A review by tastybourbon
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist

4.0

This book acts as an antidote to many of the false myths and narratives surrounding American Slavery that still exist today. The author did an excellent job of showing how slavery was a financial powerhouse that propelled the economies of the south and north and how it benefitted a number of foreign economies as well. He produced evidence that showed that the domestic slave trade stayed strong and multiplied throughout the years leading up to the American Civil War (with the only exceptions occurring during periods of recession and depression). The author makes a strong case for his hypothesis that slavery would have continued on without major interruptions for as long as possible if war had not broken out.

The book is most powerful though when the author shared stories about enslaved individuals and their kin that showed the true brutality of violence and the shattered families and social histories slavery left in its wake. If anything, I wish the book had dedicated more time to these stories instead of the complex national and international credit schemes that helped the institution thrive up to the war.

The book was exhausting at times with its level of detail, but that quality helped me to understand how deeply the nation’s economy was intertwined with the institution.