Mastered by the clock : time, slavery, and freedom in the American South /
Mark M. Smith.
- [First edition].
- xx, 303 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.
- Fred W. Morrison series in Southern studies .
- Fred W. Morrison series in Southern studies. .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 258-291) and index.
Time in southern slave society -- Times democratic : clocks, watches, makers, and owners, 1700-1900 -- Taming time's pinions, weaving time's web : of times natural, sacred, and secular, 1700-1900 -- Apostles of progress, agents of time : consolidating time consciousness in the south, 1750-1865 -- Master time, 1750-1865 -- Time in African American work and culture -- New south, old time -- Times hegemonic : standard time.
This is the first work to explore the evolution of clock-based time consciousness in the American South. Challenging traditional assumptions about the plantation economy's reliance on a promodern, nature-based conception of time, Mark M. Smith shows how and why southerners - particularly masters and their slaves - came to view the clock as a legitimate arbiter of time.