Philip Noel Racine is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of History Emeritus at Wofford College.Fran Racine is retired from over thirty years of teaching U.S. and European history at the secondary and college levels.

Two ‘hot’ topics in history today are the too-long neglected story of the internal slave trade—a massive forced migration of people across the South—and slavery’s role in the development of capitalism. William James Smith’s ledger helps us understand both by showing how a small-time capitalist slave trader plied his trade, something historians have rarely explored. In Backcountry Slave Trader, therefore, the Racines make an invaluable primary source readily available. And they do much more. They provide a deft discussion of the social and cultural context in which Smith operated and an insightful analysis of what his ledger and letters reveal about the internal slave trade.

• List of IllustrationsMapsAcknowledgmentsEditorial PoliciesSmith Family TreeTable of Monetary EquivalentsIntroductionChapter One: Origins of a Slave TraderChapter Two: A Peculiar Trade in a Peculiar InstitutionChapter Three: The Market and the Nature of the TradeChapter Four: Novice TraderChapter Five: Maturing TraderChapter Six: ProvisionsChapter Seven: High Prices, High ProfitsConclusionEpilogueThe Letters to Elihu Penquite SmithSlave Trading Ledger of William James Smith, 1844-54About the Authors