The culpability of accounting practice in promoting slavery in the British Empire and antebellum United States

Oldroyd, David; Fleischman, Richard K.; Tyson, Thomas N.

doi:10.1016/j.cpa.2006.11.005

Cited by 65 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Although not explicitly dealing with stigma, much of the research on (ab)uses of accounting control mechanisms by one group to dominate another could be reconstructed as uses of accounting mechanisms to reinforce stigma (Alawattage & Wickramasinghe, 2009;Neu, 2000;Oldroyd, Fleischman, & Tyson, 2008;Tyson, Oldroyd, & Fleischman, 2005). Outside the sphere of accounting, stigma has been cast both as a form of social control and the result of social control mechanisms (Room, 2005;Stafford & Scott, 1986).…”

Section: Why Are Aborigines Still Living In Increasing Squalor?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“This degrading and stealthy practice”

Miley

Read

2018

AAAJ

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to make visible the relationship between accounting and stigma in the absence of accounting. This research examines how failure to implement mandatory accounting and auditing requirements in the management of indigenous wages contributed to stigmatisation of indigenous Australians and led to maladministration and unchecked financial fraud that continued for over 75 years. The accounting failures are by those charged with protecting the financial interests of the indigenous population. Design/methodology/approach An historical and qualitative approach has been used that draws upon archival and contemporary sources. Findings Prior research has examined the nexus between accounting mechanisms and stigma. This research suggests that the absence of accounting mechanisms can also contribute to stigma. Research limitations/implications This research highlights the complex relationship between accounting and stigma, suggesting that it is simplistic to examine the nexus between accounting and stigma without considering the social forces in which stigmatisation occurs. Social implications This research demonstrates decades of failed accounting have contributed to the ongoing social disadvantage of indigenous Australians. The presence of accounting mechanisms cannot eradicate the past, or fix the present, but can create an environment where financial abuse does not occur. Originality/value This research demonstrates that stigma can be exacerbated in the negative space created by failures or absence of accounting.

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Section: Why Are Aborigines Still Living In Increasing Squalor?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“This degrading and stealthy practice”

Miley

Read

2018

AAAJ

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“…Studies with a more or less explicit feminist framing have examined, for instance, the difficulties encountered by women in the accounting profession (Ciancanelli et al, 1990;Haynes, 2008;Jeacle, 2011;Walker, 2011) or the representation of women and other minority representatives on corporate boards of directors (Bernardi, Bean & Weippert, 2005). Those studied concerned with indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities have for instance provided historical analyses of the role of accounting in unethical practices such as slavery (Oldroyd, Fleischman & Tyson, 2008) and land grabs (Hooper & Kearins, 2008) or examined the present day conditions of minorities in business education (McNicholas & Barrett, 2005;de la Rosa, 2008). Other studies have examined the financial and institutional vulnerability of the self-employed (Boden, 1999), the plight of disabled accountants (Duff & Ferguson, 2011) as well as difficulties associated with development accounting (Jayasinghe & Wickramasinghe, 2011).…”

Section: Underrepresented Disadvantaged Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A case study of critique: Critical perspectives on critical accounting

Dillard

Vinnari

2017

Critical Perspectives on Accounting

116

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As accounting academics, we have a responsibility to act in the public interest as conscience, critic and counselor of society regarding economic, social and environmental justice. In fulfilling this responsibility, we are concerned with how accounting, accountants, and accountability regimes can facilitate democracy by serving the needs of pluralistic communities, giving particular attention to the various underserved constituencies. Informed by Flyvbjerg's (2001) notion of phronetic social science research that matters, we reviewed 353 articles published in Critical Perspectives on Accounting from 1990 to 2014 identifying the focal constituency(s), the injustice(s) addressed, the groups or institutions responsible for the injustice as well as the proposals for social and political praxis outlined in the studies. Our review indicates that generally the studies identify a somewhat focused, though salient and appropriate, set of economic, social and/or environmental injustices experienced by various constituencies, and to some extent, the studies consider the context and conditions that perpetuate the inequality and injustices. However, as the field matures, there is a need for more robust development of the social and political implications of critical accounting research and for articulating the ideas and implications as action programs. Further, our review suggests that several relevant constituencies such as non-human animals, children, future generations, developing nations, and gender and sex/uality minorities have received little or no attention in the current literature.

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“…Here virtually all freedmen were identified as field hands as had been the case with antebellum slave lists, a distinction that contrasts with the British Caribbean where many slaves had been trained in a craft [Fleischman et al, 2008].…”

Section: Other Fb Initiativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our judgment, accounting during slavery manifested no such redeemable value and actually contributed to the support of immoral and oppressive regimes, although the role it was later to play in facilitating the decision to abolish the institution in the British colonies by establishing incentives, policing the process, and implementing the compensation scheme can be viewed as more evenhanded [Oldroyd et al, 2008]. Accounting has also been implicated in the oppression of the Nazi Holocaust [Funnell, 1998;Lippman and Wilson, 2007;Lippman, 2009], the destruction of the traditional way of life of the indigenous population in Canada [Neu, 1999], and Asian indentured servants toiling on the Hawaiian sugar plantations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries [Fleischman and Tyson, 2000], to name but three examples.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, accounting has been shown to be a powerful tool for both oppression and liberation through its ability to publicize or conceal information, create accountability relations, and engineer incentives [Oldroyd et al, 2008]. The current investigation of the Freedmen's Bureau (FB) may prove another example of a commendable effort on the part of those who maintained its accounting records within the context of an otherwise horrific epoch.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The U.S. Freedmen's Bureau in Post-Civil War Reconstruction

Fleischman

Tyson

Oldroyd

2014

Accounting Historians Journal

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The transition from slavery to freedom in the post-Civil War American South featured the efforts of the Freedmen's Bureau (FB) to help ex-slaves overcome an extremely hostile, racist environment that included the need to articulate new labor relations structures given the demise of the plantation system, to overcome the limitations on equality legislated by the infamous Black Codes, to address the pressing need to educate masses of highly illiterate black children, and the need to provide protection for freedmen from unscrupulous landowners. This paper seeks to measure the degree to which accounting and those performing accounting functions for the FB were able to ameliorate these dire conditions that have caused Reconstruction to be perceived as one of the most negative epochs in the history of American democracy.

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The culpability of accounting practice in promoting slavery in the British Empire and antebellum United States

Cited by 65 publications

References 18 publications

“This degrading and stealthy practice”

“This degrading and stealthy practice”

A case study of critique: Critical perspectives on critical accounting

The U.S. Freedmen's Bureau in Post-Civil War Reconstruction

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