Inhuman Bondage

The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World

By: David Brion Davis

Narrated by: Raymond Todd

In Inhuman Bondage, David Brion Davis sums up a lifetime of insight, beginning with the dramatic Amistad case. He looks at slavery in the American South, describing black slaveholding planters; the rise of the Cotton Kingdom; the daily life of ordinary slaves; the highly destructive internal long-distance slave trade; the sexual exploitation of slaves; the emergence of an African-American culture; and much more. A definitive history by a writer deeply immersed in the subject, Inhuman Bondage links together the profits of slavery, the pain of the enslaved, and the legacy of racism.

David Brion Davis is recognized as the leading authority on slavery in the Western world. His books have won such awards as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

©2006 David Brion Davis (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"A tour de force....explaining what has made slavery's consequences so much a part of contemporary American culture and politics." (New York Times Book Review)
"The broader perspective on American slavery, its social and economic impact on the growth of the U.S., forces readers to face the contradictions between our democratic ideals and economic impulses." (Booklist)
"Davis...succeeds heroically in wrestling a vast amount of material from diverse cultures. The result is a sinewy book that combines erudition and everyday detail into a gripping, often surprising, narrative." (Wall Street Journal)

Enlightening story. Terrible narrator.

David Brion Davis' book is highly enlightening, especially regarding how the history of American slavery fits into the history of slavery of the entire western hemisphere, and the world. The book begins somewhat slowly and dryly, but the book picks up speed rapidly as it piles on tons of fascinating information about how slavery flourished, and ultimately was abolished.

I found the narrator terrible. He has a sing-song method of speaking with his voice rising at the beginning of a sentence and falling at the end. After a while, it drove me somewhat crazy, but I persisted due to the majesty of Mr. Davis' work. The book deserves to be read widely, but it would be great if a better narrator could be found.

Inhumane Bondage

Great book for a cursory glance at the overall history of bondage/slavery. I feel strongly that a book concerning slavery has to bear responsibility on the perpetrators. It cannot and must not be presented as historical facts. I feel strongly that some will read this work and not be moved by the words within - with the understanding that some people will not be moved.

A deep and broad assessment of American slavery

The scope and detail are impressive. The narrator’s seesaw intonation grates. Definitely worth a listen.

A History That I Learned Nowhere Else

What did you love best about Inhuman Bondage?

This book taught me more about the history of slavery than I have learned in a lifetime. It's a fascinating story, with perspective about the story of slavery that I thoroughly enjoyed learning. Slavery has been interwoven in the human experience for thousands of years, but the evolution and development of race slavery was a special case. This book is one of the best and most interesting history books that I read or listened to.

What about Raymond Todd’s performance did you like?

Todd has a great reading voice. I enjoyed listening to him.

All you didn't know

An excellent explanation of the origins of slavery, the progress that has been made. It eludes to what remains to be addressed and come to terms with the legacy of that terrible institution.

Very Useful Contribution

This book will shock many who know little about the enslavement of Africans. Although the book addresses the enslavement of other peoples and also the system of indenture, it does so largely to give colour to its discussion about the enslavement of Africans and the creation and perpetuation of ant-Black racism. There is so much material about this period in history that I wish that Audible would make more material available. There is a slew of material on Audible about the Revolutionary War and the Civil War but most of it is told from the perspectives of great men or the battlefield. While it commences before the Revolutionary War, this book speaks to some of the most important social forces that gave rise to those wars and that indeed have given rise to modern America.

While some of the material in the book has been well covered elsewhere, some of it is rare and rarer yet have been attempts to bring to together a number of the disparate parts under this cover. The book is extremely well read.

A historically rigorous portrait of slavery

This is a wonderful and fascinating book which paints a detailed portrait of the intellectual and economic history of slavery in the new world. For me, Davis' dry style adds force to his treatment of the repellant subject. This book is relatively sparse on details of slave's everyday lives, instead it focuses on the ways in which the forced labor of African slaves was essential for the profitability of New World colonies and their successors, especially the American South. I believe that this focus prevents the reader from viewing slavery as the aberrant work of a few slave owning sadists and forces her to grapple with its foundational importance to the U.S. and other New World nations. This book ought to be part of every High School history curriculum.

Dry but informational

I picked up this audiobook because I have always struggled to understand the Southern obsession with pre-war culture and history. This book did a great job of explaining the prevailing political, cultural and social pressures that kept slavery in place for so long as well as those pressures that helped to end this most appalling practice in the US and globally. However, the target audience of the book should ideally have a firm grasp on American history and should not expect an emotional analysis of the evils of slavery. Rather, this title reads like a coldly rational text book, but it also contains more information than a more anthropocentric analysis of slavery would provide.

Excellent read on understanding global and American slavery.

This book covers a vast history on global slavery, but I would have like the author to deal more directly with the inhuman treatment of Native Americans.

A thorough examination of an important subject

Watching dramas about the antebellum south and hearing tropes about slavery always lead to more questions than answers for me that were not readily available. This book does a tremendous job explaining the history of slavery as far back as the birth of western civilization. It explores not just how, but why. Having this understanding makes it much easier to understand not just world history, but US history, and provides necessary context to current events. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to understand why.