First published in 2009. From the founding of Jamestown to the American Civil War, slavery and abolition shaped American national, regional and racial identities. This four-volume reset edition draws together rare sources relating to American slavery systems. Volume 1 includes a general introduction and the colonial period covering slavery and the law, slave resistance, religion and slavery; and Pro-Slavery, Anti-Slavery and the Revolutionary Impulse.

Volume 1: Slavery and the Law Acts Relating to Slaves (1690-1776), in Statutes at Large of South Carolina, Barclay, The Voyages and Travels of James Barclay (1777), Letters from Josiah Smith to George Austin (1771-4), Slave Resistance Grand Jury Presentments (1733-75), in South Carolina Gazette Religion and Slavery Edmund Gibson, Two Letters of the Lord Bishop of London (1727) Samuel Davies, Letters from the Rev. Samuel Davies, &c. Shewing the State of Religion in Virginia (1757) Whitefield and Garden, George Whitefield, Three Letters fr om the Reverend Mr. G. Whitefield (1740) Alexander Garden, Six Letters to the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield (1740) Anne Dutton], A Letter to the Negroes Lately Converted to Christ in America (1743) Pro-Slavery, Anti-Slavery and the Revolutionary Impulse John Saffin, A Brief and Candid Answer to a Late Printed Sheet Entitled the Selling of Joseph (1701) Benjamin Martyn, An Account Shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America (1741) Margate and Jeremiah, Papers on David Margate (1775) Lord William Campbell to the Earl of Dartmouth (1775) [Richard Nisbet], Slavery Not Forbidden by Scripture (1773)