Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Professor David McCollum-Oldroyd, Professor Thomas Tyson, Professor Richard Fleischman
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Emerald Publishing Limited, 2018.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
The paper focuses on the labour contract system (LCS) established by the Freedmen’s Bureau (FB) after the American Civil War to normalise relations between freed slaves and their former masters and to uphold their rights as free citizens. In particular, it explains the lack of accountability of employers under the LCS and how this contributed to the system’s failure.The paper adopts an archive-based approach to develop and illustrate the labour contracting relationship between freed persons and property owners and the role accounting played in sustaining this relationship in the immediate post bellum period.The paper finds that the LCS was coercive compared to contemporary business practice in the U.S.; did not conform to the high ideals of contracting as portrayed by the abolition movement; and was adopted by default rather than design. In the event, the reluctance of the federal government to infringe individual autonomy by imposing an over-arching system of regulation to hold employers to account for upholding their contractual obligations prevailed over the desire to defend the freed-people’s property rights.This research examines the relationship between labour contracting and property rights as well as the role of accounting in sustaining racial prejudice against freed persons after the American Civil War. As in many archive-based studies, illustrations are selective and not randomised.The paper examines the various accountings and accountabilities within the LCS in the context of the underlying ideological tensions and priorities in post-conflict U.S. society.
Author(s): Oldroyd D, Tyson TN, Fleischman RK
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
Year: 2018
Volume: 31
Issue: 6
Pages: 1720-1748
Online publication date: 30/07/2018
Acceptance date: 09/01/2018
Date deposited: 09/01/2018
ISSN (print): 1368-0668
ISSN (electronic): 1758-4205
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
URL: https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-08-2015-2202
DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-08-2015-2202
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
