The 58 selections in this volume cover the history of slavery in America, moving from memories of growing up in Africa to the trials of the Middle Passage, the horrors of the auction block, the sustaining forces of family and religions, acts of resistance, and the meaning of the Civil War and emancipation, presenting 300 years in the collective life cycle of an enslaved people. Mintz's extensive introduction is followed by substantial excerpts from published slave narratives, interviews with former slaves, and letters written by enslaved African Americans. The end of the volume includes a bibliographic essay and a 40-page bibliography, making this an indispensible book for the study of slavery.

Author Biography

Steven Mintz is the John and Rebecca Moores Professor of History and Director of the American Cultures Program at the University of Houston. He is President-Elect of H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, an international consortium of scholars who use new technologies to advance teaching and research. His twelve books include the standard history of the American family, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (1988; co-authored with Susan Kellogg); and a major interpretation of antebellum reform, Moralists & Modernizers: America's Pre-Civil War Reformers (1995). His most recent book, Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood (2004), received the Association of American Publishers R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Scholarly Book of 2004; the Organization of American Historians 2004 Merle Curti Award for the best book in social history; and the Texas Institute of Letters Carr P. Collins Award for the best non-fiction book of 2004. For Blackwell, he has edited Mexican American Voices (2000), Native American Voices, Second Edition (2000), and, with Randy Roberts, Hollywood's America, Third Edition (2001).