NEW IN PAPERBACK F OR R E T
J E F F FOR R E T
WILLIAMS’ GANG
WILLIAMS’ GANG A N O T O R I O U S S L AV E T R A DE R A N D H IS CA RG O OF BL ACK CON V IC T S
UK publication February 2022 US publication February 2022 484 Pages 9781108730365 Paperback £15.99 / $19.95 USD / $22.95 CAD
At a glance • Provides the first study of a shipment of convict slaves, delving into previously unexplored legal issues surrounding the slave trade • Offers a comprehensive portrait of the Antebellum era by situating the slave trade within the economy, society, and politics of the time • Draws on a variety of resources, including court records, newspapers, governors’ files, slave manifests, slave narratives, travelers’ accounts, and penitentiary data
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Williams’ Gang
William H. Williams operated a slave pen in Washington, D.C., known as the Yellow House, and actively trafficked in enslaved men, women, and children for more than twenty
A Notorious Slave Trader and his Cargo of Black Convicts
years. His slave-trading activities took an extraordinary turn in 1840 when he purchased twenty-seven enslaved convicts out of the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond with the understanding that he carry them
outside the United States for sale. When Williams conveyed his captives illegally into New Orleans, allegedly while en route to the foreign country
Jeff Forret
of Texas, he prompted a series of courtroom dramas that would last for almost three decades. Based on
William H. Williams operated a slave pen in Washington, DC, known as the Yellow House, and actively trafficked in enslaved men, women, and children for data, Williams’ Gang examines slave more than twenty years. His slave trading activities took an extraordinary turn criminality, the coastwise domestic slave trade, and southern jurisprudence as in 1840 when he purchased twenty-seven enslaved convicts from the Virginia it supplies a compelling portrait of the economy, society, and politics of the State Penitentiary in Richmond with the understanding that he could carry Old South. them outside of the United States for sale. When Williams conveyed his captives illegally into New Orleans, allegedly while en route to the foreign country of Texas, he prompted a series of courtroom dramas that would last for almost three decades. Based on court records, newspapers, governors’ files, slave manifests, slave narratives, travelers’ accounts, and penitentiary data, Williams’ Gang examines slave criminality, the coastwise domestic slave trade, and southern jurisprudence as it supplies a compelling portrait of the economy, society, and politics of the Old South. court records, newspapers, governors’ files, slave manifests, slave narratives, travelers’ accounts, and penitentiary
Jeff Forret is Professor of History at Lamar University, Texas. He won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize for his book Slave against Slave: Plantation Violence in the Old South (2015) and has authored Race Relations at the Margins: Slaves and Poor Whites in the Antebellum Southern Countryside (2006), among other works.
Praise ‘… meticulously researched and superbly crafted … This is a vivid and absorbing account of the exploitation of human beings whose suffering meant profit for others, all of which is part of our nation’s history.’ Roger Bishop, BookPage
