"In the mid-nineteenth century, U.S. slavery was characterized by relentless expansion and unrelenting exportation, not only of commodities but also of ideas. Zach Sell traces U.S. slavery's significance to colonial land-based dispossessions on a global scale, showing how slavery molded the United States as an empire-state while other imperial powers looked to it as a model for their own colonial projects"-- Provided by publisher.

Introduction. Terrible convergence -- Part I. Making capital through slavery -- 1. Real estate questions -- 2. Slavery, empire, free trade -- Part II. An immense accumulation of commodities -- 3. Blue past and future : Bengal indigo and the American South -- 4. Limited growth : Carolina rice and Colonial India -- 5. White overseers of the world : U.S. cotton and Colonial India -- Part III. Crisis -- 6. Kindred distress : Famine, commodities, and convulsion -- 7. U.S. slavery's colonial obligations -- 8. Settling the crisis : From Australia to the American South -- Part IV. Slavery's pathways -- 9. The toil of man : Black emancipation, Chinese indenture, and the colonization of Belize -- 10. Keeping real estate white -- Conclusion. Slavery in the year 2000.