Soul by Soul : Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market

soul By Soul Tells The Story Of Slavery In Antebellum America By Moving Away From The Cotton Plantations And Into The Slave Market Itself, The Heart Of The Domestic Slave Trade. Taking Us Inside The New Orleans Slave Market, The Largest In The Nation, Where 100,000 Men, Women, And Children Were Packaged, Priced, And Sold, Walter Johnson Transforms The Statistics Of This Chilling Trade Into The Human Drama Of Traders, Buyers, And Slaves, Negotiating Sales That Would Alter The Life Of Each. What Emerges Is Not Only The Brutal Economics Of Trading But The Vast And Surprising Interdependencies Among The Actors Involved. using Recently Discovered Court Records, Slaveholders' Letters, Nineteenth-century Narratives Of Former Slaves, And The Financial Documentation Of The Trade Itself, Johnson Reveals The Tenuous Shifts Of Power That Occurred In The Market's Slave Coffles And Showrooms. Traders Packaged Their Slaves By Feeding Them Up, Dressing Them Well, And Oiling Their Bodies, But They Ultimately Relied On The Slaves To Play Their Part As Valuable Commodities. Slave Buyers Stripped The Slaves And Questioned Their Pasts, Seeking More Honest Answers Than They Could Get From The Traders. In Turn, These Examinations Provided Information That The Slaves Could Utilize, Sometimes Even Shaping A Sale To Their Own Advantage. johnson Depicts The Subtle Interrelation Of Capitalism, Paternalism, Class Consciousness, Racism, And Resistance In The Slave Market, To Help Us Understand The Centrality Of The Peculiar Institution In The Lives Of Slaves And Slaveholders Alike. His Pioneering History Is In No Small Measure The Story Of Antebellum Slavery. publishers Weekly instead Of Focusing On Cotton Plantations Or Broad Historical Patterns, This Extraordinary Study Is A Flesh-and-blood Daily History Of The Slave Market. Nyu History Professor Johnson Takes Readers Inside The Dixie Slave Pens And Traders' Coffles (long Rows Of Slaves Manacled And Chained To One Another). His Focus Is New Orleans, North America's Largest Slave Market, Hub Of A Trade That Decimated African-american Slave Communities By Tearing Families Asunder--destroying Marriages And Separating Children From Parents. Using Former Slave Survivors' Narratives, Letters Written By Slaveholders, Docket Records Of Cases Of Disputed Slave Sales And Southern Medical And Agricultural Journals, Johnson Interweaves The Voices Of Traders, Buyers, Auctioneers And The Slaves Themselves. He Shows That, For White Southern Slaveholders, Buying Slaves Buoyed A Fantasy Of Manly Bourgeois Self-control, Speculative Savvy And Economic Independence. Slaves, Meanwhile, Assessed The Character Of Particular Buyers And Sometimes, At Enormous Risk, Manipulated A Sale To Their Own Advantage. The Evil Business Of Slavery Has Seldom Been Exposed With So Much Humanity And Insight As In This Eloquent Study, Scholarly Yet Wholly Accessible, A Compelling Cross-sectional Microcosm Of Millions Of Human Tragedies. (feb.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. Winner of the Frederick Jackson Turner AwardWinner of the John Hope Franklin PrizeWinner of the Avery O. Craven AwardSoul by Soul tells the story of slavery in antebellum America by moving away from the cotton plantations and into the slave market itself, the heart of the domestic slave trade. Taking us inside the New Orleans slave market, the largest in the nation, where 100,000 men, women, and children were packaged, priced, and sold, Walter Johnson transforms the statistics of this chilling trade into the human drama of traders, buyers, and slaves, negotiating sales that would alter the life of each. What emerges is not only the brutal economics of trading but the vast and surprising interdependencies among the actors involved.Using recently discovered court records, slaveholders'letters, nineteenth-century narratives of former slaves, and the financial documentation of the trade itself, Johnson reveals the tenuous shifts of power that occurred in the market's slave coffles and showrooms. Traders packaged their slaves by “feeding them up,” dressing them well, and oiling their bodies, but they ultimately relied on the slaves to play their part as valuable commodities. Slave buyers stripped the slaves and questioned their pasts, seeking more honest answers than they could get from the traders. In turn, these examinations provided information that the slaves could utilize, sometimes even shaping a sale to their own advantage.Johnson depicts the subtle interrelation of capitalism, paternalism, class consciousness, racism, and resistance in the slave market, to help us understand the centrality of the “peculiar institution” in the lives of slaves and slaveholders alike. His pioneering history is in no small measure the story of antebellum slavery.

Soul by Soul tells the story of slavery in antebellum America by moving away from the cotton plantations and into the slave market itself, the heart of the domestic slave trade. Taking us inside the New Orleans slave market, the largest in the nation, where 100,000 men, women, and children were packaged, priced, and sold, Walter Johnson transforms the statistics of this chilling trade into the human drama of traders, buyers, and slaves, negotiating sales that would alter the life of each. What emerges is not only the brutal economics of trading but the vast and surprising interdependencies among the actors involved.

Using recently discovered court records, slaveholders’ letters, nineteenth-century narratives of former slaves, and the financial documentation of the trade itself, Johnson reveals the tenuous shifts of power that occurred in the market’s slave coffles and showrooms. Traders packaged their slaves by “feeding them up,” dressing them well, and oiling their bodies, but they ultimately relied on the slaves to play their part as valuable commodities. Slave buyers stripped the slaves and questioned their pasts, seeking more honest answers than they could get from the traders. In turn, these examinations provided information that the slaves could utilize, sometimes even shaping a sale to their own advantage.

Johnson depicts the subtle interrelation of capitalism, paternalism, class consciousness, racism, and resistance in the slave market, to help us understand the centrality of the “peculiar institution“ in the lives of slaves and slaveholders alike. His pioneering history is in no small measure the story of antebellum slavery.

Soul by Soul tells the story of slavery in antebellum America by moving away from the cotton plantations and into the slave market itself, the heart of the domestic slave trade. Taking us inside the New Orleans slave market, the largest in the nation, where 100, 000 men, women, and children were packaged, priced, and sold, Walter Johnson transforms the statistics of this chilling trade into the human drama of traders, buyers, and slaves, negotiating sales that would alter the life of each. What emerges is not only the brutal economics of trading but the vast and surprising interdependencies among the actors involved.

"Soul by Soul tells the story of slavery in antebellum America by moving away from the cotton plantations to the heart of the domestic slave trade. Taking us inside the New Orleans slave market, the largest in the nation, where 100,000 men, women, and children were packaged, priced, and sold, Walter Johnson transforms the statistics of these chilling transactions into the human drama of traders, buyers, and slaves, negotiating sales that would alter the life of each. What emerges is not only the brutal economics of trading but the vast and surprising interdependencies among the actors involved."--BOOK JACKET. Frontmatter (page N/A) Introduction: A Person with a Price (page 1) 1 The Chattel Principle (page 19) 2 Between the Prices (page 45) 3 Making a World Out of Slaves (page 78) 4 Turning People into Products (page 117) 5 Reading Bodies and Marking Race (page 135) 6 Acts for Sale (page 162) 7 Life in the Shadow of the Slave Market (page 189) Epilogue: Southern History and the Slave Trade (page 214) Abbreviations (page 222) Notes (page 223) Acknowledgments (page 275) Index (page 277) This work tells the story of slavery in antebellum America by moving into heart of the domestic slave trade, the slave market. Taking the reader inside the New Orleans slave market the author transforms the statistics of this chilling trade into the human drama of traders, buyers, and slaves. ch. 1. Chattel principle -- -- ch. 2. Between the prices -- -- ch. 3. Making a world out of slaves -- -- ch. 4. Turning people into products -- -- ch. 5. Reading bodies and marking race -- -- ch. 6. Acts of sale -- -- ch. 7. Life in the shadow of the slave market. 1 The Chattel Principle Between the Prices Making a World Out of Slaves Turning People into Products Reading Bodies and Marking Race Acts of Sale Life in the Shadow of the Slave Market 214 222 223 275 277