Thanks to Lyle for raising the subject question and Henry bringing mention
of Robert Fogel's work to the list. Not being a professional historian or
economist I was completely unaware of this controversial research or I had
forgotten it as unworthy. But before addressing Fogel more in detail it
seems that the definition of "gang system" for enslaved labor needs more
attention here.
What Lyle describes below is repetitious work where individuals work in
unison to a rhythmic beat, such as a gang laying new railroad rails with
workers alternately or simultaneously swinging their long-handled hammers to
drive spikes through the flange-holes of the rails into the supporting
wooden RR 'ties.' It seems to me that most plantation tasks involving the
tending of tobacco, cotton, corn, livestock, etc. did not lend themselves to
such repetition and rhythmic operations. Rather, the slave labor force was
a mix of strong and weak workers varying in muscular coordination, age, sex,
health and other characteristics affecting their work capabilities....and,
therefore, the gang-system of enslaved labor pertained more to assigning
such individuals into *work-specialty* gangs that could be driven by an
overseer to work faster, like 'hoe-gangs' and 'plow-gangs,' just for
examples, where only 'full-hands' who had the strength and stamina to work
'full-out' all day were assigned to a plow-gang, while weaker workers
including women, older men and young children were assigned to a hoe-gang.
In other words, why waste the capabilities of a robust 'full-hand' on
relatively easy hoe-work that could be performed by a gang of weaker others.
There were virtually no simultaneous or rhythmic motions to these major
tasks but workers were allowed to whistle or sing except "no drawling tunes
were allowed" that might slow down the workers. (Possibly a few highly
repetitious occasional sub-tasks such as loading bales, or rope-pulling a
keel-boat of tobacco or cotton were exceptions where singing/working with
rhythm prevailed -- and maybe I am forgetting a major agricultural task...?)
Early teenage memories from long ago come to mind concerning young boys
working as field-gangs for tasks of 'corn-detasseling' (removing 'male'
tassels by hand from designated rows of tall corn stalks in fields of hybrid
corn) and 'walking beans' (removing weeds in rows of soybean plants with a
hoe or long-handled hook.) There were of course no beatings but it was
embarrassing for a so-called 'full-hand' being told to go back and help an
awkward or uncoordinated worker up even with others of the gang -- or a
foreman finding tassles remaining in many cornstalks of a row and dropping
them at the feet of the responsible slacking worker at the end of the row,
in full view of others. (We at least got to rest there until the slowest
worker finished his rows, or sometimes we'd go back and help the slower
worker if he were indeed trying hard -- we would also sing at times but only
to pass time, sometimes in contests to develop the funniest poetic words,
which were often the raunchiest as well.) I can only imagine how a
slave-overseer would warn and scold a slow worker and promise lashes that
night if he/she didn't do better (or maybe done right on the spot.) I
suspect he/she was also warned to watch how 'Joe over there' accomplishes
the task at hand and to follow his lead and stay up with others in the gang,
*with high-quality results*, or face the consequences.
As to Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman, I have learned over the weekend
about their _Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery_
(1974) in which they used quantitative methods (suspect to some) in order to
arrive at controversial conclusions. I hope it is productive for me to
provide a hyperlink to a book review that sheds light on this to possibly
help others better understand. How I missed Fogel & Engerman's work I don't
know and maybe this will be appreciated by unknowing others:
http://eh.net/bookreviews/library/weiss
Following is a link to a summary of Fogel & Engerman's work that explains
more about their analyses including their computation of relative
productivity which seems laughable to me as to the ready adjustment of their
formulae terms to fit desired results (but apparently ok to some historians
and economists.) Note that the graph concerning distribution of
slave-whippings is for only one plantation, not a sample from many
throughout the slave states: (There were followup studies, by the same
authors and many others as well.)
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/fogel.htm
Hoping this supplemental discussion is of some interest,
and best wishes for 2008.
Neil McDonald
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lyle E. Browning" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Agricultural productivity
> Now that is extraordinarily interesting. It appears to me to tap into
> something I've noted in my days of working as an archaeological grunt.
> When you have a group of folks doing the same thing in group format,
> there tends to be a sort of competition and things soon speed up to about
> the fastest that a fit group of people can move.
>
> I also watched two movies filmed just prior to WWI, one of Chinese
> laborers and one of African laborers, both sets building a dam, one
> basket of earth at a time. Work speed was regulated by a gong for the
> Chinese and a whacking great drum for the Africans, but the drummer set
> the pace and on each deep beat, the entire workforce moved at once and
> shifted. It becomes quite hypnotic (this from personal experience at
> swinging an 8 pound sledge alternately with another fellow for 45 minutes
> without stopping, and when we did, the entire dig was stopped and was
> staring at us. We were oblivious as we had just come out of the trance
> part. Normally, 3-10 minutes was the norm before stopping for a break).
> Work songs for railroad workers is another parallel.
>
> From what you've provided, the suitable comparisons would be a military
> crew working on some similar problem wherein you have superbly
> conditioned people united in a desire to get something done rather than
> white subsistence farmers.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Lyle Browning
>
>
> On Dec 29, 2007, at 5:50 PM, Henry Wiencek wrote:
>
>> Some points from Robert William Fogel, "The Slavery Debates, 1952-1990"
>> specifically about gang labor by slaves:
>>
>> "research disclosed that slaves working under the gang system produced
>> as
>> much output in 35 minutes as farmers -- white or black -- produced in an
>> hour when working in the traditional way." (P. 27)
>>
>> P. 33: "As it turned out, free northern farmers worked about 10 percent
>> more
>> hours than southern slaves, not fewer hours as had been hypothesized...
>> It
>> soon became evident that the greater intensity of work per hour, rather
>> than
>> more hours of labor per day or more days of labor per year, was the
>> principal form of the exploitation of slave labor. The gang system
>> played a
>> role comparable to the factory system or, at a later date, the assembly
>> line, in regulating the pace of labor. It was, in other words, in early
>> device for speeding up labor."
>>
>> You will probably want to look at Fogel's notes for his sources on these
>> statements.
>>
>> Henry Wiencek
>>
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