The essential purposes of the pages which follow are to trace the character of the inter-regional slave trade and to assess the significance of that traffic in the life of the "peculiar institution". More specifically, this study 6xamines the extent and organisation of the South's inter-regional slave trade; the economic importance of that traffic; the impact of slave sales upon the slave family; the status of the trader; and the character of relationships between masters and slaves as revealed by the inter-regional trade. In the chapters which follow, although attention is also paid to a wider chronQlog~cal context, detailed analysis concentrates upon the operation of the trade during the 1820 to 1860 period - that is to say during the period of the inter-regianal traffic's fullest development. Slave traders' account books, together with large numbers of often very substantial collections of correspondence between traders, have provided an essential foundation for my research. These manuscript sources, which constitute an extremely valuable store of information illustrative of virtually all facets of the domestic slave trade, have previously gone almost completely ignored by histoiians. Such records, iirectly documenting trading activity in almost every Southern state, have made it possible to study the trade in a broad geogr~ical setting. It should be noted that since, very commonly, traders' letters were almost completely devoid of punctuation, basic' punctuation has, without acknowledgement, been added to many of the passages of correspondence quoted in the chapters which follow. Otherwise, all amendments to traders' letters are indicated in the quotations which are made. In addition to traders' papers, major sources of evidence have included manuscript and published census records; manifests documenting the coastwise movement of slave ships; newspaper advertisements; probate, equity, and sheriff's records of slave sales; tax lists; court cases concerning traders; slave narratives; as well as Abolitionist and pro-slavery pUblications. I am greatly endebted to the staffs of many American libraries for their - v - assistance •. In particular, I should like to express my appreciation of the advice and the warm hospitality of Mrs.Ollin Owens of the South Caroliniana Library; of Mrs.Granville T.Prior of the South Carolina Historical Society; and of friends at the SQuth Carolina Department of Archives. I should like to thank Professor Stanley Engerman of Rochester University and Dr. William Calderhead of Annapolis Naval College for their very generous hospitality and for their willingness to discuss their interpretations of the slave trade and American slavery. I am very grateful to Dr.William Dusinberre of Warwick University for his encouragement and for carefully reading sections of my thesis. Finally, I should like to thank Dr.Phillip Taylor and Dr.John White, both of Hull University, for their most helpful advice and encouragement.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:330984 |
| Date | January 1977 |
| Creators | Tadman, Michael |
| Publisher | University of Hull |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:11245 |
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