The first essay examines the aftermath of slavery in Haiti and the British Caribbean, and also looks briefly at early twentieth-century racial and economic relations in southern and eastern Africa; The second essay turns to how the issues and patterns prevalent in the Caribbean and Africa were duplicated in the postemancipation United States; The third essay examines a specific set of events during American Reconstruction, the strikes of rice workers along the Combahee River in South Carolina, to illustrate how many issues were resolved at the local level. The purpose of this book, then, was to examine crucial aspects of the forging of a new social order in the aftermath of slavery.--Excerpted from the Introduction pp. 1-3.