This book sketches the complex evolution of slavery and black society from the first arrivals in the early 1600s through the American Revolution. Many Americans, black and white, identify slavery with cotton, the deep South, and the African-American church. But at the beginning of the nineteenth century, after almost two hundred years of African-American life in mainland North America, few slaves grew cotton, lived in the deep South, or embraced Christianity. The author demonstrates that earlier North American slavery had many different forms and meanings that varied over time and from place to place. The author shows that slavery and race did not have a fixed character that endured for centuries but were constantly being constructed or reconstructed in response to changing historical circumstances. This work illustrates that complex nature of American slavery, the falsity of many of our stereotypes, and the unique world wrought by the slaves themselves.
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