This highly readable overview of slavery in the Americas has an admirably ambitious scope. It synthesizes a vast array of recent research on the subject while still incorporating important older works of scholarship. Nellis offers us a broad comparative framework that is sensitive to the varieties of slavery and slave experiences throughout the Americas. It may be the best overview available for an introduction to the subject. With its vast scope, its extensive and up-to-date bibliography, several important comparative statistical tables and some helpful maps, Nellis's book will be both an ideal text for undergraduates and a helpful reference tool for more advanced scholars. -- Justin Roberts, Dalhousie University While the salient tendency in the expansive field of slavery is focusing on local and micro histories, it is crucial not to lose sight of the big picture and of the comparative perspective. Eric Nellis has produced a remarkable synthesis of the scholarship about African slavery in the Americas from 1500 to 1888. As its title indicates, the book has also the merit of placing the experience of slavery at the heart of the formation of emerging societies in the New World. This concise, elegant, and highly informative work is an excellent guide to the subject and to the scholarship. -- Lotfi Ben Rejeb, University of Ottawa Shaping the New World is excellent-accurate, clear, and concise. -- Craig Koslofsky, University of Illinois

Between 1500 and the middle of the nineteenth century, some 12.5 million slaves were sent as bonded labour from Africa to the European settlements in the Americas. Shaping the New World introduces students to the origins, growth, and consolidation of African slavery in the Americas and race-based slavery's impact on the economic, social, and cultural development of the New World.

While the book explores the idea of the African slave as a tool in the formation of new American societies, it also acknowledges the culture, humanity, and importance of the slave as a person and highlights the role of women in slave societies.

Serving as the third book in the UTP/CHA International Themes and Issues Series, Shaping the New World introduces readers to the topic of African slavery in the New World from a comparative perspective, specifically focusing on the English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch slave systems.