It is often taken as a simple truth that the Civil War and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution ended slavery in the United States. In the Southwest, however, two coercive labor systems, debt peonage--in which a debtor negotiated a relationship of servitude, often lifelong, to a creditor--and Indian captivity, not only outlived the Civil War but prompted a new struggle to define freedom and bondage in the United States.

In Borderlands of Slavery, William S. Kiser presents a comprehensive history of debt peonage and Indian captivity in the territory of New Mexico after...