency to the practice of estate management. Yet for all that business savvy, they displayed a "dearth of public spiritedness" and "their economic vision remained short-sighted and exceptionally individualistic" (p. 39).	. . .

There are about 395 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.