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.
About the Show
Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Episode Summary
Randy Browne is an award-winning historian and a Professor of History at Xavier University. He’s a historian of Atlantic slavery with research expertise in the British Caribbean. He’s written two books, Surviving Slavery in the British Caribbean and The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery.
During our investigation of plantation slavery and its driver system, Randy reveals how the labor regime of plantation slavery developed and how it functioned from the bottom up, especially through the system of enslaved drivers. Why enslavers placed such high demands—and brutal expectations—on drivers to control and punish their fellow enslaved people. And, how drivers negotiated impossible choices as they tried to survive within, and sometimes subvert, a system designed to dehumanize them.
What You’ll Discover
- The study of Atlantic World slavery and how it has changed
- Drivers and their roles in the slave labor system
- The origins of plantation slavery and the driving system
- The development of the driving system in seventeenth-century Barbados
- Henry Drax’s 1679 Instructions for operating his Barbados plantation
- The challenges of researching slavery and the voices of enslaved people
- Amelioration Reform & fiscal slave narratives
- The driving system of slavery and how it worked
- How white enslavers were able to rely on enslaved drivers
- Who worked as drivers and why
- The material benefits of being a slave driver
- Women drivers and their work
- How drivers navigated the violence of their role
- The African custom of Big Men and its application on plantations
- Drivers and resistance through slave rebellions
- The Berbice Rebellion 1813/1814
- How enslavers extracted labor from enslaved workers
Links to People, Places, and Publications
1776 in Context Question
In your opinion, how do you think your research helps us better understand the American Revolution and its broader impact?
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 281: The Business of Slavery
🎧 Episode 282: Tacky’s Revolt
🎧 Episode 289: Maroonage & the Great Dismal Swamp
🎧 Episode 295: Whitney Plantation Museum
🎧 Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade
🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland and Slavery
🎧 Episode 336: Surviving the Southampton Rebellion
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Love what you hear on Ben Franklin’s World? Support the show and help us keep history accessible, independent, and deeply researched. Make a tax-deductible donation at benfranklinsworld.com/donate.
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