The Ledger and the Chain

How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America

De: Joshua D. Rothman

Narrado por: Leon Nixon

An award-winning historian reveals the harrowing forgotten story of America's internal slave trade—and its role in the making of America.

Slave traders are peripheral figures in most histories of American slavery. But these men—who trafficked and sold over half a million enslaved people from the Upper South to the Deep South—were essential to slavery's expansion and fueled the growth and prosperity of the United States.

In The Ledger and the Chain, acclaimed historian Joshua D. Rothman recounts the shocking story of the domestic slave trade by tracing the lives and careers of Isaac Franklin, John Armfield, and Rice Ballard, who built the largest and most powerful slave-trading operation in American history. Far from social outcasts, they were rich and widely respected businessmen, and their company sat at the center of capital flows connecting southern fields to northeastern banks. Bringing together entrepreneurial ambition and remorseless violence toward enslaved people, domestic slave traders produced an atrocity that forever transformed the nation.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Tremendous…[The Ledger and the Chain] intertwines a careful biography of a very successful business with unflinching attention to the monstrosity that business was built upon.”—Slate

"In smoothly readable prose and with an unflinching moral eye, Rothman uses the biographies of a few key players to investigate the internal slave trade of America in the years before the Civil War."—Christian Science Monitor

“Slave traders aren’t often called out by name, and therefore are subjected to little accountability. But Rothman shines a light on how these human traffickers were responsible for crimes against humanity, the sale of over half a million enslaved people among them.”—Fortune

"Rothman employs his wide breadth of knowledge about the era to vividly depict the human and economic impacts of the domestic slave trade as it burgeoned in the early 19th century...An excellent work of vast research that hauntingly delineates the ‘intimate daily savageries of the slave trade.'"—Kirkus

"Through meticulous archival research, Rothman debunks the myth that slave traders were social outcasts and tracks how their brazen advertisements and abusive treatment of captive men, women, and children were used by abolitionists to stoke public outrage. This trenchant study deserves a wide and impassioned readership.”—Publisher's Weekly

"Wide ranging and meticulously documented...A must read account that sheds light on the interdependence of slavery and capitalism in the United States."—Library Journal

"Antebellum America was simultaneously a robust marketplace of strivers and a landscape of horror for the millions who were enslaved. In this groundbreaking work, Joshua Rothman reveals the intimate connection between the two. His study of the under-examined slave trade shows how it was integral to the rise of interstate commerce, the flow of credit, and the establishment of new transportation routes. He also underscores its systematic cruelty, in which men gloried in rape and casually sold children from parents yet stood as respected members of the community. The Ledger and the Chain is detailed, incisive, and devastating."—T. J. Stiles, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The First Tycoon and Custer's Trials

This is a Historical Study! And a Great Read

Some other reviewers seem to not understand that this is a historical study, so facts and research make up much of the content. That said, Rothman does an amazing job of stringing together disturbing, fascinating, and heart-rending stories about slave trafficking, as well as illustrating the elaborate and complex capitalist machine that drove the trade. Highly recommend!

Powerful, eye opening story

The book is primarily the history of the slave trading firm Franklin & Armfield, one of the nation’s most notable and largest domestic slave traders. An excellent read, the author chronicles the evolution of the domestic trade through the lens of the company’s records and its impact on southern society.

Reader whispers!!

The person narrating this audio book whispers at the end of his sentences making it hard to understand and follow.

Sermonic Tones

The sermonic tones throughout the book exposes the author’s inherent biases which detracts from its scholarly acumen. The epilogue is lacking an overall summary of salient points of the historiography regarding the American slave trade in the nineteenth century. Finally, the author uses today’s morals to judge men of the nineteenth century which wreaks of presentism.

Hyper editorialized

The historical chronicle is damaging enough to the reputation of the domestic slave traders. This otherwise well researched and interesting book is held back by too many editorial comments, assumptions of will or emotion, and unconcealed political appeals made to a subset of modern readers.

Unfortunately really boring

It literally is a ledger on people’s names that participated. I love history but it’s gotta be more interesting.