An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association American Accounting Association 2006 Annual Meeting August 6–9, 2006 Washington, D.C.

Dale L. Flesher
University of Mississippi

Gary John Previts
Case Western Reserve University

Andrew D. Sharp
Spring Hill College

Abstract: “Personal Property” was the title given the account used by the M&O Railroad in the l850’s and l860’s to record the acquisition of slaves—with the accountant using the term “slaves” in a journal entry description. This paper provides primary source information regarding M&O construction labor supplied by planters. Because of the availability of this plantation labor pool, the M&O did not rely on immigrant labor nor purchase “industrial” slaves during the early 1850s. However, the coming of the Civil War changed labor market conditions. The M&O became a slave-holding organization to maintain itself during the War. Its personal property practices represent a paradox when contrasted with its eleemosynary practices in support of religion and education. At War’s end the accounting records detail the M&O’s disposition of the wartime slave acquisitions with the comment “…emancipated by force of circumstances.”

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