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.