Reputation and ‘reputational entrepreneurship’ in the colonial South and early republic: the case of plantation overseers*

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Sandy ◽  
Gervase Phillips
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Early Republic ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Colonial Society ◽  
Racial Hegemony

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.

Patriot vs. Patriot: Social Conflict in Virginia and the Origins of the American Revolution

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-256
Author(s):  
MICHAEL A. McDONNELL ◽  
WOODY HOLTON
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
North American ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
George Washington ◽  
Social Consensus ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Mount Vernon ◽  
Widespread Agreement ◽  
Northern County

Virginia, Britain's most populous and arguably most important North American colony, once seemed the perfect fit for the “consensus” interpretation of the War of Independence. Indeed, the percentage of white colonists who became loyalists was probably lower in Virginia than in any other rebelling colony. The widespread agreement on secession from Britain should not, however, be mistaken for social consensus. The reality was that revolutionary Virginia was frequently in turmoil. One of the most intriguing of the local insurrections broke out in the northern county of Loudoun just five months before the Declaration of Independence. In February 1776, the county erupted into a heated confrontation pitting gentlemen against their less wealthy neighbours. Lund Washington, who was managing Mount Vernon, warned his cousin, General George Washington, who was outside Boston training his fledgeling patriot army, that the “first Battle we have in this part of the Country will be in Loudon” – not against British soldiers, but against fellow patriots. Within a week, the revolutionary government in Williamsburg, the Committee of Safety, felt compelled to send troops to quell the disturbances. Yet, for months afterwards, gentry Virginians worried that their effort to suppress the rebellion had failed. In mid-May, Andrew Leitch told Leven Powell of Loudoun, “I really lament the torn and distracted condition of your County.” The “troublesome times,” as another gentleman called them, were slow to abate.

Deconstructing the “War of All Against All”: The Prevalence and Implications of War Metaphors and Other Adversarial News Schema in TIME, Newsweek, and Maclean’s

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Karlberg ◽  
Leslie Buell
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
North American ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
News Discourse ◽  
News Magazines ◽  
Peace And Conflict ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Peace And Conflict Resolution

This study examines and critiques the discursive construction of a Hobbesian “war of all against all” in North American commercial news magazines. The prevalence of war metaphors and related adversarial news schemas is documented over a twenty year period, from 1981 to 2000, through an analysis of TIME and Newsweek, along with their Canadian counterpart Maclean’s. After documenting the pervasiveness of these discursive constructs, the paper discusses the underlying causes and potential consequences of these patterns in commercial news discourse. The paper concludes by asserting that this discursively constructed “war of all against all” is highly problematic and unsustainable in an age of increasing social and ecological interdependence. Accordingly, scholars who are interested in peace and conflict resolution would do well to take into account the role that news discourse and other forms of mass-mediated communication play in the perpetuation of social conflict.

scholarly journals Together, Apart: Grief in the Time of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
North American ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Colonial Society ◽  
American Media

This Major Research Project takes the form of a critical discourse analysis, with interest paid to the ways in which grief is being talked about right now, in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Nine publicly available documents made up the studied discursive sample, with all texts having been produced by North American media outlets/sources. These documents were examined and analyzed through the lens of Anti-Oppressive Practice and Relational-Cultural theories. Discourses which were present across all samples were: ‘grief as death’, other griefs for other losses, grief managerialism, and collectivity/the requirement for connection. The analysis and discussion of these themes made connections to and raised questions of white supremacy, specifically around what is considered grievable in colonial society, what forms of grief are acceptable, and for members of which communities. Peer support as a community-healing modality was put forward, due to its anti-oppressive framework. Next steps include further areas of study, including that of grief supremacy and a more detailed, nuanced discourse analysis of the intersection between white supremacy, colonialism, and grief.

scholarly journals Together, Apart: Grief in the Time of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
North American ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Colonial Society ◽  
American Media

This Major Research Project takes the form of a critical discourse analysis, with interest paid to the ways in which grief is being talked about right now, in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Nine publicly available documents made up the studied discursive sample, with all texts having been produced by North American media outlets/sources. These documents were examined and analyzed through the lens of Anti-Oppressive Practice and Relational-Cultural theories. Discourses which were present across all samples were: ‘grief as death’, other griefs for other losses, grief managerialism, and collectivity/the requirement for connection. The analysis and discussion of these themes made connections to and raised questions of white supremacy, specifically around what is considered grievable in colonial society, what forms of grief are acceptable, and for members of which communities. Peer support as a community-healing modality was put forward, due to its anti-oppressive framework. Next steps include further areas of study, including that of grief supremacy and a more detailed, nuanced discourse analysis of the intersection between white supremacy, colonialism, and grief.

scholarly journals Signer sous l'Ancien Régime colonial français : polysémie d'une pratique d'écriture ordinaire

2008 ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
François Melançon
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
New France ◽  
First Century ◽  
Colonial Society ◽  
The North ◽  
School Network ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Impact

During the twenty-first century, the signature has been raised as an archetypical unit of account for the literacy of a group in a particular place, at a particular time. It also has been used as an index of the impact of the school network on the transmission of basic literacy skills. Nevertheless, a signature is everything but an historical invariant. To sign is a polysemical act with a history. It is a common practice that is tied to the juridical discourse and is socially connoted. This article intends to present some thoughts, from the New France history, upon contexts that can add value to the signature and have contributed to the infiltration of the written culture into the North American French colonial society before 1760.

scholarly journals Slavery and the “American Way of War,” 1607–1861

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 825-850
Author(s):  
Gervase Phillips ◽  
Laura Sandy
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
North American ◽  
Early Republic ◽  
National Strategy ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
Comparative Framework ◽  
Antebellum Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Way ◽  
Systemic Violence

AbstractSlavery and warfare were inextricably intertwined in the history of Britain’s North American colonies and, subsequently, the early republic. Yet this deep connection has not been acknowledged in the historiography. In particular, the debate about an “American way of war” has neglected the profound significance of slavery as a formative factor in America’s “first way of war.” Here, these two forms of organized, systemic violence are considered not merely within a comparative framework but as phenomena whose relationship is so deeply enmeshed that they cannot be meaningfully understood in isolation. Slavery is thus placed centrally in an examination of American war making, from the colonial to the antebellum period. Three main areas are highlighted: slave raiding against Native Americans, slavery as a factor in imperial and national strategy-making and diplomacy, and slavery as an “internal war.”

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