The Half Has Never Been Told

Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

By: Edward E Baptist

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Winner of the 2015 Avery O. Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians

Winner of the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize

A groundbreaking history demonstrating that America's economic supremacy was built on the backs of enslaved people

Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution - the nation's original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America's later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy. As historian Edward E. Baptist reveals in The Half Has Never Been Told, the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States. In the span of a single lifetime, the South grew from a narrow coastal strip of worn-out tobacco plantations to a continental cotton empire, and the United States grew into a modern, industrial, and capitalist economy.

Told through the intimate testimonies of survivors of slavery, plantation records, newspapers, as well as the words of politicians and entrepreneurs, The Half Has Never Been Told offers a radical new interpretation of American history.

©2016 Edward E Baptist (P)2021 Basic Books

Critic reviews

"Abolitionists were contemptuous of such self-serving nonsense, but they too tended to see slavery as an economically inefficient, and morally reprehensible, hangover from the premodern past. In The Half Has Never Been Told, Edward E. Baptist takes passionate issue with such assumptions. He asserts that slavery was neither inherently inefficient nor a counterpoint to capitalism. Rather, he says, it was woven inextricably into the transnational fabric of early 19th-century capitalism. Baptist writes with verve and a good eye for the dramatic.” (Wall Street Journal)

"Baptist's work is a valuable addition to the growing literature on slavery and American development. Baptist has a knack for explaining complex financial matters in lucid prose. [The Half Has Never Been Told's] underlying argument is persuasive.” (New York Times Book Review)

"The overwhelming power of the stories that Baptist recounts, and the plantation-level statistics he's compiled, give his book the power of truth and revelation." (Los Angeles Times)

Great detailed information of African American History and American Capitalism

I liked the way the author wrote details about how wealth was built, wars were fought and African American people were used as commodity/property in the US. I learned that many enslavers were not wealthy but bought slaves on credit from banks. This telling book showed how dependent the North and South were on the cotton, rice, tobacco and sugarcane produced by African Americans. The success of these crops led to expansion West and the taking of Native American lands and wars. There was so much information that listening on audiobook made this integral part of US history easier because of the sheer length of the book.

Slavery. I am not ashamed. It is history.

Very detailed explanation of the institution of slavery and the making of this nation. It makes the understanding of slavery very clear. He explains the wealth slavery generated for the north south and the world. I can understand why the pushback was so intense against the freedom of the enslaved and the continued oppression of a people. However I emphatically disagree with the entire institution. It is the history of this nation and it should be told as such. We should never forget what a nation of people had to endure. The Jew remembers and reminds the world and so does the Indian why should those who continue to be subjected be any different.

Very Informative

Enjoyed the information presented. More untold stories must be known for the true history.

True history

This is the type of information that needs to be taught in schools to enlighten the poor souls of this nation.

The monetary gains

Steadily, increasing amounts and the banking formulas and how they monetize people and the uncoupling of souls from their bodies was despicable 

AI Training Data; Old Problems, New People, New Tools

Pockets of wisdom, whispers of change, weapons of knowledge, cost more than they pay. Buckets of fairness, emptied by greed, patterns of men who, take more than they need. Predictable weakness, protected by law, entitlement vantage, from privilege’s maw. Mountains of struggle, ingrained in our blood, like lavas of anger, forced not to erupt. NEW LEADERS WILL EMERGE. Old problems, new people, new tools.

Transformative

A retelling of U.S. history with slavery at the center. Truly fascinating and beautifully done.

Excellent!

Baptist explains the centrality of enslaved people’s labor to the financial viability of the United States from its inception until the Civil War.

An ever prescient recollection of history

There are few books that I read that leave such a profound impact on my very self. Baptiste weaves such powerful threads of fate and origin through the stories of men and women forced to be used by another. The breakdown of each era by body part as a mirror to the institution of slavery was jaw dropping. It was an impactful narrative to a story that had me, at times, audibly gasp because as it stands, we continue to live in a system that was organized under slavery and perpetuates those very same narratives.

Critical knowledge for all to know. Painful readin

Must know what happened to black people's wealth. how was it stolen, how much is due for reparations