This text traces the evolution of black society in North America from the first arrivals in the early-17th century through the Revolution. In telling their story, Ira Berlin reintegrates slaves into the history of the American working class and into the tapestry of the nation.

The reader witnesses the transformation that occurred as the first generations of creole slaves - who worked alongside their owners, free blacks, and indentured whites - gave way to the plantation generations, whose back-breaking labour was the sole engine of their society, and whose physical and linguistic isolation sustained African traditions on American soil.