Slavery in the United States has been treated primarily as a nineteenth-century phenomenon; historians focused on the final thirty-five years of an institution that existed in this country for more than two centuries. With a shift in scholarly interest toward the culture of slaves, has come a new appreciation of its development over time and, accordingly, interest in the earlier years of the historical experience of African Americans.
This fine, brief survey, which summarizes the story from West Africa through the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, offers a balanced, up-to-date treatment of West African cultures, the Atlantic slave trade, the slow development of slavery in the English colonies, the rise of racism, and the changing cultures of African Americans. It attends to important regional differences at a time when slavery existed in all the colonies along the Atlantic seaboard.