Often when one thinks of slavery in the antebellum South, images of powerful independent whites on sprawling plantations and cotton rows come to mind. But Walter Johnson’s 1999 “Soul by Soul” hopes to shift that focus to the volatile interdependence of slave and master and the large slave pens in the region’s major cities.
Using the city of New Orleans in the country’s sprawling southwestern frontier as his primary case study, Johnson weaves his ingenious and compelling narrative from the letters of slaveholders, court records of disputed slave sales, and the narratives of America’s most famous slaves such as Solomon Northup. (Johnson, Introduction).
Johnson is his strongest when he demonstrates how the institution slavery defined the entire …show more content…
While women were barred by law and custom from the dirty markets, women found male agents that acted on their behalf (89). In rare case, women like New Orleans’ Polyxene Reyes could deconstruct the patriarchy and find agency through the slaves they owned. Reyes made wares, cakes and sold beer in the city. She was able to purchase more slaves and was so successful that she ended up lending money to her husband (97-100).
What sets Johnson’s work apart, however, is his characterization of the slave pen. Rather than the cotton — the product that the enslaved produced, Johnson argues that the economic nexus of slavery was the enslaved themselves. Slaves served as major sources of capital in the region. They were placed into price matrices and compared against other humans in other places at the same time (58).
The process to ready them for market mirrored what a used car might go through before its sale. Before reaching market, slaves are removed from their shackles and they are allowed to wash, rest, and heal. Slaves are greased shiny to make them look healthy. Hired doctors made regular appearances (119). The men and women were then clothed in fineries like blue suits and long-sleeved blouses; the cleanliness and chastity juxtaposing their experience as
Using the city of New Orleans in the country’s sprawling southwestern frontier as his primary case study, Johnson weaves his ingenious and compelling narrative from the letters of slaveholders, court records of disputed slave sales, and the narratives of America’s most famous slaves such as Solomon Northup. (Johnson, Introduction).
Johnson is his strongest when he demonstrates how the institution slavery defined the entire …show more content…
While women were barred by law and custom from the dirty markets, women found male agents that acted on their behalf (89). In rare case, women like New Orleans’ Polyxene Reyes could deconstruct the patriarchy and find agency through the slaves they owned. Reyes made wares, cakes and sold beer in the city. She was able to purchase more slaves and was so successful that she ended up lending money to her husband (97-100).
What sets Johnson’s work apart, however, is his characterization of the slave pen. Rather than the cotton — the product that the enslaved produced, Johnson argues that the economic nexus of slavery was the enslaved themselves. Slaves served as major sources of capital in the region. They were placed into price matrices and compared against other humans in other places at the same time (58).
The process to ready them for market mirrored what a used car might go through before its sale. Before reaching market, slaves are removed from their shackles and they are allowed to wash, rest, and heal. Slaves are greased shiny to make them look healthy. Hired doctors made regular appearances (119). The men and women were then clothed in fineries like blue suits and long-sleeved blouses; the cleanliness and chastity juxtaposing their experience as