Hardcover, 526 pages
English language
Published July 15, 2014 by Basic Books.
Wow! What a brutal, vivid, fascinating book. Quite the condemnation of the roots of modern capitalism and an excellent read for those who wonder at the idea of reparations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/books/review/the-half-has-never-been-told-by-edward-e-baptist.html
This book takes direct aim at two myths:
1. That slavery in America was no different from historical slavery, and was generally benign if not beneficial to the enslaved.
2. That slavery would have died out on its own as an inferior economic mode incompatible with the forming worldwide capitalism.
It does this by explaining how American slavery was incomparably cruel precisely because of its integral part of worldwide capitalism and how slave-based cotton production was the driving force for capital markets in the US, complete with all the cruelties in American history, including Indian Removal to drive land speculation to add more plantations to expand slavery and production.
Honestly, everyone should read this.
All teachers of US history would benefit from exposure to this important and compelling book. Baptist deftly combines voices of both enslaved and enslaving people along with copious economic data to detail the centrality of slavery to the "three score and ten" years from the Washington Administration to the Civil War. It is a very important story, expertly told.
More than one student in my high school US History classes has told me that they "already learned about slavery," strongly implying that they neither need nor wanted any more information. While students certainly learn about slaver in middle school, high school history teachers need to be sure that students learn more about slavery's central role in American history and about the lives of enslaved Americans. There is much more to know than that slavery was bad. For one thing, it was worse than bad. Three takeaways from The Half Has …
All teachers of US history would benefit from exposure to this important and compelling book. Baptist deftly combines voices of both enslaved and enslaving people along with copious economic data to detail the centrality of slavery to the "three score and ten" years from the Washington Administration to the Civil War. It is a very important story, expertly told.
More than one student in my high school US History classes has told me that they "already learned about slavery," strongly implying that they neither need nor wanted any more information. While students certainly learn about slaver in middle school, high school history teachers need to be sure that students learn more about slavery's central role in American history and about the lives of enslaved Americans. There is much more to know than that slavery was bad. For one thing, it was worse than bad. Three takeaways from The Half Has Never Been Told are essential pieces of US history:
1. Slavery has a history: it changed over time and we have sources that allow historians to reconstruct the experiences of enslaved people. The spread of slavery to the old Southwest changed the lives of enslaves people and profoundly shaped US history. A word that students should learn: coffle. I had to look this up, and it's something that I should be teaching my students.
2. Slavery was a modern, potent, financially flexible institution that would not have disappeared on its own, i.e. without civil war. Data that students should consider: the size of the internal slave trade, cotton, cotton-related industries in the US in 1859.
3. Slavery shaped all aspects of US economic, social, and political history. In particular, it was the foundation of the growing American economy until the Civil War destroyed it. Slavery, of course, also caused the Civil War. A concept that will baffle tenth graders, but is important nonetheless: role of slave-backed mortgages and the secondary securities in the expanding antebellum economy. I never knew about this. I do think that students can understand that enslavers borrowed money using slaves as collateral.
Beyond these big ideas the book is filled with useful examples and data.
As a World History teacher my biggest conclusion is that I need to emphasize the role of cotton as the key commodity in the nineteenth century. I am currently doing a good job, I think, of emphasizing the role of sugar and silver in the preceding centuries, and this will be the next step. Students enter class knowing the importance of cotton in general, but the have much to understand about the role of global commodities. Stressing this will connect with industrialization and colonialism, two key concepts for 19th century US History.
