Ben hit the nail on the head for me when he said the importance of this book was in illustrating that Africans brought "systems of knowledge" to the Americas and not simply the physical rice grains. While many revisionists historians of the Atlantic World try and capture the ways in which the Americas, especially Indians, were able to shape their experience and contribute to Europe, African contributions are often seen only in their labor. This book is important on two fronts for me because 1) it gives agency to African slaves in the history of the Atlantic World as more than just labor 2) it gives credence to the idea that a commodity is not a simple item, but rather the result of an entire cultural process which includes science, technology, etc.
After reading this book, I realized how complex and culturally constructed agricultural systems were(probably should have realized that seeing as "culture" is in the actual word!). This book effectively argues that what African slave cultivators brought over was knowledge, something that is often not attributed to the non-West in these times. In fact, with slave knowledge of rice cultivation and the environment in North America, Carney describes how South Carolina and the South became one of the richest economies in the entire world. It is so obvious that European traders would not be able to learn how to cultivate rice on their own without knowledge, and it is not like there were any rice manuals out there for them to read. Moreover, agriculture is often hard to explain in words, and involves hands on training, so it really illustrates the importance of the knowledge Africans brought. Moreover, this knowledge allowed them to negotiate terms of their bondage early on, and they had more autonomy when they were more important to rice cultivation then later on when it adapted.
I think one disappointing aspect was Carney's lack of explaining why it was so important that women controlled a lot of the process of rice cultivation becoming successful. What does that mean, and why is that more important then if men were the only slaves needed for its cultivation. Indeed, it seems the women were reservoirs of knowledge, and this may have helped them negotiate their terms of bondage and acquire more power. Carney never really explores this in-depth, and I am wondering what importance it had on the plantation economy of the lower South that women were more important then perhaps the slave economies of the Upper South? I also think, while this would have been hard history to complete, she could have taken advantage of more upstreaming in her work, which might have helped illuminate these issues of gender and agriculture.
After reading this book, I realized how complex and culturally constructed agricultural systems were(probably should have realized that seeing as "culture" is in the actual word!). This book effectively argues that what African slave cultivators brought over was knowledge, something that is often not attributed to the non-West in these times. In fact, with slave knowledge of rice cultivation and the environment in North America, Carney describes how South Carolina and the South became one of the richest economies in the entire world. It is so obvious that European traders would not be able to learn how to cultivate rice on their own without knowledge, and it is not like there were any rice manuals out there for them to read. Moreover, agriculture is often hard to explain in words, and involves hands on training, so it really illustrates the importance of the knowledge Africans brought. Moreover, this knowledge allowed them to negotiate terms of their bondage early on, and they had more autonomy when they were more important to rice cultivation then later on when it adapted.
I think one disappointing aspect was Carney's lack of explaining why it was so important that women controlled a lot of the process of rice cultivation becoming successful. What does that mean, and why is that more important then if men were the only slaves needed for its cultivation. Indeed, it seems the women were reservoirs of knowledge, and this may have helped them negotiate their terms of bondage and acquire more power. Carney never really explores this in-depth, and I am wondering what importance it had on the plantation economy of the lower South that women were more important then perhaps the slave economies of the Upper South? I also think, while this would have been hard history to complete, she could have taken advantage of more upstreaming in her work, which might have helped illuminate these issues of gender and agriculture.
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