American Slavery, 1619-1877

By Peter Kolchin

Book Overview

Revised, 10th A

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809016303
• ISBN13: 9780809016303
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent History of Slavery in the USA

Over the past 50 years, the study of slavery has been one of the most dynamic and contentious areas in American History. A large volume of first-rate scholarship now exists on many aspects of North American slavery. This excellent book is a successful effort to synthesize the large volume of information on North American slavery. The book is organized chronologically, beginning with the Colonial period and progressing through the Revolution and the Antebellum period. Kolchin does an excellent job of describing the historical evolution of slavery in the USA. Another meritorious aspect is that Kolchin is an expert on the comparative history of slavery and provides useful comparative perspectives by comparing North American slavery with the features of other unfree societies. Kolchin is a clear writer and the book is very well organized. There is an excellent annotated bibliography which is a fine guide for readers interested in more specialized works on this topic. This is a must read for anyone interested in American History.

a very readable overview of American slavery

If you need a single volume work on American slavery, I can't think of a better choice. This is necessarily an overview of this fascinating subject, but the research is quite up to date, and pretty careful to show the range of scholarly opinions on some of the controversies that exist.

A clear, concise, informative introduction to Black slavery

This book presents a detailed,yet very informative and interesting history of slavery in North America from the pre-Colonial period through Reconstruction. The author discusses the beginnings, heyday, and end of slavery from the point of view of both slaves and masters. Also presented are the demographics, sectional viewpoints,and psychological impacts of slavery. This concise treatment of a complex subject is very readable and contains abundant references to other works on the subject. It is, however, a "pure text" reference (i.e., no photos or figures), but there are some statistical tables at the end of the book.