A succinct, up-to-date overview of the history of slavery that places American slavery in comparative perspective.

• Provides students with more than 70 primary documents on the history of slavery in America
  
• Includes extensive excerpts from slave narratives, interviews with former slaves, and letters by African Americans that document the experience of bondage
  
• Comprehensive headnotes introduce each selection
  
• A Visual History chapter provides images to supplement the written documents
  
• Includes an extensive bibliography and bibliographic essay

Steven Mintz is Professor of History and Director, American Cultures Program, at the University of Houston. His thirteen books include Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (1988; co-authored with Susan Kellogg); and a major interpretation of antebellum reform, Moralists & Modernizers: America's Pre-Civil War Reformers (1995). His most recent book, Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood, received the Association of American Publishers R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Scholarly Book of 2004; the Organization of American Historians 2004 Merle Curti Award for the best book in social history; and the Texas Institute of Letters Carr P. Collins Award for the best non-fiction book of 2004.