A comprehensive examination of the institution of slavery throughout the world, from ancient Mesopotamia to the present day.

Slavery through the ages; Slavery in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Israel; Slavery in Ancient Greece and Rome; Western Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1500); Africa and the Atlantic slave trade; Colonial Latin America; Colonial America; Slave life in antebellum America; Free blacks in antebellum America; The abolition movement; Civil War, Emancipation and Reconstruction; Slavery in the twentieth century.