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| Introduction | |
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| Slavery in the English Colonies of North America | |
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| The First Blacks Arrive in Virginia (from Records of the Virginia Company of London) | |
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| Slavery Becomes a Legal Fact in Virginia (from Statutes at Large of Virginia) | |
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| Virginia Discriminates in the Punishment of Runaways (from Minutes of the Council and General Court of Virginia) | |
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| Maryland Establishes Slavery for Life (from Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland) | |
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| Robert Beverley Distinguishes between Servants and Slaves (from The History of Virginia . . .) | |
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| The Reverend Le Jau Proselytizes Slaves on the Carolina Frontier (from letters to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) | |
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| The Reverend Jones Reports on Slavery in the Tobacco Country (from The Present State of Virginia . . .) | |
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| William Fitzhugh Enlarges His Holdings (from letters to Ralph Wormley) | |
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| Robert Carter Assesses Slave Property (from Robert Carter to Micajah Perry) | |
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| Peter Kalm Observes Labor Conditions in Pennsylvania (from Travels in North America) | |
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| Philip Vickers Fithian Observes Slavery in Virginia (from Journal and Letters) | |
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| Benjamin West Sympathizes with Slaves in South Carolina (from Letters) | |
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| Masters Describe Their Runaway Slaves (from advertisements in Virginia Gazette) | |
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| Slavery Survives the American Revolution | |
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| Saul, Revolution Veteran, Petitions for Freedom (from Petitions to Virginia Assembly) | |
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| Virginia Authorizes Private Manumission (from Statutes at Large) | |
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| Richard Randolph Explains His Act of Manumission (from his Will) | |
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| Citizens of Halifax County Petition against Emancipation (from Petitions to Virginia Assembly) | |
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| Thomas Jefferson Condemns Slavery But Asserts Racial Differences (from Notes on the State of Virginia) | |
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| George Tucker Criticizes Jefferson's Views of Racial Differences (from Letters from Virginia) | |
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| Thomas Basye and Martha Turberville Protest Activities of Free Blacks (from letters to Gov. William H. Cabell) | |
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| A Richmond Editor Calls for a Military Corps (from the (Richmond) Virginian) | |
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| White Artisans Claim Unfair Competition from Free Blacks (A Petition to the South Carolina Senate) | |
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| Revolts, Plots, and Rumors of Plots | |
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| A Slave Conspiracy in New York, 1712 (from letter of Gov. Robert Hunter to the Lords of Trade) | |
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| The Stono Insurrection in South Carolina, 1739 (Account inserted in letter of Gen. James Oglethorpe to Harman Verelst) | |
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| Samba's Conspiracy in Louisiana, 1763 (from LePage du Pratz, History of Louisiana) | |
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| A Small Plot in Louisiana, July 1776 (from Journal of William Dunbar) | |
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| Gabriel's Attempted Uprising in Richmond, 1800 (from Minutes of the Trial) | |
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| Denmark Vesey's Conspiracy in Charleston, 1822 (from letter of Gov. Thomas Bennett) | |
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| Nat Turner's Revolt in Virginia, 1831 (from Confessions of Nat Turner ... to Thomas R. Gray) | |
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| Slaves on the Block ... Slaves on the Road | |
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| Ethan Allen Andrews Visits a Slave Emporium in Alexandria (from Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States) | |
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| William Chambers Attends a Slave Auction in Richmond (from Things As They Are in America) | |
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| Maria Perkins Writes of the Sale of Her Child (from Maria Perkins to Richard Perkins) | |
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| Tyrone Power Sees Slavery Moving West (from Impressions of America ...) | |
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| George Featherstonhaugh Encounters a Slave Coffle (from Excursion through the Slave States) | |
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| Joseph Holt Ingraham Describes a Slave Sale at Natchez (from The South-West, by a Yankee) | |
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| Fredrika Bremer Sees the New Orleans Slave Market (from The Homes of the New World) | |
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| The Slave and the Law | |
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| The Louisiana Slave Code of 1824 (from the Civil Code of Luisiana) | |
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| The Alabama Slave Code of 1852 (from the Code of Alabama) | |
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| Thomas R. R. Cobb on the Legal Foundations of Slavery (from An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery ...) | |
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| Thomas B. Chaplin Sits on a Jury of Inquest (from the diary of Thomas B. Chaplin) | |
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| The Killing of Nath: A Matter of Property (from Brunson vs. Martin, Supreme Court of Arkansas) | |
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| Assault and Battery on Lydia (from The State vs. John Mann, Supreme Court of North Carolina) | |
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| Blacks and Whites May Celebrate Together--Sometimes (from The State vs. Jacob Boyce, Supreme Court of North Carolina) | |
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| Manslaughter or Murder? (from Nelson vs. The State, Supreme Court of Tennessee) | |
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| Hanging and Quartering in 1733 (from Goochland County (Virginia) Court Record) | |
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| Punishing Black Thieves in 1802 (from Virginia Recorder) | |
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| On the Treadmill in Charleston Jail (from Karl Bernhard's Travels through North America ...) | |
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| The Slave's Protest: Resistance Short of Rebellion | |
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| Bewitching Master and Mistress in South Carolina (Stories from Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Lore of the Sea Islands ...) | |
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| Stealing from Old Master, Vicariously, in Louisiana (Stories from Alcee Fortier, Louisiana Folk-Tales) | |
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| "Sheep-stealing" and "Lying Out" on St. Helena Island (from the diary of Thomas B. Chaplin) | |
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| Helping the Overseer Lose the Crop (from Richard D. Powell to John Hartwell Cocke) | |
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| Carpenter Ned: "Doing Literally Nothing" (from John B. Lamar to Mrs. Howell Cobb) | |
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| Colonel Carter's Mr. Toney, and Others: Malingering, Bad Work, Lying, and Drunkenness (from The Diary of Colonel Landon Carter ...) | |
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| John J. Audubon Encounters a Runaway in Louisiana Swamps (from Ornithological Biography ...) | |
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| Arson by a Virginia House Servant (from Benjamin D. Rust and Edward J. Tayloe to William H. Tayloe) | |
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| Henry Brown Escapes in a Box (from Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown ...) | |
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| Colonel Alexander's Slaves Resist the Patrol (from Austin Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman) | |
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| A Bereaved Father Avenges Himself by Self-Mutilation (from Fredrika Bremer, The Homes of the New World) | |
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| London Commits Suicide (from William Capers to Charles Manigault) | |
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| The Slave's Work | |
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| Labor and Discipline on a Mississippi Cotton Plantation (from Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey in the Back Country) | |
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| On a South Carolina Rice Plantation (from Capt. Basil Hall, Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 1828) | |
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| Growing Cotton and Sugar Cane in Louisiana (from Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave) | |
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| Weighing In the Cotton and Measuring Out the Punishment (from John Wesley Monette, Appendix to Joseph Holt Ingraham, South-West, by a Yankee) | |
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| Women's Work in Field and Kitchen (from Emily Burke, Reminiscences of Georgia) | |
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| A Manager Negotiates Hiring for an Iron Furnace (from three letters to Green Martin) | |
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| Whites and Blacks in a Textile Factory (from James Silk Buckingham, The Slaves States of America) | |
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| Working in a Richmond Tobacco Factory (from Charles Weld, A Vacation Tour of the United States and Canada) | |
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| Master and Man | |
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| Master Bruce Inventories His Slave Property (from List and Inventory) | |
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| Governor Hammond's Instructions to His Overseer (from MS Manual of Rules) | |
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| How To Manage Negroes, by "A Planter" (from The Farmer's Register) | |
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| A Small Farmer Describes His Slave Management (from James DeBow, The Industrial Resources ... of the Southern and Western States) | |
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| A Scottish Weaver Compares Slavery to English Labor (from William Thomson, A Tradesman's Travels, in the United States and Canada ...) | |
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| A Trial of Wills between a Slave and a Prospective Employer (from James C. Davis to William W. Davis) | |
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| Slaves Tell Masters What Masters Want To Hear (from Ethan Allen Andrews, Slavery and the Domestic Slave-Trade ...) | |
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| Master Chaplin, in Debt, Must Sell Ten Slaves (from Thomas B. Chaplin's diary) | |
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| A Slave-Owner's Black Supervisors Report (from letters to William Elliott) | |
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| Frederick Douglass Breaks a Slave-Breaker (from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass) | |
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| Lucy Andrews Petitions To Enter Slavery (from Petitions to the Legislature of South Carolina) | |
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| Men, Women, and Children | |
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| Slaves Had "A Sense of the Moral Law" (from Jacob Stroyer, My Life in the South) | |
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| The White Boys Outgrow Charles (from Moncure Conway, Impressions Concerning Slavery) | |
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| Stolen Reading Lessons, Chimney Sweeps, and Dogs (from Emily Burke, Reminiscences of Georgia) | |
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| Slavery Develops Stealing in Blacks, Bad Temper and Fear in Whites (from Emily Burke, Reminiscences of Georgia) | |
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| Treaty and Louisine Lose Their Babies (from Stancil Barwick to John B. Lamar) | |
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| A Visit to the Infirmary on Butler's Island (from Fanny Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation) | |
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| Attending a Quadroon Ball (from Karl Bernhard, Travels through North America ...) | |
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| A Creole Father Counts His Children (from George Featherstonhaugh, Excursion through the Slave States) | |
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| Mrs. Hansley Sues for Divorce (from Ruthey Ann Hansley vs. Samuel G. Hansley, Supreme Court of North Carolina) | |
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| Rose Describes Being Forced To Live with Rufus (Interview from Federal Writers' Project) | |
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| White Women Fear Violence from Slaves (from Mary Boykin Chesnut, Diary from Dixie) | |
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| A Scientist Assesses Miscegenation in the South (from Sir Charles Lyell, A Second Visit to the United States) | |
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| General Cocke Enforces Matrimony (from diary of John Hartwell Cocke) | |
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| Master Jones Writes the Mother of His Little Slave (from T. D. Jones to Eliza) | |
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| Nicey Kinney Fondly Remembers Her Owners on a Small Plantation (Interview from Federal Writers' Project) | |
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| After Hours ... Beliefs and Amusements | |
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| Henry Bibb Tries "Conjuration" (from Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb) | |
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| William Thomson Attends an "Imposing and Solemn" Baptism (from A Tradesman's Travels ...) | |
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| The Reverend Jasper on Life, Death, and the Origin of Sin (from William Eldridge Hatcher, John Jasper: The Unmatched Negro Philosopher) | |
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| Thomas Wentworth Higginson Describes "Negro Spirituals" (from The Atlantic Monthly) | |
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| Shout Songs, Work Songs, and Spirituals (from William Francis Allen and others, Slave Songs of the United States) | |
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| Christmas ... "the Carnival Season with the Children of Bondage" (from Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave) | |
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| "Levying Contributions" from Whites at Christmas (from Bishop Whipple's Southern Diary) | |
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| Singing and Dancing Secular Music in Louisiana (from William Francis Allen and others, Slave Songs of the United States) | |
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| Drums and Drumming in Congo Square (from Benjamin Latrobe, Impressions Respecting New Orleans) | |
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| "Brer Rabbit" Plays Tricks in South Carolina (Stories from Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Lore of the Sea Islands) | |
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| "Compair Lapin" and Other Louisiana Tricksters (Stories from Alcee Fortier, Louisiana Folk-Tales) | |
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| Asking Riddles about Who Gets the Lady (Stories from Alcee Fortier, Louisiana Folk-Tales) | |
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| A Bibliographical Introduction to the Sources | |