“Rather than casting the antebellum US as a region of slave interests and a region of freedom, this narrative is focused on the material interests that united them. Ideologically they opposed each other, but the project of national economic unification based on regional specialisms was a success. Together, the regions accepted that slavery provided them with a way to climb out of Britain’s shadow until they were strong enough to argue that they were now enslaved to each other.”

Times Literary Supplement

"Beautifully written, incredibly researched, and shows us a single, entwined economy north and south—through the lives and work of men and women in New England who produced goods like shoes and clothing and tools for people enslaved on southern plantations, and the people who were their enforced consumers. It will make you think differently about how objects take on and then promote meanings, including multifaceted racism."

Scholarly Kitchen, Best Books of 2024

“One of Rockman’s most salient insights into the literature on slavery and capitalism is that it must move beyond the question of complicity. The Northern and Southern economies were deeply entangled, and almost every sector had connections to slavery. . . . What makes Plantation Goods so valuable is not that it proves historical complicity, but that it helps us see our present  entanglements more clearly.”

Caitlin Rosenthal | Dissent

"Focusing on the production, sale, and use of material goods, Plantation Goods is an exceptional history of theinterconnectedness between the 19th-century slaveholding South and the industrialized North. . . . A very readable work, the book includes three “interludes,” each focusing on a specific material object—ashoe, a cloth sample, a whip—adding realism to the story. Students seeking to learn more about the history of labor,enslavement, and material culture will welcome this addition to the historiography. Recommended."

Choice

"Thoroughly researched and impeccably cited . . .  and just as well-written as it is documented, Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery is a most welcome addition to the historiography of slavery and economics. Academics and lay readers will both find it contents highly informative and its prose equally impressive and approachable."

Emerging Civil War

"In his much-lauded book. . . Seth Rockman offered a compelling insight on antebellum history by exploring a little-known link between the North and South: the Northern business of making, selling and marketing clothing, tools and even whips to Southern plantations."

Brown University Magazine

"Seth Rockman is one of the most creative and original American historians writing today, as Plantation Goods richly demonstrates. He casts a brilliant new light on the deeply studied subjects of slavery and capitalism."

Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship

"By pursuing a method of 'follow the things,' adopting an innovative narrative structure, and analyzing a rich collection of archival and material evidence, Seth Rockman deftly unpacks the culture and commerce of plantation goods that perniciously shaped racial 'knowledge' while making fortunes and channeling labor. This stunning study overflows with penetrating yet sensitive insights, capturing the nuanced experiences and interlocking relationships that formed a tainted yet consequential trans-regional enterprise."
 

Tiya Miles, author of All That She Carried: the Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

"Rockman has given us a brilliant book that shows how slavery permeated the American landscape. Clearly written and deeply researched,  Plantation Goods is a much-needed contribution to the study of the institution that helped define early America and, therefore, helped make us who we are today."
 

Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family

"Plantation Goods is the most satisfying history of commodities and one of the most multidimensional histories of slavery I have ever read, embracing as it does consumers, workers, and manufacturers. Critics of the 'slavery's capitalism' framework have sometimes asked, what about the northern economy? Here is the answer, and so much more. Bold yet careful, precise, and thoughtful, Rockman shucks off overreach and sensationalism to deliver the goods."
 

David Waldstreicher, author of Slavery's Constitution and The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley

"In this remarkable book, Seth Rockman shows how close attention to the circulation of material goods related to slavery—agricultural implements, clothing supplied to slaves by their owners, whips, and the like—sheds new light on the complex economic connections between northern manufacturers and southern purchasers. Rockman reminds us of the central role played by slavery in the evolution of American capitalism, and how the hope of liberating slaves' purchasing power contributed to abolition."

 

Eric Foner, author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery