Slavery and Servitude in Colonial North America

British Association for American Studies Paperbacks

by Kenneth Morgan

In "Slavery and Servitude in Colonial North America," Kenneth Morgan shows how the institutions of indentured servitude and black slavery interacted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He covers all aspects of the two labor systems, including their impact on the economy, on racial attitudes, social structures and on regional variations within the colonies. Throughout, overriding themes emerge: the labor market in North America, the significance of racial distinctions, supply and demand factors in transatlantic migration and labor, and resistance to bondage.

This is an ideal introduction to an area that is crucial for understanding not just Colonial American society but also the later development of the United States.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2001

About the author

Kenneth Morhan is primarily an economic and social historian of the British Atlantic world in the ‘long’ eighteenth century (1688 - 1840). His particular academic specialism is the history of merchants, ships, foreign trade and ports. He also has subsidiary academic interests in Australian history and in music history. He currently teaches at Brunel University, London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.