Williams' Gang

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.