Futures

In the 1850s planters envisioned not a metaphorical but an actual “plantation future” pleasured in the society that slavery built. They enjoyed what would soon be called “conspicuous consumption” when they bought possessions for their households, patronized the arts, and supported other activities that reinforced the culture of white supremacy. Yet they knew that deep inequality threatened social stability. In East Feliciana, leaders auctioned white paupers and their labor, used the Overseers of the Poor to assist the impoverished, and even doled out fellowships to medical school. Meanwhile enslaved persons drew on existing internal resources to protest the planter’s future in real time. As they survived and gossiped, dared to experience Black joy amid unspeakable suffering, set fires and ran away, they situated the Felicianas within a world of abolitionist activism.