In the 16th and 17th centuries, a new type of agriculture began appearing in the new world: the plantation. Focused exclusively on cash crops for an international market, but lacking industrial technology, plantations were dependent on cheap, human labor in order to turn a profit. A lot of labor, the cheaper the better. After finding that voluntary, paid laborers refused to do the brutal work required to keep the plantation running, and then finding that Native Americans were too susceptible to European diseases to be kept in close quarters, the plantation owners turned to African slaves. The legacy of the plantation system, and the slave trade it generated, is with us still. Historian Sasha Turner, of Quinnipiac University, is in Madison this week to participate in the Wisconsin Humanities Institute’s year-long “Interrogating the Plantationocene” seminar, with a couple of workshops on “Laboring Bodies.” Sasha Turner joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on October 7th, 2019.