Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I The "Discovery" of Africa
1 The Crackling Surface 17
2 Black King, Golden Scepter 28
3 Rethinking Exploration 36
4 Enter the Aviz 48
5 Islands in the Offing 55
6 The African Main 66
Part II The Essential Pivot
7 The Mine 87
8 Asia Suspended 96
9 Wealth in People Versus Wealth in Things 102
10 Circuits Old and New 111
11 Unto the End of the World 119
12 Pathways of Resistance 128
13 Becoming Creole 138
Part III The Scramble for Africans
14 For a Few Acres of Snow 147
15 Fighting for Africans 160
16 Endless Death in Lands with No End 168
17 The Perpetual Oven 176
18 The Cockpit of Europe 185
19 Dung for Every Hole 197
20 Capitalism's Big Jolt 208
21 Masters of Slaves, Masters of the Sea 225
Part IV The Wages of the Python God
22 Shatter Zones 233
23 Negros Seguros 239
24 The Slave Rush 247
25 Bargains Sharp and Sinful 255
26 The Spread of the West African Slave Trade 262
27 The Wages of Resistance 269
28 Seized by the Spirit 275
29 Dark Hearts 293
30 War for the Black Atlantic 305
31 People Scattered, a Continent Drained 320
Part V The Black Atlantic and a World Made New
32 The Scent of Freedom 333
33 The Black Jacobins 352
34 Gilded Negroes 361
35 Blues and the American Truth 375
36 The Gifts of Black Folk 385
37 How the West Was Made and "Won" 395
38 Toward a New Vision of Our Origins 411
Afterword 423
Acknowledgments 427
Notes 433
Index 485
About the Author 500