Recommended Resources
The Origins of Slavery
The books, articles, films, and websites in this section will enhance the materials included on our website for this era of American history. Many of the books are by the historians whose essays and lectures you have read and listened to here and offer in-depth studies of the topics that have caught your interest. The websites and other resources open new ways to explore American history and take advantage of new interpretations and new technologies to enhance classroom or at-home learning.
Davis, Thomas J. A Rumor of Revolt: The “Great Negro Plot” in Colonial New York. New York: Free Press, 1985.
Haskins, James, and Kathleen Benson. Bound for America: The Forced Migration of Africans to the New World. New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1999.
Smith, Warren Thomas. John Wesley and Slavery. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1986.
Cady, Edwin Harrison. John Woolman. New York: Washington Square Press, 1965.
Breen, T.H., and Stephen Innes. Myne Owne Ground: Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. 25th Anniversary ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Lepore, Jill. New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan. New York: Random House, 2005.
Clinton, Catherine. Phillis’s Big Test. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2008.
Genovese, Eugene D. Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made. New York: Vintage, 1976.
Hoffer, Peter Charles. The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741: Slavery, Crime, and Colonial Law. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003.
Oakes, James. The Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders. New York: Vintage, 1983.
Benezet, Anthony, and John Wesley. Views of American Slavery: Taken A Century Ago. Philadelphia: Association of Friends for the Diffusion of Religious and Useful Knowledge, 1858.
Bly, Antonio. “Crossing the Lake of Fire: Slave Resistance in the Middle Passage, 1720–1842.” Journal of Negro History 83 (1998): 178–86.
Recommended Resources from Other Sub-Eras
Basker, James G., ed. Amazing Grace: An Anthology of Poems about Slavery, 1660–1810. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2002.
Taylor, Alan. American Colonies: The Settling of North America. New York: Penguin Books, 2002. First published 2001 by Viking Putnam.
Haskins, James, and Kathleen Benson. Building a New Land: African Americans in Colonial America. Illus. James Ransome. New York: Amistad, 2001.
Hawke, David F. Everyday Life in Early America. HarperCollins Publishing, 1988.
Berkin, Carol. First Generations: Women in Colonial America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996.
Berkin, Carol. First Generations: Women in Colonial America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996.
Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
Caretta, Vincent. Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996.
Bonomi, Patricia U. Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.