Confronting moral issues from accounting's dark side

Abstract

This article tracks one traditional accounting historian's transition into more critical directions as a result of archival research projects into certain of the seamier episodes in accounting's history. My current research focus, the study of US and British West Indian slavery accounting, has raised moral issues that have widened my perspectives and caused me to think more critically about the archival materials that document the slave plantation environment in both venues. This paper was originally presented as a plenary address at the third Accounting History International Conference in Siena, hosted by the Italian Society of Accounting Historians. As such, it contains more personal recollections and opinions than are typical in an academic journal such asAccounting History.