The Half Has Never Been Told

Short Review: I am rounding up a little for content. This is well written and important. I think there are a few places where a tighter connection could have been made. The biggest hole for me was why the North that had been consistent in its economic support for slavery shifted toward a greater support for abolition. (My impression is that the north was mildly abolitionist and had the South not seceded and started the Civil War that slavery would have lasted much longer in the US.)

But that one hole in the book did not over shine the overall helpfulness. There was a lot of focus on what slavery was really like, primarily by focusing on slave accounts. The economics really is the important part that I have not understood previously. The early US economy, especially that in the south was far more modern than I previously believed. Banks were much more wide spread. Slave expansion was a largely financed event. Slaves were a form of liquid capital that was in many ways the root of US economy.

This is part of slavery that I think is not understood.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/half-has-never-been-told/