The Negro in colonial New England, 1620-1776

There is no general work on the role of the Negro in colonial New England. A number of articles, pamphlets, reminiscences and other accounts, dealing with certain aspects of the Negro slave trade and slavery in the separate New England colonies, or in local areas, are available, but nowhere can a comprehensive treatment of the Negro in the Puritan colonies be found. The present study is an attempt to fill this gap in the literature of American colonial history. It covers approximately 150 years and embraces all of the New England colonies. A survey of New England's slave trade and the sale of Negroes in its slave markets is followed by a discussion of the social, political and economic repercussions of the buying and selling of slaves upon Puritan institutions. - Preface.