Combining established work with that of recent provocative scholarship on the antebellum South, this collection of essays puts students in touch with some of the central debates in this dynamic area. It includes substantial excerpts from the work of Eugene Genovese and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, who lay out the influential interpretation of the South as a "paternalistic " society and culture, and contributions from more recent scholars who provide dissenting or alternative interpretations of the relations between masters and slaves, men and women. The essays draw on a wide range of disciplines, including economics, psychology and anthropology to investigate the nature of plantation and family life.

Contributions by established scholars include Bertram Wyatt-Brown's provocative essay on slave psychology, excerpts from Sterling Stuckey's analysis of the African roots of slave religion and folklore, and Robert William Fogel's newest synthesis of the work on the economics of slavery. Essays by younger historians, including Deborah White, Joan Cashin, Norrence T. Jones, Jr. and Seven M. Stowe probe family relationships among whites and blacks on slave plantations.