About the Author

Historian Noel Rae received an honors degree in history from Oxford University. His books include The People's War: Original Voices of the American Revolution, Witnessing America: The Library of Congress Book of Firsthand Accounts of Life in America, and This is Berlin: Radio Broadcasts from Nazi Germany. He lives in Westchester, NY.

Reviews

Many histories have been written of slavery in America, but far too few have let the participants, and particularly the victims, speak so directly for themselves. Rae has helped to fill that historical vacuum in this important work, and the voices are intense, eloquent, and haunting.

Rae covers the complete story of American slavery from the start of the transatlantic trade in the 15th century to slavery's end with the close of the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments . . . The absconding of Martha Washington's personal slave, Oney Judge, is an unforgettable read, and the violent killing of Robert E. Lee's cruel overseer by a former bondsman may seem to some readers a justice too long deferred. Highly recommended for U.S. colonial, middle period, and Civil War scholars, and general readers.

Through adept use of historical documents and artful storytelling, Rae examines nearly 300 years of American slavery and attempts to answer the question: "What was it like?" . . . To allow narrative voices, black and white, to come through, Rae draws on a remarkable assemblage of documents . . . as well as oral histories of former slaves and excerpts from the writings of free persons who lived in the South, such as the sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimk�, and visitors to the South, such as seminal landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The result is a uniquely immediate, multivoiced, specific, arresting, and illuminating look at life under slavery in America.

Eyewitness testimonies to the culture and commerce of slavery, America's original sin . . . In this gathering of personal, firsthand accounts, coupled with smart commentary, popular historian and editor Rae looks into that past . . . Given the culture's apparent need to readjudicate that conflict, this book and its wealth of documents and reports make a welcome, ready reference. Essential for students of American slavery and antebellum history.

Noel Rae expertly assembles the most consequential accounts from the era of the American slave trade. Drawing on a wide range of sources, he frames a vivid and comprehensive picture of a period in American history about which many only have a vague understanding.--Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America