"By placing Charleston at the epicenter of his study, Kelly's eminently readable history is in the company of a number of books that are devoted to exploring the peculiarity of South Carolina's antebellum politics. Throughout, Kelly's literary sensibilities are on display and he regularly humanizes such historical events." --"Civil War Book Review" "Kelly brings a literary sensibility to this vivid and engrossing study of slavery in and around one of its trading hubs, Charleston, SC, site of the first and longest Civil War siege and a hotbed of political, economic, religious, and moral debates about importing, owning, and trading slaves. Well written and finely detailed, Kelly's debut historical work is an important contribution to Southern antebellum history and is highly recommended to scholarly readers." --"Library Journal"

Joseph Kelly is a professor of literature at the College of Charleston and a member of the American Studies Association. He is the author of "Our Joyce" and the editor of W. W. Norton's Seagull Readers series. His historical writing has appeared in the "Journal of Social History" and other publications. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina.