Berlin presents his central argument and outlines the structure of his historical synthesis. He grounds slavery in a few constants: violent force, power, and labor. The origins, numerous stages of historical development, and end of the institution all entailed bloody and brutal conflict that maintained a free labor base for American industries safeguarded by a privileged, powerful class.

Berlin’s history of slavery does not, however, focus on the wealthy drivers of the institution; “The emphasis is on the slave” (4). Slaves continually negotiated their positions and struggled to shape their own communities and cultures. They did not simply exist to be acted upon by others. Though this conception of human existence makes the slaves’ story, “like all human history” (4), Berlin insists that scholars have hitherto produced static narratives that cast the slave as a “socially dead,” apolitical, and cultureless fixture of multiple centuries of histories (4). Berlin seeks to provide a corrective to this misconception by delivering a history of slavery that emphasizes change over time, historical contingency, and dynamism.

Berlin introduces several crucial concepts and terms that facilitate his approach. He differentiates between “societies with slaves” and “slave societies” (9). This binary descriptor is a popular framework in slavery studies in general.