Introduction: The slave depot of Washington, D.C. -- An ambush -- The Yellow House -- Sale and transportation -- Mobile to New Orleans -- Legal troubles -- The Millington Bank -- State v. Williams -- Slave trading in "hard times" -- Politics of the slave pen -- Brothers -- The Louisiana State Penitentiary -- Closure -- Perseverance -- Violet -- Epilogue: The legal legacy of the domestic slave trade -- Appendix A: The Williams' Gang slaves -- Appendix B: Sample slaving voyages of William H. Williams and his associates -- Appendix C: Slave data from sample slaving voyages.

"William H. Williams operated a slave pen in Washington, DC, known as the Yellow House, and actively trafficked in enslaved men, women, and children for more than twenty years. His slave trading activities took an extraordinary turn in 1840 when he purchased twenty-seven enslaved convicts from the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond with the understanding that he could carry them outside of the United States for sale. When Williams conveyed his captives illegally into New Orleans, allegedly while en route to the foreign country of Texas, he prompted a series of courtroom dramas that would last for almost three decades. Based on court records, newspapers, governors' files, slave manifests, slave narratives, travelers' accounts, and penitentiary data, Williams' Gang examines slave criminality, the coastwise domestic slave trade, and southern jurisprudence as it supplies a compelling portrait of the economy, society, and politics of the Old South." -- Taken from dust jacket.