What is slavery? /

What is slavery? It seems a simple enough question. Despite the long history of the institution and its widespread use around the globe, many people still largely associate slavery, outside of the biblical references in the Old Testament, to the enslavement of Africans in America, particularly the U...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stevenson, Brenda E. (Author)
Published: Polity Press,
Publisher Address: Cambridge, UK :
Publication Dates: 2015.
Literature type: Book
Language: English
Series: What is history.
Subjects:
Summary: What is slavery? It seems a simple enough question. Despite the long history of the institution and its widespread use around the globe, many people still largely associate slavery, outside of the biblical references in the Old Testament, to the enslavement of Africans in America, particularly the United States. Slavery proved to be essential to the creation of the young nation's agricultural, mercantile and industrial economies and profoundly shaped its political and cultural landscapes, even until today. What is Slavery? focuses on the experience of enslaved black people in the United States from its early colonial period to the dawn of that destructive war that was as much about slavery as anything else. The book begins with a survey of slavery across time and place, from the ancient world to the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade, and then describes the commerce in black laborers that ushered in market globalization and brought more than 12 million Africans to the Americas, before finally examining slavery in law and practice. For those who are looking for a concise and comprehensive treatment of such topics as slave labor, culture, resistance, family and gender relations, the domestic slave trade, the regionalization of the institution in the expanding southern and southwestern frontiers, and escalating abolitionist and pro-slavery advocacies, this book will be essential reading. -- from back cover.
Carrier Form: viii, 246 pages : illustrations, forms ; 23 cm.
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 9780745671505 (hardback : alkaline paper) :
0745671500 (hardback : alkaline paper)
9780745671512 (paperback : alkaline paper)
0745671519 (paperback : alkaline paper)
Index Number: E441
CLC: K712.4
D771.262
Call Number: K712.4/S847
Contents: Introduction: what is slavery? -- Slavery across time and place before the Atlantic slave trade -- African beginnings and the Atlantic slave trade -- African people in the colonial world of North America -- Slavery and anti-slavery in antebellum America -- Conclusion.