Böcker av Joshua D. Rothman

An award-winning historian reveals the horrifying and forgotten story of slavery as big business -- and its role in the making of America

In 1834 Virgil Stewart rode from western Tennessee to a territory known as the ""Arkansas morass"" in pursuit of John Murrell, a thief accused of stealing two slaves. Stewart's adventure led to a sensational trial and a wildly popular published account that would ultimately help trigger widespread violence during the summer of 1835.

This text examines interracial sexual relationships under slavery. While laws militated against interracial sex in Virginia before the Civil War it was ubiquitous throughout the state. The customery toleration of sex across the colour line both supported and undermined racism.