Robert K.D. Colby is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Mississippi. His research on the domestic slave trade has won multiple awards, including the Allan Nevins Prize of the Society of American Historians.
In beautiful and moving prose, An Unholy Traffic uncovers a new story centered on the persistence of the slave trade during the Civil War. Never believing that their cornerstone institution might be imperiled, both individual enslavers and the Confederate state continued to buy and sell the flesh of men and women up to and sometimes after the moment of defeat. This is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand both the grip slaveholding held on Confederacy and vice versa. * Caroline E. Janney, Author of Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee's Army after Appomattox * Robert Colby's sparkling new history of Confederate slave trading during the Civil War shows us just how far some American enslavers would go to perpetuate their so-called right to hold property in people. It reveals, too, the central role of the Confederate state in enabling these wartime dealers in human flesh, as well as the undaunted courage of those they traded to try to free themselves any way they could. This is the book we've been waiting for! * Richard Bell, Author of Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home * With great precision and detail, Colby presents an excellent history of slavery and prices during the Civil War. He does a fine job balancing the perspectives of the enslaved against the backdrop of those who sought to profit off of them. This book is a gem. * Daina Ramey Berry, University of California, Santa Barbara *