Kaye's book is destined to become a classic. It will take its place among the best books about American slavery to appear in the last three decades. More than a study of ideology, the book is a plain-spoken and shrewd analysis of the day-to-day experiences of slaves in the Natchez District. Kaye's handling of evidence and interpretation is truly exemplary. This is a sterling book written with an admirable touch.''---Michael P. Johnson, Johns Hopkins University, author of Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War''This is a boldly conceptual and deeply empirical book that refigures and advances some of the most important historiographical debates of the past thirty years in scholarship on slavery in the United States. It is ambitious, smart, and compelling.''---Walter Johnson, Harvard University, author of Soul by Soul: Inside the Antebellum Slave Market