Joshua Rothman's The Ledger and The Chain tries to show how the American slave trade shaped America. The book's narrative is told through the most prominent slave traders in the American slave trade industry, Isaac Franklin, John Armfield, and Rice Ballard. In the acknowledgements, Rothman states he wants to show his children that the future must tell the truth about the past. A well-researched work Rothman should appeal to a wide audience. Rothman sets to break down the narrative that the atrocity of the American domestic slave trade was atypical of American slavery.

Rothman does not shirk from his opinions throughout this book on the slave traders themselves. Periodically throughout the book, he remarks on how the slave traders were evil people. The reminder jolts the reader to remember that these were real people who actually did the terrible things Rothman writes about. The ideal to disassociate people from their work or misrepresent their actions is what Rothman crushes with these continued statements. Showing how ruthless Isaac Franklin, John Armfield, and Rice Ballard were in their dealings with enslaved people exemplifies how terrible life was for the enslaved. The letters between these three show the chilling actions they dealt with enslaved people under them. The casual brutality they leveled on their slaves will strike the reader as genuinely evil. Men without a conscience are the only words to describe these three traders adequately

Rothman says that the enthusiasm and collaborative pleasure James Franklin, Isaac Franklin, Rice Ballard, and John Armfield derived from hurting, degrading and terrorizing enslaved people made them successful. The age-old adage 'love the work you do' appears to ring true in this case. Rothman shows how the sex slave trade became very profitable and pleasurable for the traders. Franklin, Armfield, and Ballard would sample their beautiful 'goods' before selling them off to buyers.

Rothman traces the lives of these three traders, ending the book with Ballard's death. Reading the rise of each trader shows the reader how enticing the slave trade was for making money. The idea of the industry generating so much money shows what a powerful motivator money is to humans. The modern-day equivalent sums of Franklin, Armfield, and Ballard's estates will leave the reader reeling. The enticement of possible wealth would have attracted many to the slave trade as Rothman shows throughout the book.

Isaac Franklin's death helped to project the American trope of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Franklin was praised for being "a self-made man." The death of Rice Ballard and John Armfield shows the public has a short memory for evil and money will always garner praise. The praising tributes for Armfield and Franklin were incredibly ignorant of the dark side of their work. John Armfield's obituary writer claimed that enslaved black people looked to Armfield as their "fastest friend." The obituaries show how sanitizing these men's memories were made at this time.

Rothman succeeds in showing the traders as being multifaceted people. John Armfield's mourning of Isaac Franklin's death shows deeply connected these men were with each other. The level of intimacy that they had with each other is shocking. In an emotional preview about Franklin's death, Armfield wrote to Ballard, "You may imagin yet I cannot describe my present feelings." These men being each other's only true friends show how lonely the trader life could be.

Rothman does a great job in The Ledger and the Chain. He lays out the thesis of how domestic slave traders built America decently; there was less analysis and more narrative throughout this work. I lay this on the fact The Ledger and the Chain. was printed by a non-academic press. The narrative thread of the lives of each of these men and how they impacted America were well laid out. The wide array of sources Rothman uses, such as newspapers, letters, wills, and other books on the slave trade, was interesting. The fascinating part of Rothman's research for me was how he found Franklin descendants. Discovering how they helped contribute to the book was the best part for me.