The slave plantation: Environment,history,and cycles of capital accumulation

Abstract

This article critiques the conceptual adequacy of the concepts anthroprocene, capitalocene, and plantationocene. In their place, it proposes an historical approach to the interrelated histories of capitalism, the plantation, slavery, and nature in the Americas from the perspective of commodity production. It treats plantations as historically specific combinations of land, slave labor, and productive technology. Plantations are formed and reformed through the successive creation of new commodity frontiers, which are themselves integral to the historical expansion of capitalism. Focusing on the productive structure of the sugar plantation, this article traces its transformations through the successive construction of commodity frontiers in 16th century Brazil, 17th British and French Caribbean, and 19th century Cuba.