William Chambers

One of the nation's busiest slave markets, Richmond, Virginia, served as a way station for human goods being shipped from the east to the Deep South, where cotton growers operating large plantations kept up a high demand for slave labor. The slaves were sold and bought at small auction houses operated by independent businessmen, who opened their doors to traders as well as visitors.

In 1853, the Richmond slave market drew the attention of William Chambers, a publisher and philanthropist of Edinburgh, Scotland, who was visiting the United States. Fascinated by this curious business, Chambers strolls from one auction house to the next in the company of restless, bargainhunting slaveowners. With attention to detail and the ironies of the situation, Chambers writes a detailed and dispassionate account of the slave trade as it was carried out in the United...