Slavery In Walter Johnson's Soul By Soul

By researching slavery in a different way, Walter Johnson, author of Soul by Soul, hopes to gain insight that has never been examined before. He thinks he can do this by looking into the actual sales of the slaves and the moments leading up to a purchase. By reading this book, the reader can gain knowledge in what it was like to be a slave knowing they were about to get sold, or constantly being threatened of getting traded or sold. Specifically, the first two chapters, The Chattel Principle and Between the Prices, focus on identity of the slaves and slaveholders, as well as the emotions of both slave and master..
Overall, the first two chapters focus on two main arguments: identity and emotions. The chattel principle is defined in the book as “any slave’s identity might be disrupted as easily as a price could be set and a piece of paper passed from one hand to another.” 1 This highlights the mental struggle slaves had to go through. They were often taught how to act according to gender roles and what would make the most profit. They had to leave behind their own identity and conform to their owners to be able to get traded or sold for the best price. However, some slaves used emotions as leverage. Separation of “slavery” from “the market” 2 was a real threat to slaveowners. Many slaveowners emotionally feared being like people in the slave market, where they did not care about splitting up families or properly taking care of slaves, which helped them morally cope and justify the fact of owning their slaves. Although they

did not want to seem like people in the market, they still feared not fitting in with the southern paternalism. They had to be dominant and controlling, but also not like everyone in the market. 3 People in the market would get their slaves up to the best price and think about the profit they can make in the future when buying new slaves. If they did need to trade or sell their slaves, they would give a justification other than just needing the money, they would give reason for trading clear instead of just selling for a price. Slaves used this emotion as leverage to not be sold or traded away from their children or significant others. Slave owners needed to be able to identify themselves as “ordinary” to be able to cope with the situation of owning slaves. 4 This did not work for every slave, however, because some owners found the value too great to sacrifice. This is when slaves would take it upon themselves to injure themselves to decrease their value or run away. Rather than getting sold away from their children or significant others, some slaves would cut off their hands, run away, or kill themselves as a threat to stay where they were. 5
A sufficient supply of examples are present throughout the text to support these claims.

Through telling stories of the slaves and their masters, enough evidence is provided as support. Diaries and letters show a more personal side of slavery into their identity and emotions, which further supports the main argument of these chapters. Each individual story that is told brings readers into the minds of slaves and how they felt about the

trade.
The reading of these two chapters further emphasizes the slave trade and exactly what it was like. While we are learning about the facts in classes and lectures, this book is emphasizing the emotional aspect to create a deeper understanding of the material. Now, we can connect statistics to actual individual people’s lives. Johnson’s book really institutes a better understanding exactly how slaves felt when threatened with, or told that they were getting traded or resold, which brings in more emotion rather than just factual evidence. For example, we can learn a statistic about how many slaves get sold to a certain plantation, but now instead of only knowing that number, we now know a story and the emotions behind one of the people and exactly how he felt before he got sold.