Backcountry Slave Trader
William James Smith's Enterprise, 18441854
By (author) Philip Noel Racine, Frances Melton Racine
Publication date:
20 November 2019Length of book:
156 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
234x160mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781498590822
Backcountry Slave Trader explores the life of William James Smith, a South Carolina backcountry slave trader, whose entries in his business ledger and his correspondence were of unusual specificity. The authors’ analyze these entries and his correspondence, which they argue provide details about the institutional features of the domestic slave trade not found in earlier published works. The authors examine the attitude of Smith and how he conducted his business, and reveal that the interior slave trade and the characterization of the slave trader are more nuanced than previously thought.
Two ‘hot’ topics in history today are the too-long neglected story of the internal slave trade—a massive forced migration of people across the South—and slavery’s role in the development of capitalism. William James Smith’s ledger helps us understand both by showing how a small-time capitalist slave trader plied his trade, something historians have rarely explored. In Backcountry Slave Trader, therefore, the Racines make an invaluable primary source readily available. And they do much more. They provide a deft discussion of the social and cultural context in which Smith operated and an insightful analysis of what his ledger and letters reveal about the internal slave trade.