What is Slavery?

What is slavery? It seems a simple enough question. Despite thelong history of the institution and its widespread use around theglobe, many people still largely associate slavery, outside of thebiblical references in the Old Testament, to the enslavement ofAfricans in America, particularly the United States. Slavery provedto be essential to the creation of the young nation sagricultural and industrial economies and profoundly shaped itspolitical and cultural landscapes, even until today. What Is Slavery? focuses on the experience of enslavedblack people in the United States from its early colonial period tothe dawn of that destructive war that was as much about slavery asanything else. The book begins with a survey of slavery across timeand place, from the ancient world to the beginning of the Atlanticslave trade and then describes the commerce in black laborers thatushered in market globalization and brought more than 12 millionAfricans to the Americas, before finally examining slavery in lawand practice. For those who are looking for a concise andcomprehensive treatment of such topics as slave labor, culture,resistance, family and gender relations, the domestic slave trade,the regionalization of the institution in the expanding southernand southwestern frontiers, and escalating abolitionist andproslavery advocacies, this book will be essential reading.