Super Short Summary

Soul by Soul by Walter Johnson examines the inner workings of the New Orleans slave market, revealing how the 19th-century Southern economy relied on the commodification of enslaved individuals to support the sugar, tobacco, and cotton industries. Using primary sources like slave narratives, bills of sale, and slaveholder correspondence, Johnson discusses the "chattel principle" that stripped identity from individuals, how slaveholders justified dehumanization, and the pervasive culture and rhetoric that sustained the slave market. The book also explores rituals of sale, the development of racial categories, and the struggles between slaveholders and enslaved people, culminating in the harsh realities of plantation life post-sale. The book covers topics of human commodification, violence, and the dehumanizing impact of racism.