Soul by Soul cover art

Soul by Soul

Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market

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Soul by Soul

By: Walter Johnson
Narrated by: Tom Perkins
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About this listen

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.

©1999 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2017 Tantor Americas Black & African American Social Sciences State & Local United States

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Critic reviews

"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." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review
All stars
Most relevant
Great in depth look at life in the slave pen and beyond. A harrowing but necessary account of slave life.

Fantastic read!

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