The Slavery Reader brings together the most recent and essential writings on slavery. The focus is on Atlantic slavery - the enforced movement of millions of Africans from their homelands into the Americas, and the complex historical story of slavery in the Americas. Spanning almost five centuries - the late fifteenth until the mid nineteenth - the articles trace the range and impact of slavery on the modern western world. Key themes include: - the origins and development of American slavery - work - family, gender and community - slave culture - slave economy - resistance - race and social structure - Africans in the Atlantic world. Together with the editors' clear and authoritative commentary and a substantial introduction, this volume will become central to the study of slavery.