The book shows that slavery started early but wasn't quite as nasty as it became later, especially in the South. In the Jamestown colony, for example, a slave could work hard, buy his freedom, establish his own trade and be on a pretty much equal footing with the other colonists.
The book also examines the economics behind slavery, and how slavery tied in closely to an agricultural economy but wasn't as necessary in an industrialist economy like the North had. There weren't enough white workers to do all the farm work so slaves were brought in to fill the labor shortage. The problem, of course, was that the slaves were not seen as workers-for-hire; they were seen as things, far inferior to whites, and they were treated in that manner.
The book also goes into how Blacks fought in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, the early history of slavery and other things.
Main Index
Yadult Index
