Williams’ Gang

JEFF FORRET WILLIAMS’ GANG

A NOTORIOUS SLAVE TRADER AND HIS CARGO OF BLACK CONVICTS

UK publication February 2022 US publication February 2022

484 Pages 9781108730365 Paperback £15.99 / $19.95 USD / $22.95 CAD

William H. Williams operated a slave pen in Washington, D.C., known Williams’ Gangas the Yellow House, and actively trafficked in enslaved men, women, and children for more than twenty years. His slave-trading activities took A Notorious Slave Trader and his Cargo of an extraordinary turn in 1840 when he purchased twenty-seven enslaved convicts out of the Virginia State Black Convicts 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 Jeff Forret 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’ William H. Williams operated a slave pen in Washington, DC, known as the files, slave manifests, slave narratives, travelers’ accounts, and penitentiary Yellow House, and actively trafficked in enslaved men, women, and children for data, Williams’ Gang examines slave criminality, the coastwise domestic slave more than twenty years. His slave trading activities took an extraordinary turn trade, and southern jurisprudence as it supplies a compelling portrait of the in 1840 when he purchased twenty-seven enslaved convicts from the Virginia 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.

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.

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

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