The Great Stain

January 15, 2018
Eyewitness testimonies to the culture and commerce of slavery, America's original sin.Slavery was, in the words of a Southern circumlocution, a "peculiar institution." In America, it was also an institution extending deep into the past, two centuries and more before the Civil War that ended it. In this gathering of personal, firsthand accounts, coupled with smart commentary, popular historian and editor Rae (People's War: Original Voices of the American Revolution, 2011, etc.) looks into that past. Near the beginning of the book is a tale by a slave trader in Africa who purchased captives from "a country called Tuffoe"--perhaps Togo--for "the value of twenty shillings sterling for every man, in cowries...and ten shillings for a woman, boy, or girl." During the American Revolution, the British promised freedom to slaves only to return them to their masters in defeat given that the terms of surrender mandated that "any property obviously belonging to the inhabitants of these states...shall be subject to be reclaimed." Within a couple of generations, by the account of a touring British journalist, the slave economy was at its apex. And it was extremely costly, tying up an enormous quantity of capital that would otherwise have gone into hiring labor and enriching the economy as a whole, by virtue of which "the whole country would have been advanced at least a century beyond its present condition." That's a fascinating premise, one of many that arise from this overstuffed book. It's certainly a more fruitful one than the notion of the "lost cause," which Rae traces to another journalist, a Southerner named Edward Pollard, who lamented the supremacy of the Northern cause and people, who were "coarse and inferior in comparison with the aristocracy and chivalry of the South." Given the culture's apparent need to readjudicate that conflict, this book and its wealth of documents and reports make a welcome, ready reference.Essential for students of American slavery and antebellum history.

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Starred review from February 1, 2018
Through adept use of historical documents and artful storytelling, Rae (The People's War: Original Voices of the American Revolution, 2011) examines nearly 300 years of American slavery and attempts to answer the question: What was it like? This is a challenge, since teaching enslaved Africans to read or write was illegal. To allow narrative voices, black and white, to come through, Rae draws on a remarkable assemblage of documents, ranging from slave-ship business records detailing dealings with native Africans for human purchases and descriptions of the conditions on slave ships, excerpts of journals kept by slave traders, business records of plantation owners, and documentations of insurrections and other incidents of resistance on slave ships and during slavery in the colonies. Rae interweaves these with the writings of Quakers, abolitionists, and military personnel as well as oral histories of former slaves and excerpts from the writings of free persons who lived in the South, such as the sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimke, and visitors to the South, such as seminal landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The result is a uniquely immediate, multivoiced, specific, arresting, and illuminating look at life under slavery in America.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from April 1, 2018

Rae (Witnessing America) covers the complete story of American slavery from the start of the transatlantic trade in the 15th century to slavery's end with the close of the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Participants' accounts show the realities of people being exchanged for goods; meanwhile, slavers faced illnesses and mutinies at sea. The most valuable and relevant documentation came from the slaves themselves. The author notes that during the early period there was a dearth of slave recollections as illiteracy was fostered as a means of control. He insists, nevertheless, that as the 19th century progressed, a number of slaves defied their owners and covertly learned to read and write. Thus the themes of resistance grew in number and intensity in the antebellum period. The absconding of Martha Washington's personal slave, Oney Judge, is an unforgettable read, and the violent killing of Robert E. Lee's cruel overseer by a former bondsman may seem to some readers a justice too long deferred. The final Civil War chapter follows several engagements in which undersupported black troops distinguished themselves in battle. VERDICT Highly recommended for U.S. colonial, middle period, and Civil War scholars, and general readers.--John Carver Edwards, formerly with Univ. of Georgia Libs.

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