This thoughtful book explores the contested relationship between slavery and capitalism. Tracing slavery's integral role in the formation of a capitalist world economy, Dale W. Tomich reinterprets the development of the world economy through the 'prism of slavery.' Through a sustained critique of Marxism, world-systems theory, and new economic history, the author develops an original conceptual framework for answering theoretical and historical questions about the nexus between slavery and the world economy.