Introduction : "On liberty's borderlands -- Property or persons: black freedom in colonial America, 1513-1770 -- In liberty's cause: black freedom in revolutionary America, 1770-1790 -- Race, liberty and citizenship in the new nation, 1790-1820 -- "We will have our rights": redefining black freedom, 1820-1850 -- "No rights which the white man was bound to respect": black freedom and black citizenship, 1850-1861 -- Epilogue : black freedom, white freedom.