The Pulitzer Prize Board has named Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery by Stone Faculty Affiliate Seth Rockman as a finalist in the category of History, recognizing the book as a groundbreaking contribution to the study of American slavery and capitalism.

Published by the University of Chicago Press, Plantation Goods explores the ordinary objects—whips, hoes, shovels, hats—that powered plantation economies and shaped the lives of enslaved people and their enslavers. Through meticulous archival research and a sharp analytical lens, Rockman illuminates the entangled worlds of Northern manufacturing and Southern slavery, redefining our understanding of how goods and labor circulated in early America.

Pultizer describes the book as "An eye-opening rethinking of nineteenth-century American history that reveals the interdependence of the Northern industrial economy and Southern slave labor." As one of only three books recognized in this year’s History category, it is clear that Plantation Goods sparks vital conversations about race, capitalism, and memory in the United States.

The Stone Inequality Initiative is grateful to have Prof. Rockman as a faculty affiliate and this achievement provides well-deserved recognition of his innovative scholarship on the study of inequality.