Slavery and Emancipation is the most up-to-date and comprehensive collection of primary and secondary readings on the history of slaveholding in the American South. It combines recent historical research with period documents to bring both immediacy and perspective to the origins, principles, realities, and aftermath of African-American slavery. Central topics include the colonial foundations of slavery, the master-slave relationship, the cultural world of the planters, the slave community, and slave resistance and rebellion.
Each topical section contains one major article by a prominent historian, and three primary documents. The documents have been drawn from a wide variety of sources, including plantation records, travellers' accounts, slave narratives, autobiographies, statute law, diaries, letters, and investigative reports. This material has been carefully chosen to benefit students and readers of the history of African-American slavery and emancipation.