Many thousands gone: the first two centuries of slavery in North America

I. Societies with slaves : the charter generations. Emergence of Atlantic Creoles in the Chesapeake --

Expansion of Creole society in the North --

Divergent paths in the lowcountry --

Devolution in the lower Mississippi Valley --

II. Slave societies : the plantation generations. The tobacco revolution in the Chesapeake --

The rice revolution in the lowcountry --

Growth and the transformation of black life in the North --

Stagnation and transformation in the lower Mississippi Valley --

III. Slave and free : the revolutionary generations. The slow death of slavery in the North --

The union of African-American society in the upper South --

Fragmentation in the lower South --

Slavery and freedom in the lower Mississippi Valley --

Epilogue. Making race, making slavery.