The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry

I had no idea how many people were involved in slavery, how totally dependent our economy was on slavery, how many Presidents owned slaves, how slaves were viewed as collateral, how slavery as an investment depended on slave breeding and an ever expanding market. I was familiar with the treatment of women, the breakup of families, and the view of non-whites as inferior. I didn't realize the extent of destroying Native Americans or using them to destroy each other. An excellent book.

This book introduces to the general reader something that only serious historians of the slavery era grasp: Not only were terrorized human beings bought and sold as if tradable property, but enslaved women were often compelled to have children and those children, regardless of how they came into being, were very often taken away from their parents and sold as property too.To steal people's life, liberty and labor is an abomination, but to take their children from them in a systematic, "business-like" way stretches the limits of inhumanity to nearly incomprehensible extremes. This book has come along at just the right time where there are still millions of Americans who simply don't "get" depth of the evil that this long chapter of American history represents.

Extremely well researched. It further plumbs the degradation and cruelty of slavery and helps to explain so many nuances of the Civil War. Black slaves built this country, but the attitudes still prevailing from the conditions and treatment the Sublettes have so clearly documented still haunts our country and denies them recognition. A must read for anyone striving for the betterment of society.

I thought I knew something of American History. I knew nothing at all.First I learned the word "coffle."I thought I knew something of Washington and Jefferson and all the Presidents up to and including Lincoln. Patrick Henry? Francis Scott Key? I knew nothing.I read this book with barely a pause, pausing only in surprise and shock and sadness. I read the final chapter in tears. The Fort Pillow Massacre? As I said, I knew nothing until now.This book must be read by every American, EVERY American.

Bought this book as a present for my daughter and she has been engrossed by it. Great writing and impeccable research reveal the history of the slave breeding practices after the importation of slaves was banned. One of those things you never read about in the history books. Kudos to the authors.

The history that most often appears in the high school text does serious damage to the truth of the founding of the country. How often we think we know events and people but soon learn that the real story is much more complicated or even that the original story is a lie. This is the experience I had over and over again as I read this outstanding book. It was well written, thoroughly researched and riveting in providing a new portrait of events that I thought I knew. It's a page-turner. The documentation was exceptional. If only "the people" could know the truth. Well, now you can. By simply reading this book, you learn year-by-year, president-by-president the choices they faced and the decisions they made. The country's constitution is re-aligned. All is contextualized. Often known and repeated quotes appear different, richer, truer. Thought patterns that began then, now have just been updated. The "why" of the pattern is clear. Many new people are presented and interwoven in the saga. The birth, education and experiences of many known people are told in a way that you grasp who they really were, not the ones text books told us about. This book is exceptional and I hope many more people will open their eyes to the true American legacy. We are not the country we have been told. This book adds many new, essential missing pieces. Through the Lens of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

I saw this book in a local bookstore but the high price did put me off a bit. I downloaded the Kindle edition which was more reasonable. The book has so many footnotes and references that a hard copy would be preferable for the serious student of this topic. Having grown up in the South I thought I had an understanding of the topic of slavery, however this text covers the topic in much more detail than I could have imagined. Not only do the authors give broad background information of historical events but brings in intimate details to many of the gruesome facts. This book gives one a more comprehensive understand as to how slavery became the primary cause of the Civil War.

Astonishing research that deserves many awards. This is no alternative American history; this is the nitty-gritty. And to all the people who embrace a whitewashed South as mere heritage, hold your horses until you've read in-full.

An excellent account of the depravity at the centre of the American slave regime. Should read alongside Seven Beckert's Empire of Cotton

What a great book! The best book on U.S. slavery yet. Written in an easy to read popular style that is accessible but informative. If you want to understand "Black Lives Matter" this book is essential.