An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South

by Robert K.D. Colby

The Confederate States of America was born in defense of slavery and, after a four-year struggle to become an independent slaveholding republic, died as emancipation dawned. Between Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Confederates bought and sold thousands African American men, women, and children. These transactions in humanity made the internal slave trade a cornerstone of Confederate society, a bulwark of the Rebel economy, and a central part of the experience of the Civil War for all inhabiting the American South.

As An Unholy Traffic shows, slave trading helped Southerners survive and fight the Civil War, as well as to build the future for which they fought. They mitigated the crises the war spawned by buying and selling enslaved people, using this commerce to navigate food shortages, unsettled gender roles, the demands of military service, and other hardships on the homefront. Some Rebels speculated wildly in human property, investing in slaves to ward off inflation and to buy shares in the slaveholding nation they hoped to create. Others traded people to counter the advance of emancipation. Given its centrality to their nationhood, Confederates went to great lengths to prolong the slave trade, which, in turn, supported the Confederacy. For those held in slavery, the surviving slave trade dramatically shaped their pursuit of freedom, inserting a retrograde movement into some people's journeys toward liberty while inspiring others to make the risky decision to escape.

Offering an original perspective on the intersections of slavery, capitalism, the Civil War, and emancipation, Robert K.D. Colby illuminates the place of the peculiar institution within the Confederate mind, the ways in which it underpinned the CSA's war effort, and its impact on those attempting to seize their freedom.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Civil War

360 pages, Hardcover

First published April 5, 2024

Reviews

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the book An Unholy Traffic, slave trading in the Civil War south by Robert KD Colby with great narating by James R Chisholm we learn about southern slave owners in their reaction to the end of what they considered their livelihood slavery as we all know it was a big business and as the end of slavery came closer reactions were different. Some sold their slaves further south some even soldiers fighting for the confederacy bought slaves to send them south some were much crueler to their slaves and some were even nicer trying to prevent their slaves from running away but in the end freedom would come. In Virginia the big slave owner Mr. Lumpkin who ironically was married to one of his slaves and had five children with her would deny it ending until the bitter end I love that win Hells half acre which was the name of the building he held slaves in like prisoners how many slaves who lost family members to Lumpkin were able to face him and how the reporter said he winced under their stair. The had a slave owner who after losing his slaves shot his self they had others who wouldn’t tell former slaves where they sent their children just to be petty the reactions were varied mini slavers would recaptor free slaves but that had been going on since the beginning of slavery as far as I know and not a result of the Civil War even with the end of slavery being near some slave owners double down others sold love ones to free slaves the stories are mini and I found it very hard to stop listening to this audiobook I am very leery when it comes to reading things about the Civil War in slavery because I have read so many books and I’m always fearful it will be something I read already but most everything I read in this book was new to me this was a great topic to cover a terrible time in our history in another boat Thor makes me wish I had a time machine and a gun. To those like me who love reading about the Civil War era and the freeing of people that should’ve never been captive in the first place should definitely have this book in there library. I love that freed slaves were just as determined to retrieve their family members as slave owners were to keep them there’s many stories in this book that will make you sad happy thoughtful incredulous etc. it is a really good reading one I definitely recommend. I want to thank HighbridgeAudio and NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

[Sean Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although marred a bit by an odd mix of purple prose and clunky language, this is a very good book. Research is excellent and the financial aspect of slavery is not given small consideration, and indeed was at the center of the traffic. For people can and will agree to the greatest sins when there is a major financial consideration.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

This audiobook was made available to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This history book is expertly and interestingly narrated by James R. Cheatham. With a nonfiction history text, it's incredibly important to have a narrator with a personable voice. The last thing a casual reader of history wants with a text like this is to be put to sleep by a boring professorial droning style narration. Cheatham handles this superbly with the exception of his pronunciation of African-American Vernacular English. There's a few direct quotes from formerly enslaved folks included in the text, and the narrator seems to struggle with pronunciation. Otherwise, it was very well done keeping the flow of text interesting.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and fully plan to buy a copy of this for my own personal studies on the so-called peculiar institution. The author is extremely respectful in his discussions of enslaved folks, using the term 'enslaved' vs 'slave', which I appreciated. He avoided language like slave concubine or mistress in describing enslaved women and their situationships with white male slave owners or handlers. This isn't often done, especially if the focus is the Confederacy. I've found historians hesitate to face the horrors of slavery if the focus is from the point of view of Southerners. That's not an issue in this text, and as much as possible, we hear directly from the enslaved themselves.

While I have extensively studied chattel slavery as experienced by West Africans across the diaspora, I'm not as familiar with the US Civil War. Nor had I realized the deep impact that slavery had on the Confederate States. I mean, I knew the Civil War was about slavery and in defense of States Rights to own other human beings, but I hadn't realized how much actual trading in enslaved people continued during the war years.

In many ways, the hopefulness of the Confederacy can be judged by the dollar value enslaved folks are assigned during this period. This fluctuated based on the state, the advance of the Union Army, and enslaved folks' ability to run off to the Union. The Civil War caused many Confederate slave owners to speculate on what would make them the most money after the war. As a result, there was a rigorous trade in women and children. Children were often cheaper and judged based on the speculation of their adult labor. Women were purchased for what was called their 'increase'. I know that often enslaved folks' children brought their captors more money than their labor did. Once it was illegal to bring new enslaved folks over from Africa, that automatically increased the value of the enslaved folks already in the US. This was increased further by exploiting and breeding enslaved women and girls. So many Confederate soldiers advise their wives and families to invest in these specific type of enslaved people. Enslaved men always ran away the most, and the war increased these fears in Confederate slave owners.

Truly interesting was that many enslaved families were broken up and displaced during this period. Husbands, wives, children, and other family members sold apart from each other. Often sold deeper into the Confederacy in hopes of keeping the enslaved from Union promises of freedom. Or ruining that freedom by leaving the enslaved states away from beloved family members. As a final act of cruelty, many former enslavers refused their formerly enslaved any information about where their loved ones had been sold or relocated to. This cruel practice drastically increased suffering for the formerly enslaved and still impacts Black Americans today. Most of us struggle to locate lost family members as slave owners records are still today considered private property. In essence, my ancestors are still owned by the descendants of those who enslaved them as the information has been refused to my family. It's infuriating and unfair. Their records should've been confiscated during Reconstruction.

It was surprising to read about the rigorous sale of enslaved and free Black folks during the Civil War. Free Black folks were stolen and sold further south by regular slave traders. Escaped formerly enslaved folks who freed themselves could be returned to slavery or sold to other enslavers by Union soldiers looking to make quick money. In Union held Slave States like Maryland & Kentucky, enslaved folks were smuggled into Confederate States to be sold at higher prices. Confederate soldiers stole other Confederates enslaved folks to make quick money. Some enslaved folks were sold to punish them by owners upset about the Civil War. Even as prices dropped, this rather rigorous trade continued even into 1865!

I learned a lot about how slavery operated in the Confederacy and a bit about how it worked in the Union. This really added depth to my understanding of this period in history.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the author is a close friend, I would have given this book 5 stars anyways. This is one of the most archivally rich monographs I've ever encountered, and it was wonderful to see this project come to fruition. At only 215 pages, RC makes important interventions in the historiography of slavery as well

First, the argument. The slave trade was one of the key institutions of American slavery. It symbolized enslavers' absolute control over their chattel and signified the logical end point of treating human beings are property. Before the Civil War, the slave trade was essential to slavery's survival, as surplus slaves from the Upper South could be sold to the new southwest to feed the cotton boom.

When the Civil War erupted, economic destabilization hit the CSA, including inflation, population dislocation, Union incursions, shortages, loss of white male labor, and so on. Slave traders nonetheless continued their trade, as slaves represented a form of movable property that often looked like a better investment than fixed property that might be overrun by US forces. At the same time, the trade enabled slaveholders to threaten or punish slaves for potential resistance or escape; they could kill two birds with one stone by getting cash (albeit inflated Confederate currency) while also getting rid of potentially disruptive slaves. Other Confederates sought to buy low during the war to invest in long-term property and pursue a sort of Confederate dream.

RC stresses the idea that slave trade, and not just slavery, was essentially to the Confederate national product but also reliant on the Confederate state to enforce. Maintaining control of the enslaved required a legal and carceral system of courts, jails, militias, dealers, and so on. Where US forces occupied territory in the CSA, as in New Orleans or Tennessee, the slave trade largely collapsed or moved into more stable parts of the Confederacy. Union forces could destabilize slavery and the slave trade simply by not enforcing the coercive legal system, even before the Emancipation Proclamation. RC shows how enslavers often sought to sell slaves "out of the way of Lincoln" in these situations. Slave trading continued up to the end of the Confederacy, with many people still seeking this form of property both as an economic measure and a testament to their belief in this institution as the beating heart of the CSA.

RC uses this story to make an interesting intervention in the recent historiography on slavery. In the past few decades, historians like Baptist and Johnson have emphasized slavery as a form of capitalism. Rather than a paternalistic, almost pre-modern form of political economy (the old midnight and magnolias mythology spread by Lost Cause advocates), slavery was intensely capitalistic, with the enslaved being used as investment, collateral, rental labor, and so on. Slavery was an essential piece of the national economy and the single most valuable form of property other than land.

RC doesn't necessarily dispute the slavery as capitalism literature, but he does show how intensely slavery depended on the

RC also does a great job narrating the human wreckage and depravity of the slave trade. Other than death, it was arguably the cruelest part of slavery, as people could be sold away from loved ones for the rest of their lives. RC shows just how contemptuous and exploitative of human life enslavers and traders were. Confederates who sold slaves to raise money to buy themselves a draft exemption struck me as particularly cold-hearted, although the book is chock-full of dark moments like this. I must have written "wow" 30 times in the margin at these stories. RC also demonstrates how the enslaved resisted the slave trade by various means and dealt with the legacy of this practice over decades and decades. To me, this was a story of a culture infected with a deep evil that the vast majority of its white people simply could not (or refused to) recognize as such. The book brings home just how central slavery is in American history, and particularly to the Confederacy.

It is such a delight to see a friend's project in its final form. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I encourage you to snag it. This is the historian's craft at its finest, and I hope this book gets read as widely as possible.

[Deviant Quill Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://deviantquillbookreviews.wordp...

A highly researched academic work that would serve as a great tool for studies on slavery.

This book fills a critical gap in our understanding of the Civil War period by providing important insights into slavery’s ongoing effect on the Confederacy and its relationship with the government. It is required reading for anybody interested in an in-depth examination of the slave trade’s longevity during this difficult time in history.

The author provides a new perspective on the continued slave trade during the Civil War. He explains how individual slave owners and the Confederate government were determined to keep buying and selling individuals even when they were on the verge of losing the war. Colby describes how deeply rooted slavery was in the Confederate states and how it was tightly linked to the government. His extensive study reveals the extreme measures some American slaveholders took to justify owning slaves. He also demonstrates how the Confederate government actively encouraged and facilitated human trafficking during the conflict.

One thing the author excels at is blending the viewpoints of the enslaved with those who exploited their situation for profit. Colby’s superb attention to detail provides readers with a rich historical insight, deeply exploring the intricate dynamics of slavery and its economic impact during the Civil War.

An Unholy Traffic is an excellent resource, particularly for academics and people interested in a thorough examination of historical settings. However, it is important to note that the audiobook version could prove difficult to follow, making it more suitable for scholarly audiences rather than casual history listeners.

[A Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work focuses on the slave trade in the United States during the Civil War, which is a topic that doesn’t come up often usually do to how fragmentary the documentation is during this time. There were many topics discussed relating to slavery, from how cotton was a driving force, to how the State enabled the continuation of slavery in laws, to how the motives for selling slaves evolved during the war. The slave trade was used greatly as market speculation during the war by Southerners, with some buying as many as possible because they were certain the Confederacy would win, to others not being able to sell their slaves fast enough. There was also a large focus on New Orleans, as the slave trade and cotton made up a giant portion of its economy during this time.

Something this work did well was to humanize the enslaved. There were many instances when they were named and direct quotes were used, which I feel is rare in many other Civil War histories I’ve encountered. The author also had a good discussion of sources that were used for this book, including those that were primary sources from enslaved individuals.

This is an insightful and informative work of history that I highly recommend if you enjoy American history, especially surrounding the Civil War (or even if you don’t, as I tend to not seek out history from this time). My thanks to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Evan Þ. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long-distance slave trading somehow continued to flourish in the Confederacy, even as its defeat became more and more apparent. Somehow, people were happy to buy slaves, in denial of the more and more obvious coming of emancipation. I found this hard to believe, but Colby repeatedly quotes their letters showing how firmly they were in denial.

I suppose I have to chalk this up to normalcy bias. Slaves had been a safe, profitable investment for decades - so they didn't think to notice how firmly that would change. I can half-understand the people who were looking to store their value in something not the inflationary Confederate Dollar - but literally anything else would've been a better purchase than slaves!

Sadly, this frantic last-minute trading meant many people driven away from their families. Colby's image of a rich slave-dealer trying to load his chained purchases on the last train out of Richmond - but failing - is a fitting epitaph for the Slave Power.

[Chris Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a compelling book that deals with the Civil War slave traffic. It is well-researched, and well-written. He makes his case that the events of the slave traffic during the war and the stonewalling of the enslavers after the war dispersed and challenged black family life in ways that are still faced today. Dr. Colby's data shows the stupidity, venality, and just plain meanness of the enslavers. Well worth reading.

[Ron Nurmi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched and documented story of slave trading during the Civil War.

[Eli Patton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The extent of the sources used in An Unholy Traffic is truly incredible, and exceedingly helps support Colby's argument: the slave trade did not cease during the Civil War, but rather continued with extreme price fluctuations, as to Confederates, the inequality of races was the cornerstone of the CSA. Unfortunately, enslaved African Americans always faced the risks of separation from their families, whether by state trade or local trade.