Williams' Gang: A Notorious Slave Trader and His Cargo of Black Convicts (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781108493031)

William H. Williams operated a slave pen in Washington, DC, known as the Yellow House, and actively trafficked in enslaved men, women, and children for more than twenty years. His slave trading activities took an extraordinary turn in 1840 when he purchased twenty-seven enslaved convicts from the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond with the understanding that he could carry them outside of the United States for sale. When Williams conveyed his captives illegally into New Orleans, allegedly while en route to the foreign country of Texas, he prompted a series of courtroom dramas that would last for almost three decades. Based on court records, newspapers, governors' files, slave manifests, slave narratives, travelers' accounts, and penitentiary data, Williams' Gang examines slave criminality, the coastwise domestic slave trade, and southern jurisprudence as it supplies a compelling portrait of the economy, society, and politics of the Old South.

Author: Jeff Forret
ISBN-10: 1108493033
ISBN-13: 9781108493031
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 01/16/2020
Pages: 482
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
BookPage 12/01/2019