The Culture of Slavery in Walter Johnson's Book, Soul by Soul

There has been many historians and theorists who have tackled colonial slavery. One of them is Ira Berlin whose book Many Thousands Gone is his take on slavery diversity in American history and how slavery is at the epicenter of economic production, amongst other things. He separates the book into three generations: charter, plantation and revolutionary, across four geographic areas: Chesapeake, New England, the Lower country and the lower Mississippi valley. In this paper, I will discuss the differences between the charter and plantation generations, the changes in work and living conditions, resistance, free blacks and changes in manumission.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of African slavery in America in the antebellum by late eighteenth century and before the antebellum crisis as discussed in Paul Finkelman’s book: Defending Slavery.

Anthony Johnson was born in Angola, Africa in 1600. He was captured as a slave and sent to the new world in 1621. During his years of service Johnson worked for a man named Bennet who lived in Virginia. Anthony worked as an indentured servant on his tobacco farm. Around 1635, Johnson was freed from his indenture and married the only female slave on his plantation, her name was Mary. They soon began their life together on a successful farm and had several children. Soon Johnson purchased indentured slaves of his own in order to form a successful farm. The significance of Johnson in the community in this time period was to show that some indentured slaves, who had not committed any crime, could be held against their will as a slave for life because

The earliest form of slavery in North America can be traced back to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. There, they were called the “Twenty and Odd” and considered servants rather than slaves. Though little is known about this infamous event, this ‘trade’ continued of capturing Africans from Africa and bringing them to the colonies of Britain. The usage of slaves increased and were often used as field laborers on plantations, house workers, blacksmiths

When referring to the history Antebellum America, the two things that shape our country are the expansion of slavery and the expansion of the Market Revolution. In the novel Soul by Soul, by Walter Johnson, the author exploits the effects of slavery on the people involved with slave trade in the south. It also shows the reader just how vital slavery is to the Market Revolution, and how the consumers culture, in turn, shaped personal identities. Both slavery and the Market Revolution shaped presidential campaigns, Supreme Court cases, and lead to the start of the Civil War.

The WPA narratives consist of collections of interviews and first-person accounts of former slaves. The narratives talk about the institution of slavery in the southern states, particularly Texas, the lifestyle of slaves, how slave-owners treated slaves, and how slaves sought freedom. The narratives focus on Texas as a state where slavery continued to flourish amidst attempts to abolish it. In this analytical essay, the WPA narratives will be examined to reveal the experiences of enslaved people and the institution of slavery in terms of the lifestyle of slaves, slave population, disintegration of the institution, and the urban slave experience.

The paper will start by speaking about the beginning of the slavery during the 1600’s. The first slaves to arrive in the United States of America were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The African slaves were brought in 1619 to aid the production of the profitable and high-income of the crop of tobacco. A Dutch ship brought back 20 African slaves as a source of labor and indentured servitude so that the English settlers can have an easier life while they do not have to pay for

The perspectives of African slave merchants, the female slaves, and the plantation workers in the Americans which are missing in this collection might add other dimensions to our understanding of this commerce in people. Knowing the perspective of the African slave merchants who were present during the slave trade in Africa would have

There is no doubt that the United States was built upon the hard work of Black-American slaves, referred to at the time as bondpeople, who were the main labor force in producing important American exports, such as cotton or tobacco, which were, in fact, the backbone of the American economy during that time. Due to bondpeople’s overall importance in keeping the United States the powerhouse that it was, the domestic slave trade was a value market that “‘was roughly three times greater than the total amount of all capital, North and South combined, invested in manufacturing, almost three times the amount invested in railroads, and seven times the amount invested in banks’”(23). In “‘In Pressing Need of Cash,’” Daina Ramey Berry, a professor for the Departments of History and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas, looks at a fifteen year period, from 1850-1865, of the economic factors of the domestic slave trade. Berry uses Steven Deyle’s findings in his study, "Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life” which examined both the "long-distance interstate trade" and the extensive local or "intrastate" trade of enslaved males and females, who were priced differently depending on their perceived market value (23). With Deyle’s findings, Berry specifically discusses the relationships among gender, age, skill, or type of sale and how those factors, generally, determined the priced paid of enslaved workers.

In the book titled The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, author John Blassingame’s theme, focused on the history of African slave experience throughout the American South. After much research, the author said in the preface that most historians focused more on the planter instead of the slave. He also pointed out that most of the research on slaves by previous historians was based on stereotypes, and do not tell the real history of slave life and a slave’s inner self. Most of these historians, who focused on antebellum southern history, left out the African-American slave experience on purpose. Through much gathering of research, Blassingame hoped to correct this injustice to the history of African-American slaves, and show how slavery affected slaves, but also American life, culture, and thought.

With the economic system, the south had a very hard time producing their main source “cotton and tobacco”. “Cotton became commercially significant in the 1790’s after the invention of a new cotton gin by Eli Whitney. (PG 314)” Let

The primary source I selected was “ Alexander Falconbridge’s account of the slave trade”. This story gave insight into the treatment of slaves on the slave ships and the trade process that occurred upon arrival at the intended destination. Walter Johnson’s “Slavery” is supported by the details listed in Alexander Falconbridge account of the slave trade. In paragraph two of Slavery, Johnson writes about the purpose of slavery and the context that they were used in. This relates to Falconbridge’s depiction but the details from the latter allowed us to get an impression into the experiences slaves endured. In reading Slavery the author was trying to relay the message about the horrors of slavery and it as a necessity to the development of the American culture. While Falconbridge’s account does not indicate anything about the effect of slavery on America it does give a meticulous atmosphere for what it was like from the time slaves entered the slave ships to the arrival and trade.

Slavery has always been viewed as one of the most scandalous times in American history. It may seem that the entire institution of slavery has been categorized as white masters torturing defenseless African Americans. However, not every slave has encountered this experience. In this essay I will focus on the life of two former slaves Harriet Smith and Mr. George Johnson and how in some cases their experience were similar as well as different in other aspects. The negative aspects of slave life were unquestionably heinous and for that reason especially, it is also important to also reveal the lives of slaves whom were treated fairly and with respect.

giving a brief history of slavery and shifts to discussing the way in which it revolutionized the

The first chapter of this book is about the Chattel Principle. This is the idea that a slave’s identity can change as easily as his or her price on the market. A slave’s existence was so bound up with price and worth that the system of slavery could not have existed apart from commercial culture. To rid themselves of personal responsibility, slave owners found excuses and justifications for selling slaves. In turn, slaves often resisted their sale by running away or by other means. Slave owners had to negotiate slave sales not only with buyers, but also with the slaves. This sets the basis of the whole slave market