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.
#1597403 in Books 1989-11Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 #File Name: 0671627090428 pages
Review
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Excellent ResourceBy SusanHerzberg clearly explains the circumstances of the history of Jews in American from pre-colonial to modern times. It's well written and shows a high level of research and understanding of his subject.4 of 7 people found the following review helpful. A good group readBy Ellen L. PlattI am a member of a group of women that reads books slowly and discusses what we read on a weekly basis. We have a leader who assigns additional things for us to look up and do. We have taken this book and have picked people mentioned in the book to read and write about; either in the first person; as journal entries or in the third person. It has been very enjoyable and has brought the book and our history more alive that way. I had reservations about the book because of not very good reviews on the first publication. The author has a new foreword and has adjusted the book answering all the problems that were in the first publication. I am enjoying this newer edition.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. This was a wonderful book that I purchased for my Dad more than ...By IrisThis was a wonderful book that I purchased for my Dad more than 25 years ago. When a friend expressed an interest in Jewish history here in the U.S. I bought for her as a gift.
