"Once in a generation, if we are lucky, a book comes along that remaps the history of Atlantic slavery. The King's Slaves is such a book. Drawing on an impressive array of new findings, Brewer reveals how the English empire of slavery was created, directed, and maintained by the crown." --Lauren Benton, author of They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence "In this brilliant book, Holly Brewer convincingly challenges decades of scholarship about the origins of enslavement in the English colonies in North America and the Caribbean. She demonstrates that Thomas Jefferson was correct when, in his initial draft of the Declaration of Independence, he blamed the British crown for establishing and perpetuating slavery in British America. The King's Slaves is a remarkable achievement." --Mary Beth Norton, author of 1774: The Long Year of Revolution " The King's Slaves is a major contribution to historical scholarship that intervenes eloquently in the great contemporary debate over the past and future of the American republic's experiment in self-government. Refreshingly original and persuasive, The King's Slaves revolutionizes the way we think about slavery and freedom in the national narrative.

" --Peter S. Onuf, coauthor of Thomas Jefferson Survives: American Independence in His Time and Ours "A stunning accomplishment. Most legal historians date the legal endorsement of American slavery to the Constitution. Brewer demonstrates why we must look back earlier to the crown's interests in the financing difficulties of empire. Her masterful narrative carries the reader through financing schemes, bankruptcies, imperial grants, and political upsets, always keeping the eye on how they affected sovereignty and power in the legitimation of slavery." --Lea VanderVelde, author of Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier " The King's Slaves is a stunning achievement, offering a through and persuasive reinterpretation of early American slavery. Emphasizing the royalist authoritarian character of human bondage in the British colonies, the book shatters conventional thinking about the most fundamental issues in our history.

Abraham Lincoln repeatedly likened proslavery presumptions to the divine right of kings. Holly Brewer demonstrates, among many other things, the historical profundity of Lincoln's judgement." --Sean Wilentz, author of No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation's Founding.