Dry As Dirt

This sounded like an important piece of the American history of slavery, so I asked for this book as a gift. Holy mackerel. What a slog. Here's an actual excerpt, chosen (mostly) at random:

'The captives landed in Havana in 1628 on the San Pedro numbered 230

piezas de esclavos but were evaluated as 142 piessas de pago. Most were

young boys and girls whose value was estimated to be two-thirds or one-half

that of an adult; mothers and infants were assessed jointly as 1 pieza de pago.

Likewise, when a slave ship disembarked 16 "young and old" West Central

Africans in Santo Domingo in 1631, they were evaluated as 10.5 piezas.

Another ship arriving in Cuba in 1639 similarly landed 310 captives, eval-

uated as 175.5 piezas; amonth them were 80 captives described as bambos

or nursing infants for whom no import fees were paid. Following the arrival

of a different slave ship in Santo Domingo from Angola in 1633, the ship-

master's legal representative argued that the voyage did not bring any more

captives than his registration papers specified, if their numbers were "reduced

to piezas de Indias, as is customary." '

Riveted yet? Honestly, not until the very last chapter (and that starts on page 253, mind you) did I even understand what perspective the author had on slavery at all.

What came to mind as I strugged through this doctoral project (every dissertation does not a good book make, David) was a comparison between, say, wandering through a Target store, taking in all the colors, shapes, and displays, and reading the packing list from the warehouse. Good research, and really pretty cover. The last chapter recaps the book, so if you're interested, may I suggest saving your time and just reading that?