Anonymous says:

The principle question that arises from a reading of “Soul by Soul” by Walter Johnson is why was this book written? It is touted as history, yet not only does it lack any original historical material, it also lacks any discernable historical facts. Rather than history, “Soul by Soul” seems to be a mean-spirited, emotional tract designed to promote two fundamental ideas: 1. that white people living in the antebellum South were universally loathsome, brutish and cruel and 2. that black people living in the antebellum South were universally noble, good and abused. To support his views, Professor Johnson strings together a loose collection of repetitious snippets from antebellum abolitionist literature and excerpts from gossipy litigation proceedings. His personal contribution is represented by his miraculous ability to enter the psyche of the book’s long deceased characters and divine their true, but unspoken, motives and thoughts. Quite a feat for any historian! One loses count of the number of times that the reader is treated to white people using their “probing fingers” in this book. Fortunately, in between probes, the reader can be shocked by the “killing fields of the lower South,” the “historical sexualization of black bodies,” the “slaveholders’ inevitable failure to live through the stolen bodies of their slaves,” and the “brutish perogatives of whiteness.” This is heavy, hate-filled stuff worthy of a TV mini-series but it is out of place in a supposedly serious history text. I live in a former slave quarter in New Orleans. In the antebellum period, this building and its resident slaves were, interestingly enough, owned by a free black who was financially ruined in 1863 by the Emancipation Proclamation. As an amateur historian, I would have thought that a book about the New Orleans slave market would contain some pertinent historical facts about these markets. What were their addresses? What percentage of their customers were black? What percentage were white? How many slaves did the typical New Orleans household have? How were they fed and clothed? What were their working hours? These are basic questions that should have been addressed but instead, the reader is given an emotionally charged, repetitious, boring rehash of tired, previously published material. In short, this book, for the most part, reads like a rambling, overly long sermon. Anyone seeking serious scholarship on the subject of slavery would do well to look elsewhere and should consider reading the “Slave Narratives” compiled by the Federal Writers Project, “Time on the Cross” by Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman and “The Slave Trade” by Hugh Thomas. The first of these is a collection of interviews of former slaves performed by the W.P.A. in the 1930’s. The latter two works contain original historical research and both deal with the facts of slavery, not the emotions.
Rating: 1 / 5

Justin E. Williams says:

The book “Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market” by Walter Johnson takes you through a tour of how slavery worked in the United States before the Civil War. Everyday we are faced with different types of goods and products when deciding on making a purchase. Most of these purchases do not talk and walk or except for pets they do not breath either. It can be almost impossible for us to imagine purchasing a person and going through this type of process.

This book takes us into the life of slave traders and slave buyers. This is a market in which we hopefully will never see in America again. It tells the stories about how slave traders would buy slaves in which it thought its buyers would like. The would be like any other speculator buying low and selling high. It takes us in the world of the slave buyer. They want to make sure that the slave is healthy, strong, and skilled. They want to make sure they are not paying more than they should.

It even takes you into the world of the slave. The idea that you are worth a certain amount. This is the part of the book I found to be the most profound. Slaves could determine their own value. When slavebuyers would come around to look at slaves, they didn’t just look at scars and physical traits, they ask questions. They would try to evaluate what their skills were by what the slave thought his skills were. They found out about family. It was well known that the more you ripped a slave from it’s family the more of a chance you had that they would leave and run away.

Overall, I would say this book is interesting because it sheds light on a market that no longer exists in most peoples modern lives. The only downside is that his points to me could have been summarized better and put into much better order. I never really understood where the book was going. To me the book should have focused more on each person in a different chapter, like I highlighted before. If you are interested in slavery and the market process this would be a good book for you. If you are like me and need a well organized layout. This layout may distract you from the story telling.
Rating: 3 / 5