Sassower’s new book offers three perspectives on the plantation slave economy of the Antebellum South. This book argues that reducing individuals to dividuated components continues to enable a dehumanizing capitalist mindset to fixate on abstracted labor power rather than seeing laboring individuals.
“Manorial Capitalism, Enslavement, and the Logic of Dividuation” was published by Routledge in 2025.
To share more, Sassower answered seven questions about his book.
1. If you were describing your book to someone outside of your field, what would you say?
This book attempts to answer the question: how was it possible for so many plantation owners and their families to enslave Blacks transported from Africa or other plantations for so many generations? Thinking through the psychological register of the (Freudian and Lacanian) Father Complex and the more complex notion of the “dividual” (rather than the individual), some hypotheses are proposed in this book. American enslavement can be somewhat understood if we not only focus on the obvious and important economic incentives capitalism endorses for extreme exploitation but also pay attention to the psycho-social dynamics that informed this conceptualization (of legitimating and maintaining chattel slavery).
2. How did you get the idea for your project?
Since I participated in a year-long weekly seminar at Brown University on Critique and then another year-long seminar there on Debt (the first during my sabbatical, the second virtually), I was exposed to more recent scholarship on the slave trade, Antebellum slavery in the South, and the ways Afropessimists, for example, unpack and recast the European Enlightenment project in the face of dehumanization and erasure of Blackness.
3. Did your focus develop or change throughout the research and writing process?
I started with the idea of applying retrospectively the idea of “dividuation,” which is used by economic anthropologists to understand financial capitalism (where your identity is reduced to a credit score, for example) to American enslavement. The more I read, the more I realized that the psychosocial dynamic must be accounted for as well. This took me to a deeper level of research about psychoanalysis, which then informed how the arguments of the book were reframed.
4. Which idea do you write about that most excites, invigorates or inspires you?
As a long-time student of political economy and the philosophy of technoscience (the integration of science and technology), I have been intrigued by the machination of capitalism which promises freedom and prosperity for all (delineated as equal opportunity) but that in fact increases wealth and income inequality at the expense of the many for the benefit of a few. This, I must admit, becomes a moral quandary deserving to be studied.
5. Describe your writing space. Where do you do your best work? What time of day? Do you have any writing routines you are willing to share?
As I get older, my ability to focus for long periods of time has been diminished. So, I read daily and take notes in the margins (of printed copies) or highlight passages (in digital formats). I then review and rewrite these comments and copy these passages into a new document, thereby allowing me to read everything twice. Having already outlined the structure of the book–thesis and arguments and chapters–I then try to write with all the materials at hand and fit them where they belong, like a jigsaw puzzle. When pieces don’t fit, I either discard them or change the structure to fit them (if they are deemed important enough).
No, I don’t have a routine, except that I motivate myself to work on the book every day; sometimes, I go for a walk and thing, sometimes read, sometimes annotate, sometimes write. Likewise, I don’t have a favorite space or desk; given my long-distance marriage, I work almost anywhere: cars, trains, buses, airplanes, airport lounges, kitchen tables, comfortable sofas or chairs, and desks.
6. Is there a favorite quote or passage you want to showcase from the book?
Nothing jumps at me… you’d have to read the book and see what you think is worth remembering.
7. What new questions for future exploration have you discovered?
I’m starting to work now on the question of taxation. It may seem an odd topic for a philosopher, but I think that taxes are not only proxies for ideological commitments but also bring to light our participation in the social contract: what are we willing to give to state authorities in return for what? I find a great deal of confusion surrounding taxation (progressive, flat, VAT, real-estate, income, wealth), and given my last book, a sense that the psychological dimension must be more fully explored when thinking about taxes (and not only in April). The current administration is highlighting this confusion by challenging the very structure of our republic and this, in turn, prompts, for me, more philosophical considerations than just kneejerk reactions (positive or horrified).
UCCS celebrates faculty and staff who author and edit books each year. In recognition of their achievement, and as part of the UCCS Author Spotlight initiative, authors are invited to submit details on their published works.