Exploring the paradox of the concurrent development of slavery and freedom in the European domains, The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas provides a fresh interpretation of the development of the English Atlantic slave system. The book outlines a major African role in the evolution of the Atlantic societies before the nineteenth century and argues that the transatlantic slave trade was a result of African strength rather than African weakness. It also addresses changing patterns of group identity to account for the racial basis of slavery in the early modern Atlantic World.

The scale of the Atlantic slave trade has been a central issue in recent debates over transatlantic slavery from 1500 to 1867. Research has generated a vast amount of data on slaving voyages. Containing records of some 25,000 slaving voyages between 1595 and 1867, this data set forms the basis of most of the papers included in this collection. These are complemented by other papers which embody quantitative analysis by examining issues relating to the ethnicity of slaves. In addition to presenting new evidence on mortality trends in the slave trade and on African influences on the history of...