Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life

by Steven Deyle

Originating with the birth of the nation itself, in many respects, the story of the domestic slave trade is also the story of the early United States. While an external traffic in slaves had always been present, following the American Revolution this was replaced by a far more vibrant internal trade. Most importantly, an interregional commerce in slaves developed that turned human property into one of the most valuable forms of investment in the country, second only to land. In fact, this form of property became so valuable that when threatened with its ultimate extinction in 1860, southern slave owners believed they had little alternative but to leave the Union. Therefore, while the interregional trade produced great wealth for many people, and the nation, it also helped to tear the country apart.
The domestic slave trade likewise played a fundamental role in antebellum American society. Led by professional traders, who greatly resembled northern entrepreneurs, this traffic was a central component in the market revolution of the early nineteenth century. In addition, the development of an extensive local trade meant that the domestic trade, in all its configurations, was a prominent feature in southern life. Yet, this indispensable part of the slave system also raised many troubling questions. For those outside the South, it affected their impression of both the region and the new nation. For slaveholders, it proved to be the most difficult part of their institution to defend. And for those who found themselves commodities in this trade, it was something that needed to be resisted at all costs.
Carry Me Back restores the domestic slave trade to the prominent place that it deserves in early American history, exposing the many complexities of southern slavery and antebellum American life.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Carry Me Back, University of Houston historian Steven Deyle explores the domestic slave trade in early nineteenth century America. He contends that, for a number of reasons, one must consider the domestic slave trade to fully understand slavery’s role in American history. First, Deyle argues that inter-state trade of the American south had a considerable impact on the region’s economy, so much so that without trade in human chattel, the Cotton Kingdom might never have come into existence. Second, he argues that the domestic slave trade played a part in the emerging market revolution of the early nineteenth century and that the innovations in the southern slave trade can be compared to northern market innovations. Third, that because southern politicians had to simultaneously defend the institution of inter-state slave trading while denying its widespread practice, the issue became central to abolitionist movement rhetoric. Finally, that the southern slave trade’s economic contribution helped to solidify the region’s dependency on the peculiar institution, and therefore further pushed the south into its ultimate decision to secede from the union.

Deyle builds upon previous secondary scholarship on slavery in the south which is mostly economic in nature. He goes to great lengths to debunk what he deems an incorrect analysis of total slaves traded and southern money accrued as stated in an earlier work by Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman. Instead, he sides with a more robust number as calculated in a later work by Michael Tadman (some 875,000 persons). He defends Tadman’s numbers, and in doing so endorses his own scholarly work. Deyle shows his readers the size, magnitude and importance of the domestic slave trade in the pre-Civil War south through an impressive collection of personal recollections, court records, and other hard data.
Deyle’s arguments for the slave trade’s role in America’s market revolution are less successful on theoretical grounds. His contention that south participated in the market revolution begs for an examination through more theoretical economic lenses (i.e. Marxian, Schumpeterian, Ricardian). For example, if the Jacksonian era ushered in a “market revolution,” one that showed a decided turn away from a subsistence economy towards one focused on production and expansion, Deyle’s analysis should show the pursuit of growing assets and increased production. Yet, those in the domestic slave trade aimed for profit, and in other words were selling off assets for liquid cash, and therefore not investing or expanding their operations, but simply trading for cash with which to operate on, arguably traits of a subsistence economy. Confounding Carry Me Back is the issue of slaves in a capitalist frame work. Are they to be seen as “assets,” or “labor?” These two categories are clearly separated in a capitalist mindset as fixed and variable costs.

Deyle makes good arguments to support the south’s role in an evolving market economy, but through their reliance on slaves, comparisons between northern-driven free-labor and its southern counterpart beg deeper examination. Slavery was most certainly a peculiar institution in economic terms, as it skirted the lines between labor and capital, and in doing so skirted the line between paid labor and slave labor. If traders bought and sold slaves as they needed them, such actions reveal a tendency towards paid-labor, an idea little addressed in Carry Me Back. Deyle’s tally for total South Carolina Slave Sales and Average Annual Sales Rate, 1820-1860 (listed on page 295) endorses this idea. This chart hints at a market fluctuation during the 1830s, a statistic which backs his contention that slave market flowed with market adjustments; a sort of ebb and flow by which traders decided to either sit on an “asset” or to sell it for liquid cash. If price speculation occurred in the southern slave trade, then that speculation must have been based, in part, on market forces of the north. But was the upswing of slave purchases during the 1830s really part of a natural business cycle, or were other factors—such as birth rates—at play? Regardless, Deyle’s interplay between the supply and demand sides of the market show that the northern economy was indeed driving a market revolution to which their southern counterparts were only adjusting.

Carry Me Back might have been more persuasive by including more cultural analysis. To discuss Deyle’s book on economic terms removes much of the human element from the onerous trading in human lives that took place in the south until the Civil War. To be sure, he has devoted time and energy to writing the social impact of this trade on African-American families of the era—most notably with his chapter entitled “The Nastiness of Life”—but at the same time has neglected to deeply examine the racism of whites towards blacks. In sum, the cultural influences working against change in the south may have had equal impact as economic pressures. Of course, Deyle cannot cover every issue in one of America’s most notorious historical blemishes, and over all he succeeds in conveying the economic and social impact of the domestic slave trade in American history. And while Deyle seems to roundly reject Engleman’s statistical analysis regarding the extent of the slave trade, he may have been wise to consider his advice on methodology: “Economic historians…can get only so far without a consideration of political, cultural, and ideological factors.”

[Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good description of the Tobacco Coast slave trade, where Maryland, Delaware and Virgina were used to breed slaves who were then sold south, to the killing states where they were worked to death. Many first-hand accounts included.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fills in the blanks between the African slave trade and lower South plantations. The domestic trade was vigorous between the Upper South and the Lower South states which needed numerous laborers for the Cotton business. The domestic slave trade was necessary for economic reasons, but also as a way to punish people for whatever disobedience they dared to express

The slave traders were numerous and ran the gamut from lower (who were perfect scapegoats) to upper class(who were welcomed into Southern society).

Of course, after the Civil War the auction booths, jails, coffers, and cruel separation of families that the slave trade fostered were conveniently swept under the rug. The paternalistic masters were highlighted, and the ways of the Old South were turned into one big Gone With the Wind.

I recommend this book to those who want to learn more about what really happened in the Old South , and it wasn’t pretty.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important, eye-opening study of the extent of the domestic slave trade in the antebellum South. This book leaves no doubt that our nation was built on the backs of slaves and that its wealth was created through the buying and selling of human chattel.