The Demise of an Organizational Form: Emancipation and Plantation Agriculture in the American South, 1860-1880

Abstract

This article addresses factors affecting the disappearance of organizational forms, particularly in regard to arguments derived from organizational ecology and the literature on social movements. These perspectives are used to explain the disappearance of the Southern plantation in the decades following the American Civil War. Findings suggest that there is limited support for exogenous explanations of plantation demise, emphasizing damage from the Civil War and population pressures. Ecological dynamics, especially challenges from alternative forms of labor organization and interdependences with mid-size farms, play a greater role. Another crucial influence involves the decisions made by laborers in the plantation system with respect to incentive structures and the reconstruction of their social networks. These findings lead to a perspective on organizational forms that brings lower-level members back in as agents of grass-roots change and contestation.