Historical sketches of the south

Description

About this book

"Historical sketches of the south" by Emma Langdon Roche is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It traces the origins, laws, and persistence of American slavery, then narrows to a vivid, documentarian chronicle of the last known slave ship, the Clotilde, and the Africans (the Tarkars) brought to Alabama. Blending broad history with eyewitness testimony and the author’s own illustrations, it focuses especially on Mobile, the illegal trade’s networks, and the formation of a distinct African community. The opening of the work surveys how contrasting colonial cultures in Virginia and New England shaped attitudes toward slavery, outlines the rise of the tobacco economy and the 1619 arrival of enslaved Africans, and follows early Southern-led efforts (notably Jefferson’s) to restrict the trade amid Northern commercial complicity.