Originally presented at a symposium jointly sponsored by the United States Historical Society and the U.S. Congress, these essays show how the changes that accompanied the War for Independence reshaped the structure of black society in British mainland, North America and throughout the Western slaveholding world. They explore the development of racial slavery and freedom in the North, the Chesapeake, the lowcountry South and the Southwestern frontier and note how the distinctive nature of colonial slavery and events of the Revolutionary era altered black life. Focusing on the black family and black religion, they view these patterns from an institutional perspective and also provide a broad overview of the American Revolution as it was experienced by l8th century black Americans, as well as the worldwide implications of the racial transformations. ISBN 0-8139-0969-4 : $15.95.