Material life in west and West Central Africa, 1650-1800 : an introduction -- Seeds of change : African agricultural workers in the Anglo-American colonies -- Cultivating knowledge : African tobacco and cotton workers in the Americas -- In an ocean of blue : West African indigo workers in the...

Slavery in the making of The Constitution -- The engine of American growth, 1787-1861 -- The north: for whites only, 1800-1865 -- King cotton buys a war -- The racial divide and cotton labor, 1865-1930 -- Cotton without slaves, 1865-1930

This paper records the path by which African Americans were transformed from enslaved persons in the American economy to partial participants in the progress of the economy. The path was not monotonic, and we organize our tale by periods in which inclusiveness rose and fell. The history we...