"One of the finest books on plantation slavery now in print.... Anyone teaching African-American culture, plantation slavery, or the antebellum South should consider assigning this book as a central text". -- North Carolina Historical Review

First published in 1991, Before Freedom Came is the most complete portrait available of antebellum slave life in the American South. Now in its third printing, this companion volume has established itself as an essential classroom tool in its own right, as well as a best-selling favorite among general audiences.

With essays by leading southern historians Drew Gilpin Faust, John Michael Vlach, Charles Joyner, Deborah Gray White, David R. Goldfield, and Theresa A. Singleton, Before Freedom Came not only breaks new ground in African-American scholarship but reveals in accessible, moving accounts the everyday horrors and inspiring stories of survival that characterized slave life.