Describes slavery in the United States, the harsh conditions under which slaves lived, the active and passive resistance with which they fought for their rights, the revolts, and the involvement of slaves in the Civil War.

Fighting bondage on land and sea: The First rebels --Daily toil, perilous struggle: A Troublesome property -- The Battle for family and knowledge -- Disrupting plantation life -- Industrial and urban resistance -- Music for Jesus, lyrics of freedom -- Flight and revolt: Runaways and maroons -- Revolts in the Age of Revolution -- Nineteenth-century slave rebels -- The Fiery abolitionists -- Marching to freedom: The Slaves' Civil War -- The Bayonets of freedom -- From slave liberation ... to protest.